Transitioning Your Garden Indoors

Container gardeners in the northern states have called it quits for the year. Today I’m writing to encourage My Garden Post gardeners to make the transition to indoor gardening and to share a few tips on keeping your MGP producing through the winter. Gardeners in the frost-free states are just planting this month; I want southern gardeners to get started the right way. Next week I’ll make suggestions on the best soil, fertilizer and crop selection for My Garden Post.

I’ve grown a variety of herbs on MGP for the past two winters with ease and good results. I’m fortunate to have two large south facing floor to ceiling windows in my home office. I spend a great deal of time in this room and enjoy the company and fragrance of my plants. I bought the seven herbs in May and have grown them outside all summer. It’s forecast to be in the 20s tonight; I assume they’re happy to be inside.

Thyme, oregano, lavender, rosemary, sage and
basil happy outside.

Herbs happy to be inside

Before you roll your My Garden Post of fresh herbs inside for the winter, there are a few things to do to make the transition successful. This is how I did it:

ü  I took one last harvest and cut them back aggressively to 5-6 inches. This gave me a chance to look each planter over carefully for insects. Most herbs don’t seem to have problems with the common pests like aphids and whiteflies. Mine were pest free.

ü  I mixed a strong batch of fish emulsion (“Fish Rich” my favorite) in a 2 gallon watering can.  With the drain holes still open, each planter was drenched and allowed to drain until the dripping stopped. Inside, I’ll fertilize every 10-14 days.

o   A side note, “Fish Rich” doesn’t have any objectionable odor. It’s great for growing organic crops inside.

ü  It took me a while to remember where I had put the plugs for the planters back in May. The take-away here is to have a designated place for all your MGP accessories. The plugs for the drain holes fit snugly and they have to be in order to do their job.

o   Take special note of this next bit of advice. As a group, herbs enjoy a consistently moist soil but care has to be taken not to overwater them. Check for watering every day or two for the first couple weeks. You’ll soon develop a schedule.  I seem to be watering every 4^th or 5^th day.

Join me next week; my post will feature the basics:

• Choosing the best growing medium
• Fertilizer for organic crops
• Watering
• Exposure

Welcome to the My Garden Post Blog

My first post to My Garden Post (MGP) blog is intended to make introductions and give readers a brief background on the development of My Garden Post. Beyond that I want to share the intended purpose of the blog and what readers can expect to gain from reading the weekly posts. I’m Oliver Gardner and no, my name is not my only qualification for writing on the topic of gardening. I recently retired from nearly 40 years in the horticulture industry. Thirty of those years I owned and operated Four Seasons Garden Center, Vermont’s largest gardening resource. I find I now have the time to write and still have a strong interest in sharing what I learned along the way. That’s what gardeners do, right? They like to swap stories about their successes and failures and generously share their harvest.

I also want you to know about Marc Llona. He’s the owner of My Garden Post and pictured standing in the above image. I’m the more handsome guy in the wheelchair. OK, older maybe. Marc is a successful entrepreneur with a wonderful family and too many friends to count. He is totally committed to his customer’s satisfaction with gardening on My Garden Post. I respect him for his boundless ambition, his ethics in business and his dedication to quality.

I have Marc to thank for my involvement with My Garden Post. We are longtime acquaintances and both of us happened to be headed into Home Depot one spring day in 2011. I’d known Marc for his development of the Vermont Post Planters and his success in selling them to gardeners across the country. In the parking lot, he excitedly talked of a new application for his award winning planters and asked if we could meet to see what I thought of it. I agreed and we got together a few days later.  Early into his presentation, I recognized the great potential for the concept of what we now offer as My Garden Post. I agreed to collaborate with Marc on the research and development of the product and was anxious to get started. We had several prototypes built and planted in no time. Two years of testing gave us confidence to single out one prototype for a CAD drawing and the order was placed for samples we could test. The samples outperformed my expectations. In late April of this year, the first two containers of My Garden Posts, MGP Planters and MGP Drip Irrigation Systems arrived in our Vermont warehouse and we launched our online store at www.mygardenpost.com.

Who may be interested in the My Garden Post blog?

•  I’ll be writing on topics of interest to intermediate gardeners. Having said that, I hope first time and lifetime gardeners will also participate.
•  Urban gardeners with only a balcony, deck or patio who want to grow more with less space
• Aging gardeners like me who no longer want to kneel, bend or stretch
• Cooking enthusiasts who want to grow and eat their own fresh vegetables and herbs
• Gardeners who want to reduce the carbon footprint of their herbs, vegetables, flowers and fruit
• Gardeners who get real enjoyment out of just watching plants grow. (I’m first in this category)

My Garden Post has a great story to tell. It’s a truly unique way to garden with features that will potentially benefit millions. I’d like folks to know about it. There’s no product like it and no easier way to grow a garden on just 4 square feet. The blog is here to help you garden more productively with less work and to share your creative experiences while growing year round on My Garden Post.