Thursday, February 29, 2024

February's Garden (2024)


It has been warm most of the month, which is quite unusual for February.  Its a risk, but all of the hoop houses have been removed. Underneath was a surprise because not only has almost everything lived, but the hidden plants have grown substantially.



For the first time ever, the winter radishes, napa cabbages and cilantro survived. The only thing that was destroyed by the harsh weather in January were the carrots which were inside this collapsed hoop house.


Only those at either end of the row lived.


The row was dug but the harvest was miniscule. Most were rotted.


The second carrot bed which was not under a hoop house is fine. The roots are small but should start growing again. A crop of spring carrots will be a first. Next year, no carrots will be covered with a hoop house. The result of this experiment has been surprising.


We have been given a wagonload of manure from our neighbor who has a horse stable. Truly, one man's trash is another one's treasure. He's so glad to get rid of it that he delivers it to the garden. I'm so thrilled to get it that I run out of the house celebrating.


It was spread high on the empty carrot bed but will be decomposed by planting time.


As plants are harvested they are replaced with manure.


Many of the plants are beginning to bolt so they must be harvested soon.


The Golden Chinese Napa Cabbage will be allowed to produce seeds since I'm almost out. 


The back section of the garden is going to be rearranged. Instead of two gates, there will only be one center aisle. The plan is to erect a taller fence around the whole garden to hopefully, keep out the horde of predators. We have lost so much this year that we need to provide more protection. The alarm sensors have worked and allowed us to fight back but only after damage has been done.


The volume of predators that ripped through the garden last year was mind boggling.  Nashville is now the fastest growing city in the USA, we are 50 miles away. The overflow construction of subdivisions around us is massive. The wildlife is on the move and they all seem to find my garden. We welcome all to our woods, fields and yard. It's only the vegetables I want to protect.


(Please ignore the poor quality of the photo, it is impossible to get close.) There is a pair of hawks perched atop the support structures watching the garden awaiting the arrival of a meal. At night, a barn owl, (named Hootie) arrives at dusk, lands a few feet from me and hunts over my shoulder. He doesn't fly away when Bill passes by to dump the compost and has learned to turn his head when he sees the flashlight. My garden is an abundant hunting ground.



As the sun returns, March will be a time of rapid growth spurts because the roots are well established. My time has been spent preserving as much as possible which has felt crazy in the dead of winter.  I have frozen spinach, canned greens and carrots, fermented radishes, dehydrated cilantro and will soon be saving seeds.


The winter garden is about over and has been a surprising success. Perhaps the snows won't return and we can get the spring garden out early. At least, that is what we wish.

Tuesday, January 30, 2024

January's Garden (2024)


The howling, winter artic blast blew in. Six inches of snow fell.  The temperature dropped to minus nine one night.  



The hoop houses froze to the ground and caved in from the weight.


The compost pile was not covered in snow and the dirt was scattered everywhere which seemed odd until closer inspection.


Hungry birds were scratching around looking for delicacies and toppled the mound.  I can't begrudge them fresh, chilled worms since we were only feeding them dried seeds on the back deck.


A few days later, another storm arrived. It added an inch of sleet and ice on top of the snow. 


The hoop houses sagged even further.


I should have added more wires or strung them together for more support but, oh well. Putting them up is a hard enough job as is and I ran out of energy last fall.


When there were no more fresh salad greens, we ventured outside to the backyard grocery. The covers were still frozen to the ground and ripped when lifted. We decided to only open one. 


Seeing something alive and green under layers of snow and ice is startling. The red Merlot lettuce didn't have a flaw.


Further down the row where the hoop house collapsed, the plants were partly damaged.



We could have harvested much more but our fingers were frozen. 


A week later, the sun returned and it was possible to lift the covers.  The damaged places could not recover...


but most of the garden survived. I have no complaints.


The snow seemed to have insulated the houses safely from the blowing winds and everything was well hardened off. They were able to endure the low temperatures - very few died.


There were some big surprises. The Golden Chinese Napa Cabbage nor any other napa variety has survived past the end of December in my garden. Right before the storm arrived, most of them were harvested and preserved.  Only those that were weak and bug devoured remained (Nobody wants to eat a bug gobbled leaf).  To my complete shock, they made it through the storms fine.


Also, winter radishes have never survived to the end of January. 


The Merlot Lettuces that were placed out in the open as an experiment to see if they could survive, laughed in the face of the storms.







Those living under the hoop house sneered at the blizzards. They have earned a permanent place in every winter garden I will ever grow again.


Everything else that normally survives did fine.


Last year's garden was completely destroyed by an early storm and all that remained was a mudhole. This year, the winter garden has exceeded expectations and was worth all the hard work. I wish I could take credit for this success, but everything depends on the weather.