Winter Garden Update

A few people have asked how the winter garden is going so I thought I'd post an update.

As you may recall this is our first real attempt at winter gardening so it's all a grand experiment.

During the second week of December we got a little nervous.


Temperatures dropped below freezing for five days in a row.



That never rarely happens here.
Luckily this one was about ready eat cause it got the bad end of the deal.



Everything sort of sprawled out and keeled over.


We were thinking maybe we gambled and lost.













But then the sun came out and a little rain warmed things up and almost everything perked back up.
That cauliflower above got eaten.
It was the right thing to do.
Problem solved.


We've actually been really happy with how it's working out

This lettuce is an heirloom type called Marvel of Four Seasons. It's been really interesting because we have some outside and some in the greenhouse as well.

The outside plants are a little more red in color and the leaf is a little thicker.

And as you can see I don't get to the weeding as much in the winter.

Sometimes you have one day to get out there.

And if I have to choose between  weeding and harvesting....well that one's no contest.

Our older kale plants have been masquerading as palm trees.






The cabbages have been great.

We've been loving it for fish tacos and asian cabage salads.

You can never, ever have too many fish tacos.

Trust me on that.

We planted about 5 different varieties that have different days to readiness numbers in hopes that we would have some all thru the winter and spring.

So far so good.


The little brussels sprouts are still hangin in there.

I didn't plan to have any of these during the winter but I found out last year that these take a reeeeally long time to get ready so we're just trying to a jump on early summer.

We did put some covers over a few of these during the freeze cause they look so tenuous.








We've had carrots every week all winter so far.

We all take them for lunch every day so we go thru lots.

We planted the heck out of them all thru the summer.

We've had a little bit of broccoli as well.

The broccoli's not doing as much as I thought and the recent prospects are looking a little puny.

The jury's still out on that.



We also really made use of the greenhouse, figuring that if the stuff outside didn't work out we'd at least have some stuff.

So we have a lettuce and spinach bed....



A mostly carrot bed with lettuce and radishes mixed in on the edge...



And a cabbage/caulifliower/broccoli bed as a safety net in case the outside stuff didn't work out and in hopes of an earlier taste of a few things.

Everything in the greenhouse seems to be doing well and it sure is a nice place to go when it's raining now that I have the big glass window mentioned in this post there.

It's like a sunroom.

Only you have to weed.




I'll have to think about that.


After three weeks of neglect during the holidays I got out there and picked lettuce, chard, kale, spinach, cauliflower, cabbage, and carrots.  Not bad for January I'd say.

Rich got all the fruit trees and blueberries pruned.

I'm thinking about pushing the planting envelope this year and planting sweet pea flowers, potatoes and edible pod peas soon.

This season seems to be behaving like a warm and wet El Nino year so I'm thinking the gamble might pan out.

I'll keep ya posted.

Cath