This year's garden is extremely different from last year's November garden. The weather went from 90 degrees one day, to 40 the next and has not warmed back up. We didn't have a fall but went straight from summer into winter. We put the hoop houses up the second week in November - last year we put them up in December. To my surprise, some of the plants have managed to slowly grow.
It became cold so quick, I was not able to finish planting. The bitter cold 19-degree night killed the seedlings on the front porch so there are many empty spaces.
The parsnips planted in the strawberry/watermelon bed have been growing since early spring are ready to be dug but it has been too muddy.
Planting snow peas under the okra plants was a good idea but the weather has been too harsh. They haven't grown fast enough to bear pods so I will chop them up for salads.
This is the fence where the tomatoes were planted in the spring. In the closest area, Fava beans are growing and carrots are in the back. This weather has been so crazy I have no idea if they will bear beans.
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| Fava Beans |
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| Danvers Half-long |
The winter radishes don't mind the cool weather but they can't handle the bitter cold. Some were planted under the hoop houses, and others were put in the open. My plan was to harvest the ones in the open first, then save those under the hoop houses for later. When I pulled them, it was surprising to see how much difference the coverings made. The one on the left was under the hoop house and the one on the right was not. All of the seeds were planted on the same day.
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| White Celestial Winter Daikon Radish |
It is easy to know when the winter radishes are ready because they begin to push up out of the soil.
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| China Choy |
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| China Choy |
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| Aichi |
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| Celeriac |
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| Celeriac |
These are the last ones I managed to plant and they probably won't make it through the winter. If the weather happens to turn warm, they might survive.
Tatsoi Brunswick Cabbage
Canton Bok Choy Bloomdale Spinach
Harvesting the sweet potatoes has never been easier. They just popped up out of the ground and landed in my basket. It was magic.
Reese came home to visit and he volunteered to dig them. He didn't even break a sweat. Later in the evening, he received the best reward you can imagine for tired muscles.
Doctor Scooter was on call for physical therapy sessions.
Additional Links
Scooter explains his magical healing abilities
Wow! I didn't realize so many plants could grow in the winter. I would love to have some of those sweet potatoes! I hope to plant some potatoes next year. I need to see when is the best time to plant them. Our gardens usually consist of squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, onions and I have raised beets before. I enjoyed them!!
ReplyDeleteIf you can grow all of that, you can have a winter, or at least a fall garden. If you like beets, you will love sugar beets. They are ugly as can be but are delicious. I will miss not eating any this year. There was a crop failure somewhere so it was hard to get seeds. When I finally got some, the package said they had sent more because there was a low germination rate. I was too late getting them out. I can plant the seeds in the spring, but the best favor is after a frost. Here is the link to my post about sugar beets.
Deletehttp://getmetothecountry.blogspot.com/2016/12/you-cant-beat-beautiful-bowl-of-boiled.html
This is an impressive range of lettuces and other greens! I be not even a restaurant could
ReplyDeleteoffer such a big variety. Many names are unknown to me. I suppose the Asian lettuces even have
a milder and better flavor in fall and winter than they have in hot summer.
So your salad plates will be well filled during the cold months.
Christel
I have seen two or three of the varieties offered in specialty stores when I traveled to the big city of Nashville. However, they were usually expensive, a bit wilted, and about ready for the compost pile, in my humble opinion. I choose those with milder flavors because my family does not care for the hot mustard flavors. My salad plate will be well filled this winter, if the sun will shine so the plants can grow more. Since the it is far behind schedule, we might eat them all before the winter is over.
DeleteNice garden! I've made hoops out of pvc, but never metal. How did you construct them? And how do you anchor them down in the wind? I wish I could grow the variety you have. That looks like the kind of radish recommended to us. Is it a fairly sweet one?
ReplyDeleteYes, the radish is a sweet variety but it does not survive into the dead of winter, even under the hoop house. I haven't found any yet that would. Right now I am harvesting and eating them constantly because they won't last long.
DeleteThe wire hoops are made from 9 gauge tension wire which is used with fencing to pull the posts together tightly. This is the post that shows exactly how we originally set the hoop houses up in 2016 and what I paid for all of the supplies.
December's garden, 2016, A GIANT Cover Up
http://getmetothecountry.blogspot.com/2016/12/decembers-garden-giant-cover-up.html
The wire staples did not work in 2016 so I had to add rocks as weights. The next year we purchased longer staples and they worked better. Bill pushes them into the ground, but I can't pull them back out easily. Instead I only open one side which doesn't have the staples but has metal conduit poles rolled up in the fabric. It usually holds well enough. The long staples never pop out. This is the post that shows the long staples.
http://getmetothecountry.blogspot.com/2016/12/decembers-garden-giant-cover-up.html
Everything has been used again and again. The fabric is becoming ratty but it is still doing just fine. I have quite a bit of the unused roll stored in the shed. I would love to have a larger winter garden because we are eating more and more of the food as I learn to grow new vegetables.
Your winter garden is so impressive! I will think of you eating all that this fall and winter. Around here, mud is a real issue. At our old house, we build raised beds to get things up and out of the mud so we could plant things earlier and later in the season. The rest we planted in the flat, plowed garden area. Here, we have so far managed the tilled part, and Rob is working on 2 raised beds so we can have a little success with early spring and fall/winter gardening. We have managed to grow a few things like green onions that overwinter, but not many.
ReplyDeleteWe have an issue with mud in the winter and spring; however, in summer, the ground is dry, hard clay. I too, have tried raised beds and they were great in the winter. When summer arrived, all I did was water. We finally had one good sunny day on Sunday then it turned bitter cold. At this point I am already looking forward to spring.
DeleteI agree. Around here, the raised beds are only useful during the spring/winter/maybe fall. In the summer, they get way too dried out and don't produce unless I put so much water on them that it was tedious. But, at my old house, it enabled us to get into the garden during times that the ground in the main part was way, way too wet to even walk on. I'm still experimenting around this house to see what will work, and suppose in time, things will get the way I want them to.
ReplyDeleteJake's seeds are up in the greenhouse! I haven't checked them since we've had this freezing weather. Hopefully they are still alive, as the greenhouse is not heated at all at this time of year:)
DeleteI knew it! Jake's will be a better gardener than I every could be! Even if some of them freeze, I bet there will be others under the soil that will sprout in the spring. His will probably do better than mine. How exciting.
DeleteThe Swiss Chard made me sigh! I guess I should try to go to the Famer's mkt tomorrow and see if they have any fresh greens. I'm a Southern girl and love greens in the Fall! Enjoy your day sweet lady! Don't work too hard! Hugs!
ReplyDeleteIn my humble (never has time to garden) opinion ... the "unknown" looks to be in the family of turnip greens. Enjoy your bounty!!
ReplyDeleteIt does look like a turnip green, but the root (which you can't see) doesn't look like a round turnip ball but like a long root. I bought the seeds years ago and harvested so many the first year, I don't think I will ever need to save them again.
Delete