If you live in a place where it snows in winter, everything becomes covered in a blanket of white. Winter brings us a soft and quiet world. Having some snow cover through a cold winter actually helps plants. It insulates the ground from the worst cold and protects the roots and some of the important lower foliage (leaves) from the winter wind.
As your garden sleeps, a snowy yard can be a wonderful playground full of fun projects to hold you over until you can start planting seeds again.
A SHOUT OUT ABOUT SPROUTS: GROWING SPROUTS IN WINTER FOR FUN AND FOOD. Sprouts are simply new seed growth. They contain a lot of vitamins and nutrients. Seeds that are good for sprouting include beans, peas, broccoli, sunflowers, radishes, and many more. You can also buy sprouting mixes that contain different kinds of seeds that all sprout well. You’ll simply need to soak the seeds overnight and place them in a glass container without soil. Rinse and drain well daily and within a few days you’ll see the white sprouts growing. Soon they’ll fill the jar. Put the jar on a sunny sill and they will turn green. Once you have enough sprouts to harvest, they’re great on sandwiches or in a salad or just plain, eaten out of the jar.
Another approach to sprouts, as demonstrated by Molly: Soak the seeds overnight. Put a teaspoon of seaweed fertilizer in trays, fill the trays with potting soil and dampen the soil. Spread the seeds on the surface of the soil. Cover lightly with wet newspaper four or five sheets thick. Put in a dark closet for four days. Check to make sure newspaper doesn’t dry out. On fourth day, sprouts should be lifting newspaper. Take out of the dark, remove newspaper, then water and put in sun for three to four more days to green up and allow to grow taller. Cut with scissors at base and eat! Compost the leftover soil and roots.
WINDOW GARDENS. There are some plants that will do well inside in the winter. If you have a window that is available, you can build a shelf or set some plants on a tall table. Try plants that like sun. African violets do very well in an eastern exposure (morning sun) and bloom throughout the year.
A window with full southern sun exposure is a good place to try a cactus garden. You can purchase sandy soil and a low container and establish some cactus plants, called succulents. Add rocks and make your own miniature desert.
There are also bulbs you can grow inside in winter. Look for “paper-whites” or large Amaryllis bulbs. Amaryllis bulbs are usually available in a kit. They are a giant bulb that comes in a box. Set on a windowsill, water, and watch it grow. Paper-whites are smaller bulbs and can be set in a sunny window in a bowl of stone and water and they’ll produce beautiful, fragrant flowers in weeks.
Winter Whites: fragrant blossoms in a sunny window.
SNOW AND ICE SCULPTURE. If there are at least 6” of snow on the ground and you’ve had enough of sledding and snowboarding, it’s time to discover your inner artist and take it into the outer winter world.
You’ve probably made a snowman or two. So how about you take it up a notch. Snow and ice sculptures are world-renowned art forms. But the process is simple. It really just requires some snow and a little creativity. The snow is outside and you’re the creative one.
The famous sculptor Michelangelo claimed that he would chisel away at the stone until he found the figure inside. Well, that’s a cool idea (or should I say cold?) to consider when you think about making forms out of snow.
You can look at the piles of snow and see shapes within. Or you can shovel and roll up your own piles and make whatever shape you like. Part of the fun is doing our own personal thing.
Getting Started
You need snow and temperatures between twenty and thirty degrees. Too warm and snow gets mushy. Too cold and it gets icy.
Bundle up and go out on a sunny day. Wear waterproof gloves and get some hot chocolate or tea ready for when you get back inside.
Tools:
Snow shovel or something like it
Hand trowel
Old spoon
Small container for water (use warm water so it takes longer to freeze)
Optional:
If you want to carve some detail (like whiskers or wrinkles) you’ll need some smaller hand tools. Try an old spatula or putty knife.
If you want to take it one step further and add some color:
Clear plastic container
Food coloring that can be mixed with snow to create a colored shush that you can work with
Choose a Model:
If you’re a beginner, choose something simple for the first try. How about a favorite stuffed animal? A dog or a cat? Work from a picture or something else. And there’s nothing wrong with an old-fashioned snowman.
Making Frozen Eyes and Other Features, Such as Ice Cubes:
If you want to get fancy, ice cubes colored with food coloring can make eyes and other features. Simply fill an ice tray with the colored water of your choice and put it in the freezer. Carve out holes for eye sockets and insert your colored ice cubes.
Wing It:
It’s okay to just start shaping and carving and see what emerges. There’s no wrong in snow shaping.
Sculpting
Use a shovel to make a packed mound of snow or tamp down an existing one.
Start from the top so you can be sure to keep the bottom wide enough to support the top.
Remove excess snow with a small shovel to make the basic shape of your subject.
During the process, if you make a mistake, have a small pail with water nearby. Use the warm water to erase any snow mistakes. Mix a little snow with a little water to make a kind of a paste. Work it into the area and let it freeze, then start again or continue on.
Now you’re ready to get going on your work of art. And the best thing about creating art is that if you like it, then it’s great.
WARNING: Do not get too attached to your new snow sculpture. Take photos and enjoy them while they last and create a new one next time you have snow.
Snow Measuring Sticks
Take a square stake 2” x 2” and 5–6’ tall. Drive the stake into the ground 8–12” so it will stay upright. (You need to do this before the ground freezes hard.) Measure off 6” increments and mark them with a pencil or magic marker. Then paint each increment a different color. Write down what color indicates what depth. In winter you should be able to look out of the window and see your stake. If it’s yellow, it might be 6” deep. Maybe blue is 3” deep.
Snow measuring stick
Wind Sock
Take a thin plastic bag, like the ones you get from the grocery store, or a small laundry hosiery bag. Staple some light plastic ribbon or colorful yarn to the bag. Different colored ribbons make a nice show on a windy day.
Cut out a 2” plastic ring from a quart-size plastic bottle.
Tape or staple the opening of the bag, ribbons and all, to the plastic ring.
Drive a small stake into the ground and leave it about 4’ high (tomato stakes will work nicely).
Nail the plastic ring to the top of the stake, leaving it loose enough to spin. It should droop down if it’s not windy and take off like a flag when it is. The plastic will spin and the ribbons will follow, which will point in the direction of the wind when they are in full stream. It’ll tell you about the wind direction and intensity, and look pretty cool in the yard.
It won’t last forever, but it’s easy to make and you can invent your own variations.
Weather Journal
Start a weather journal. Winter’s a great time to put your information together in a scrapbook. We’ve already measured rain and snow. And you can observe the wind direction with your wind sock. Keep notes, photos, or sketches in your journal and revisit them each winter.
GREETINGS THAT GROW—HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN PAPER. A garden in the mail? This is one of the coolest things you can do to surprise friends and family, while jumping on that merry-go-round of seasons and recycling. Did you know you could give or receive a greeting card that will grow a garden? Well you can and this chapter shows you how.
Paper is made from wood. The wood is ground up and water is added and everything is mushed up into something called pulp. Pulp looks like lumpy mashed potatoes.
Since paper comes from trees, it’s important that we plant enough new trees to replace the ones we use for paper. And there are many new laws in this country that make sure this happens most of the time. But you can recycle paper in your own kitchen. And you can make nice thick paper out of recycled wrapping paper and newspaper. You can add color too.
Make Your Own Paper
What you’ll need:
Old paper
A bowl or container
Blender or food processor (it’s nice if you have an older one you can use just for this purpose)
Water
Food coloring (optional)
An old window screen A picture frame or some kind of frame that will determine the size of your paper
Sponge
Cut old recycled paper (any kind of paper) into strips or shred it if you have a shredder. Put it in a bowl with an equal amount of water. Put the mixture in a blender and blend it until it’s a thick pulp. Add food coloring if you want color. A tablespoon of cornstarch makes it easier to write on the paper.
You can use an old window screen or buy some screen and make your own screener. Place the screen over a sink or tub. Set the picture frame on top of your screen. Pour the pulp into the picture frame. The pulp will take the shape and size of the picture frame. Press it gently down with a sponge. Press out all the water you can through the screen. Then turn the pulp mass over on aluminum foil or a cookie sheet. Place newspaper over the pressed pulp to remove excess moisture. Add flower petals or small leaves to the pulp, if you like. When the pulp dries, it will be a nice thick paper that will fold into a greeting card.
Adding Decorations
You can add food coloring to some of the pulp and put it all back in the blender again. Now remove the new colored pulp and form a shape with it using cookie cutters as forms, or form new shapes by hand and press the shape onto the greeting card before it dries.
Adding Seeds
Now that you’ve learned how to make your own homemade paper, here’s the next step. Before you finish spreading the new paper out on its frame, add seeds to the mix. The seeds will stay alive for months. Let the person receiving it know that they can plant it right in the ground in the spring! The paper will rot away and compost and the seeds will grow into whatever flower, herb, or vegetable you decided to include. That card you made will grow.
Greetings that grow
