March's Garden (2026)

This month's garden tour begins in the yard. Notice the mowed path in the tall grass and the missing trailer. The zero turn mower broke, followed by the death of the push mower as Bill was trying to cut this path to the garden. These breakdowns followed the dishwasher croaking right after we replaced the entire heating/air unit. The manure trailer is gone never to return because the two special sized tires which are needed to replace the flats cost more than the trailer is worth. The tiller is limping and in need of repair but at least for now, it is working.

We are tilling the whole garden this year and changing the directions of the rows from north/south to east/west. We have wondered if the different sun angle would improve the crops. Wide center aisles will be added to accommodate a man sized wheelbarrow (which is fine with me as long as a man is pushing it). The goal is to standardize the row sizes to make the hoop houses interchangeable. We are working ourselves to death trying to make life easier.

There will be a row along the edge of the fence going around the whole garden for tall things that need support. It is piled high with dirt at the base to dissuade anything from digging underneath. The aisles will be filled with raked leaves, pulled weeds, and hopefully, eventually grass clippings (when the mowers are repaired). Everything decomposed from past aisles is now mixed into the new planting beds and should make them better. We are hoping for a spectacular garden this year since some areas will be like new again.

The new design isn't exact due to winter crops that are still growing. There is a walk path between the winter onions and the fence. It will be planted with vegetables but it throws the spacing off for this the whole section. After the onions are harvested it might be rearranged now or sometime later. This is definitely a work in progress.

The beds must be raised because the garden is located on the side of a long sloping hill. The first year the garden was planted a hard rain washed everything away. A massive amount of stormwater runs through the garden forming streams. As long as the beds stay raised they are safe. The paths are the same level as the soil in the yard which has made us realize how much organic matter has been added over twenty-two years of gardening.

The upper half of the garden has been tilled once just to knock down the weeds. It has the newly built strawberry bed on the left which is beside the winter spinach in the middle and the fence corner holds the last of the now precious manure. All of this will be dealt with later.

What will absolutely, positively not be planted this year will be wax melons. Nine melons were produced on two plants last year and they either dropped unripe off the vine or rotted. This was the last one stored in the basement and it also molded. It was dumped with a vengeance in the compost pile where it can mold and rot all it wants.

A big success was achieved by my son Dustin. He has never grown anything so since his apartment has a balcony, last year I sent (forced) him to take a potted tomato. The balcony was too shady so the tomato languished. He couldn't bare to let the spindly vine freeze come winter so he brought it inside, balanced a grow light on buckets and boxes in the middle of his living room, and the grateful tomato thrived.  

Last week he sent it home to me and Bill has been dragging the heavy pot out on the sunny porch on warm days.

It even came with tomatoes.

I, the greedy gardener that I am, immediately began snipping the suckers and rooting them. They will be put in the garden as soon as it is warm. The original tomato will be planted after it has been trimmed back so it can recover from transplant shock. 

This is going to be the best garden year EVER! I'm the first person in my neighborhood to have ripe tomatoes in March! I'm so going to brag.

Last Month's February Garden (2026) 

Last Year's March Garden (2025)

February's Garden (2026)

Winter is almost finished. Most of of the green color is from weeds. I did reach some of the goals set after last year's winter garden 2025's failures. 

Red Merlot is the most winter hardy lettuce I have ever grown. Learning from last year's mistake that it is necessary to fertilize during the winter made this lettuce stand out brightly among the weeds. (Weeding wasn't one of my goals.)

The onion bulbs that were purchased last spring, stored in the vegetable tray of the refrigerator then planted last fall are waking up. No others were started from seed in the fall because the spring harvest was so large, none were needed. These will get me through until the spring crop is ready. A few new varieties have just been started this week and if they do well, they will be planted again in the fall. Growing onions in the winter is easier. Eventually I will get it right.

 A goal not met was finding a good broccoli variety. Winter storm Fern killed them. The carrots were a success but were dug early to avoid possibly losing them in the blizzard. Last year's biggest goal was to plant enough Bloomsdale spinach to make us happy. That, I accomplished and I'm glad I did. We have plenty of our favorite green!  

Every year I make a new mistake from which to learn. This year getting the seedlings out too late killed most of them when Fern arrived. Everything was behind schedule because we were waiting on the second planting of green beans to mature. They were delayed because a fat rabbit ate the spring crop one night. The very late planted spinach did just fine. It is enough to make your head explode trying to guess the weather. The once in a lifetime ice storms seem to be happening regularly. 

This year's winter goals will be to plant earlier, try onions from seed again, look for another variety of broccoli, and repeat my success with spinach. Perhaps not making mistakes would be the best goal but I wouldn't learn anything then!

Last Month's January Garden (2026)

February's Garden (2025) and Goals for 2026

January's Garden (2026)

It has been a challenging month. We managed to rest for a few days, as I said we would, and then the long-term weather reports began flashing red warning signs. The once in a lifetime, winter storm Fern was on the horizon and barreling toward us. No rest for the weary, preparations began in haste.  The temperatures would drop at night to the single digits for at least a week, probably two so the sugar beats and carrots would freeze. As the storm was blowing in, we harvested what we could.

Most of them have already been pulled but I didn't want to waste what few were left. Both the greens and the roots were used. 

There were more than I had expected. It's hard to judge until you pull them up.

The carrot row has been harvested from both ends so was getting short. It's less work to lift one spot of the hoop house and pull up all you need than to open all of it. 

I tried different varieties again this year but couldn't tell enough difference between the expensive hybrids and the bulk seeds from the feed store to justify the prices. The cheap seeds are not as uniform but so what  - they taste just as good. They would have grown larger if they could have been left in the ground longer but I didn't want to lose everything. 

Then Fern arrived. She was a major artic blast that effected over 230 million Americans from the Ohio Valley to the Southern Plains and up the East Coast. We were sitting on the dividing line between two fronts. Freezing ice broke the power poles, knocked down the lines, felled trees and made travel impossible.  At its peak on Sunday, over one million people were without power. Snow would have been easier, at least the infrastructure could have held better.

Our power stayed on so we were able to house others. The summer garden that filled my pantry to overflowing has been a lifesaver.  All of the hot garden work, standing for hours in the kitchen chopping, canning, freezing, and dehydrating food has paid off.

The storm delivered us a mountain of new firewood just waiting to be cut and hauled. It will be fed to the old wood burning stove in the basement to keep us warm and the pipes from freezing during the next storm. She ain't pretty but she sure is hot.  

I haven't left the house for a week except to throw bird seed out on the back deck. Our guests have all left so we are going out today to see if our car will get up the driveway. Neighbors said the main roads are clear if we can get past our backroad. There is something I must buy from somewhere before I go crazy. I feel a case of cabin fever coming on and spending money is the only cure. 

Last Month's December Garden (2026)

Last Year's January Garden (2025)

December's Garden (2025)

The garden is dismal. When the hoop houses were opened, the destruction from the early polar vortex was apparent. As I feared, most of the young seedlings perished.

The lettuce that was started during the late summer underneath the okra plants which were nearing the end of their life cycle, also froze. It's winter. It happens.

However, it isn't all bad news. Enough of the Golden Cabbages are still alive to keep me happy.

It's interesting how plants, even though they are side by side, will react differently to the weather.

There is another row of Golden Cabbages that were started extremely late and are shockingly still alive. The seeds were dropped in the empty spaces beside the red shallots when they were planted just for kicks and giggles. I doubt if they will make it through January but you never know.

Some of the shallots sprouted immediately and others are taking their own sweet time.

Winter gardening is tricky and can be done successfully. When everything clicks, it is exciting and rewarding. 

These onions are the few remaining bulbs purchased in the spring and then stored in the vegetable bin in my refrigerator. Something leaked and ruined most of them. This spring more will be purchased and they will be periodically lifted to confirm they are thoroughly dry. In spite of my mistake, this is what success looks like. These lettuces will taste like summer on a snowy day.

Two years ago the winter garden was a smashing success compared to now. I took advantage of the abundance and canned all total 70 quart jars of greens for Reese. I'm glad I did. Yesterday I talked to him, informed him there will be none this year but, of course, he still has plenty left. That's how it is in gardening. The abundance is stored up for the lean times. All that is needed at present is enough fresh salads for the two of us.

March's 2024 garden after a long cold winter.

Last month I said, "we are done - really, really finished for the year and are ready to take a rest!!"  Ha!

After sitting for a few days, a warm front moved in, the temperature shot up to a balmy 73 degrees, and we absolutely had to go outside. The wood around the weedy strawberry beds was rotten and the soil needed amending. The horse trainer who uses our field brought a load of fresh, pungent horse manure and then the "fun" began.

We removed the rotten wood, soil, and weeds then added oak leaves and manure.

More lumber must be purchased to make a second tier before the strawberries can be transplanted; but, that's a project for another day. We need to recover from this ordeal first.

As the sun was almost down, the rest of the manure was piled up in the new garden area created when positioning the new fence around underground boulders. Hopefully it will be rotted enough to serve as a potato bed this spring. 

Last night a violent storm blew through and winter returned. What was left of the garden has been tucked under the covers again. This time, I promise, we really will rest.

March's Garden (2024)

Last Month's November Garden (2025)

Last Year's December Garden (2024)