We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas/Holiday week! No white stuff here in North Carolina. In fact, on Christmas day, we were outside in short sleeves. We even got to spend an afternoon walking and biking around our local lake park.

On such balmy days, we often get to do some real gardening (as opposed to fantasy gardening via all the seed catalogues). It’s a fine time to consider how to improve on 2019. A very basic, fundamental element to growing is enriching the soil with organic matter.

Winter Composting Tips and Info
Often referred to as “black gold”, adding compost to garden soil yields major benefits, especially for organic gardeners who skip the chemical fertilizers. Organic material turns dirt into the natural state of topsoil replete with microorganisms and other life forms.

Best Compost Tumblers

Winter Composting

Our favorite way to make compost 

Hemp Updates
This December, we recognized the one year anniversary of hemp being legalized via the 2018 Farm Bill. Check out the updates on hemp, the differences in hemp versus CBD and marijuana, and discover some of its many uses, including how it's helping our old dog Zoya.

A Cool Tool
If you’re into pomegranates and would like to see a cool pomegranate deseeding tool have a look see at this item. BTW We like ours a lot… mainly in how it helps cut down the splatters and collects the juicy seeds.


Christmas Poinsettias
We also procured a gorgeous poinsettia from our local grower, Mitchell’s Nursery. We visited them last week and interviewed their in-house expert. If you’d like to keep your poinsettia growing and blooming year to year, check this out.


Gynura is Growing Fine
Finally, the little cattle panel greenhouse keeps performing as intended. We are harvesting our daily quota of Gynura procumbens (Longevity Spinach) leaves, which we take like vitamins… at least one leaf a day. Overwintering our collection of Gynura plants should certainly demonstrate how well the greenhouse system works.


New Greenhouse Plantings
Speaking of which, several sections of the greenhouse beds got seeded with “Corn Salad’ (Mache), Arugula, and Cilantro. Looking forward to seeing how these fare in the greenhouse through the winter months. Meanwhile, we’re still enjoy greens from the outdoor winter garden.

We’d love to hear what’s up with you and your garden, so feel free to reply with your updates.

Happy New Year!
it seems that 2019 has been a challenging year for many. However your year has gone, we’re hoping your 2020 is fantastic. Let’s keep on growing and learning and may you enjoy great gardens and happy plants and harvests.

If you want to set and achieve your goals in 2020, pleases check out the iCreateDaily 90 Day Goals Journals. If you'd like to boost your progress with a 30 Day Goals Challenge you can check that out here.



In Gratitude and Appreciation,

Coleman for the Aldersons,