The Garden Journal
January 2024
January
“Nature has undoubtedly mastered the art of winter gardening and even the most experienced gardener can learn from the unrestrained beauty around them.”
- Vincent A. Simeone
The Story of our Gardens…
Every gardener/garden has stories - it’s one of the best things about gathering with like-minded people. That, and talking obsessively about plants, and gardens you get to visit. In this series, we will share stories behind the start of Laughing Goat Botanical Gardens, the name, the history, and the future. We love sharing this space we are cultivating, and stewarding, into something we hope is beautiful, inspiring and accessible to all.
So, how did Laughing Goat get its name anyway? When Amy sold her ballroom dance studio and ‘retired’ from a career as a professional ballroom competitor, instructor and studio owner, she knew she wanted to do something with new-found time, and wanted how she spent her time to be impactful, and worthwhile. She started small, by taking some local classes at farms and nurseries and got inspired to get a degree in Horticulture. As part of this process of discovery, she knew she wanted goats. Why? She just loved them. They are funny, friendly, and relatively easy to care for as farm pets, and she fancied a side gig making artisanal cheeses, a la Heidi.
Fast forward to the discovery that breeding animals for milk production is both a full-time gig and comes with a lot of tasks that weren’t what we wanted to spend time doing. Along with super complicated and expensive regulations in our food production system, our goats officially became beloved pets and mascots.
When it came time to naming our farm, as we were moving into growing vegetables, and then flowers, we pondered what we would like to call our small operation. Steve, who has a wry sense of humor, actually came up with the name ‘Laughing Goat’. Most think it’s because our goats are so happy, they are laughing. It’s actually because Steve thought the joke was on him that I convinced him to get a herd of goats for breeding, and we ended up with a pasture full of pampered pets. Whatever way you look at it, it’s a name we’ve had since 2015, and it has led to many fun interactions with our guests over where it came from, and our Laughing Goats.
Nature Series: Cats in the Garden…
A controversial subject, indeed. Not to stir the pot, as we love our kitty cats, but there are some convincing arguments to keep cats inside. Whether it’s for their own safety from predators, vehicles, toxic plants or humans that don’t like them, as well as for the safety and well-being of our garden inhabitants that are prey, there is no doubt that having indoor only cats is more likely to have a healthier, longer-lived pet, and a garden full of birds for your kitties to watch safely from a window perch indoors.
Dahlias
It is with some sadness, and honestly, a bit of relief, to announce that we will not be selling dahlia tubers for the foreseeable future.
We have sold our dahlia tubers across the United States now for 3+ years, and while it has been immensely gratifying to see them growing in your gardens, containers, and even famous botanical gardens (!) we are taking a break from selling, for a number of reasons.
This is not the end of our relationship with dahlias, our dahlia program is continuing, with some thoughtful consideration about how that looks, as we build out our new garden spaces and hone in on our cutting garden plans. Dahlias will forever be a part of our gardens, and always in our hearts. It is just time to take a break from the time-consuming and laborious task of digging, and dividing them for a major national sale. This gardener needs the time to focus on getting the gardens up and planted for events and visitors. I will continue to offer workshops focused on all things gardening, so stay tuned on some potential offerings around dahlias.
Weed Control vs. Weed Management
Preparing for the Change of Season
If you’ve noticed that weeds thrive in spite of heat, drought, smoke, dust, or whatever else gets thrown our way each season, you are not incorrect, or alone.
Weed species have adapted to grow in a wide range of environments and microclimates. They thrive in disturbed soils, and take threshold wherever they have opportunity to do so.
Since we are starting to lean hard into our winter projects, which includes filling up our garden beds with plants, this is a great time to look at your own garden beds for any bare spots that can be winter planted to keep weeds at bay over the colder months. A lot of nurseries are having plant sales as we head into Winter, and you should take advantage of great prices on larger plants, at the time of year it is best to plant them.
Mulching raised beds and containers that are planted with annuals, with compost and topping with wood chips or fallen leaves, is a great way to prepare those areas for spring and summer planting. Bonus: it feeds the soils’ inhabitants at the same time! We have noticed a marked difference in both soil quality, as well as weed growth, when we take the time to manage our raised beds at the end of the growing season. Just a little bit of clean-up, and some work to prepare the beds for winter will give you a leg up on Spring planting - if you stay on top of the winter weeds.
Orchids, Tillandsias & Tropicals Workshop
Workshop will focus on repotting of plants, siting, care and maintenance over the 4 seasons for different types of orchids, tillandsia, and a variety of houseplants.
Each participant will repot an orchid into a terracotta pot using bark, and take that home for your houseplant collection.. Additional plants, including those covered, will be available in The Garden Shop for purchase.
Deadline for Enrollment: January 15, 2024
Class Date: Saturday, January 27, 2024
Class Time: 10:00am
Class Cost: $60.00
Planning your Garden: Seeds and Starts to Success
How do you get started with a garden when you don't know where to begin?
Let Horticulturist and Laughing Goat Director Amy help you simplify, and organize your gardening needs. We have been successfully growing better-than-organic vegetables, herbs and fruits since 2015 on our farm, in both the field and a created raised bed garden.
Whether you are growing in a backyard, in containers, raised beds, or row planting like a traditional farm, the key to success is planning ahead.
This is a sit-down, planning/dreaming class in which we will walk you through the steps on how to get started, and what to grow in your space.
Deadline for Enrollment: February 8, 2024
Class Date: Saturday, February 10, 2024
Class Time: 10:00am
Class Cost: $20
Easter Centerpiece Workshop
We are planning to host an Easter table Centerpiece workshop, and are gathering details for supplies and working behind the scenes to get our new Workshop space ready! Since we don’t have everything quite ready yet, please stay tuned. Easter Sunday is March 31, 2024, so classes will be likely held 3.29 - 3.30 in order to have fresh lovelies to share with family and friends on your tables.
Class Date & Details: TBA
Blippi’s Bouquet Blend
A special seed blend has been crafted with seeds from Laughing Goat Botanical Gardens and Johnny’s Selected Seeds to allow your tiny gardeners to grow their own flower garden, just like Blippi!
Flowers are hardy annuals that can be fall-winter sown for Spring flowers, and include flowers that Blippi put in his own bouquet on the episode filmed right here on our farm!
Seed packets are complimentary in the Garden Shop (when we are open) and your children only have to tell us who Blippi made his bouquet for (episode linked) to get their own seed packet. One seed packet per family, in person only.
The Garden Shop
Please kindly remember that when our Garden Shop is open, a ticket is always required to enter our Gardens. Our gardens are currently closed for renovations, and we thank each visitor kindly for respecting our spaces by keeping to open areas exclusively.
Upcoming Garden Shop Dates/Hours
We are planning to be open for Spring and Easter on March 29th and March 30th. We will announce times in an upcoming newsletter.
Garden Tasks
- Keep on Weeding! Small weeds are easier to pull than big ones, and weeds grow year round. There are some cool annual weeds, like shotweed to keep an eye out for, and make sure you get dandelions out of growing areas so they don’t crowd out other plants. Creeping buttercup is starting to creep around, so pull those claw-like roots out!
- Garden Planning! Pull out your books, magazines, etc. to get inspiration from articles, photos and start planning out your beds and plan for the next season. January is perfect, as February is typically seed-starting time in the PNW.
- Draw up a simple plan for your vegetable garden. Consider crop rotation to help with pest control. For instance: Solanaceae is the nightshade family, in which tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and potatoes are all members of. If you had tomatoes in a bed, put something from a different family in the same spot this year. A diagram or spreadsheet makes this an easy thing to keep track of year to year.
- Order Seeds!
- ORDER TOMATO PLANTS! (See below)
- Try sprouting seeds indoors, which can be used a multitude of ways, and fill in the gap with freshness and nutrition.
- Start planting Perennial seeds, such as Monad, Yarrow, Viola, and Dianthus.
- Take evergreen and hardwood cuttings to propagate.
- Monitor trees and shrubs for winter damage and disease. Remove any dead, diseased or dying/crossing branches.
- Apply mulch. 2-3” is best.
- Take cuttings to layer or root in coleus, begonias, cactus and succulents, for containers, etc.
- Continue forcing bulbs indoors, such as amaryllis and paper whites.
- Prune dormant deciduous trees, including fruit trees.
- Recycle your Christmas tree - we take any tree that isn’t artificial or flocked/sprayed. The goats love them!
- Continue caring for houseplants.
- Maintain garden tools.
- Past Newsletter Access Here: https://laughinggoatfarm.com/blog/
- Sign up for Laughing Goat classes!
Tomato Orders!
Email us (info@laughinggoatfarm.com) with which plants you want, including how many of each. Orders can be 1 plant, or as many as you like. We will only grow for orders placed and paid for by March 1, 2024.
CHERRY:
Black, Chadwick, Cherry Bomb, Currant Sweet Pea, Honey Drop, Jaune Flammé, Lemon Drop, Riesentraube, Sunrise Bumblebee, Sungold Select
ROUND:
Black Beauty, Green Zebra, Moon Glow, Red Rose, Striped German, Trophy
BEEFSTEAK:
Black Krim, Crnkovic Yugoslavian, Gold Medal, Hillbilly Potato Leaf, Japanese Trifle Black, Paul Robeson, Pink Brandywine, Pruden's Purple, Tasty Evergreen, Thorburn's Terra Cotta, Yellow Brandywine
SPECIALTY/SAUCE:
Costoluto Genovese, Mushroom Basket, Pantano Romanesco, Prairie Fire, Rosso Sicilian, San Marzano, Speckled Roman
Upcoming Events
BOLD ITEMS are ON-SITE Events
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- New Year’s Day - Jan. 1 🎆
- National Spaghetti Day - Jan. 4 🍝
- Cuddle up Day - Jan. 6 🥰
- Bubble Bath Day - Jan. 8 🛀🏻
- Houseplant Appreciation Day - Jan. 10 🪴
- National Hot Tea Day - Jan. 12 🫖
- Organize your Home Day - Jan. 14 🏡
- Take a Walk Outdoors Day - Jan. 20 🚶🏻♀️
- National Pie Day - Jan. 23 🥧
- National Puzzle Day - Jan. 29 🧩
- ALL MONTH: Order Tomato plants from Laughing Goat Botanical Gardens! Order deadline is March 1, 2024