Mom! She's doing it again!

Gardening. In Winter. Again. Because I may have an addiction. Plus there's Climate Change and El Nino.

Unseasonably warm early winter (tied for warmest year on record, warmest November/December and wettest- 2015 for the region (61 inches) ~40inches is the norm) kept me at it. 3-4 days of continuous rain caused a lot of flood damage, levee breaches in the MO-Il area. Luckily, we are on higher ground.

Planting in December & January?
Nature taught me to plant potatoes in fall/winter. Nature corrected what I thought I knew- what I had been taught about planting taters. I've since read others who are doing it. My dad still says I'm doing it wrong, but he should know I don't listen well. So, these 15 sprouting in the pantry were the first to go out in a 10'x3' bed topped with 6 inches of leaves.

 Garden Row 1 (above)

In row 3 were potatoes unharvested. I wanted to move them

because I had taters in this bed 2 years, so I dug and this is what I found:

 Potatoes DO grow in winter (here). 

You could even leave them for occasional harvest so long

as the ground doesn't freeze and become impossible to dig.

 It never fails that I unearth a toad whilst

winter gardening and I feel awful about it.

It was a gorgeous sunny day in the 40s. This one

slowly opened eyes, a worm slithered around without

occasion and I plunked a tater in the hole and covered him or her 

back up. Hope she/he is fine. 

 You can easily tell the purple taters by the sprouts.

Dug taters (41) were planted in Row 2 and strawed. I still have

some left. I'm thinking I'm going to plant more in row 1. I cleaned more 

of that bed this morning. 

Updates

I can't remember if I mentioned this, but I made this terrible discovery that plants could be purchased through Amazon. What?! Yeah, and I found 3 I had to have for cheap. This is information I shouldn't have. So, I bought a native honeysuckle shrub, Diervilla Kodiak Orange, a Caryopteris- Beyond Midnight and Sunny Anniversary Abelia. I planted the Diervilla and Abelia out and the Caryopteris is in the garage window for protection until spring. I'm impressed with the seller.  

I took cuttings of a butterfly bush. I'm hoping to plant

these in the orchard without the chickens killing them.

 The garage window with sheltered plants- catnip, butterfly bush cuttings, 

caryopteris, a blueberry, verbena bonariensis. All is well here. (below)

 The pineapple is finally rooting!

The coleus cuttings are nuts. 

I'll probably need to trim the leaves back soon.

The geranium cuttings are flowering!

 Geranium cutting roots (below). 

 The fig cuttings, taken in November have rooted in the bags

on top of the fridge and were transplanted into this pot (below). 

That was too easy. Now the dilemma to plant in pots or in ground. 

This winter parsnip was shredded with carrots and

put in a wrap. Yum. It was spicy!

Still killing grass...

Kiddo and I turned over the soil along this side (42 ft long) of the property &

garden to plant in native grass/wildflower seeds. Pollinator Palooza is

the mix, from Prairie Moon Nursery. I decided to do this

after reading 5-10% of the garden should be in flowers- to attract both

beneficial and non-bene insects. Non-benes, because the good ones

need something to eat, right? 

The asparagus and blueberries beds were cleaned

and mulched.

*Not pictured- the pepper seeds I started in baggies germinated in 5 days! I transplanted them into soil yesterday. 

Food

Veg pancakes, fav roasted beans and the obvious.

So glad I bought this fresh and prepped if for the

freezer/winter from the local farm last spring! 

Gorgeous broc.

 With mushrooms and tofu.

 Walnut, lemon, parm, parsley...

 tossed with Angel Hair

These are going into muffins today!

Trouble coming?

I bought this at my school's plant sale and was told it was a tropical passion vine. It isn't. Ha. It grew super fast and tall, covering the garage, didn't bloom and then failed to die. This is what it looks like today. So, naturally I am worried. I'm wondering if it isn't P. caerulea, from S America. It can be aggressive in the south. I've posted to an Illinois Botany group to see if anyone has experience with it. It may have to die. 

A closing shot

The Kitchen Window in Winter

Screw it. I'm gardening.

February 5, 2015
Maybe you've seen the meme of a gardener in the snow with this title? That's how I feel most winter days. It's 27 degrees outside and I'm building tomato cages, but I can't stop myself. Addict.

A few thoughts about the cages. I'm trying them instead of my old method. The 2x3 holes are not ideal, but I plan on cutting some larger holes to access maters. I hope they are sturdy enough. I'll probably tie them all together, have tie downs and landscape fabric stakes. They are only 4ft tall. So, lots of things I'm not sure about, but willing to give it a go. The old wooden 1x2's I used last 2-3yrs, so I had to do rebuilding each year. I am looking for something a little easier & reusable. One roll of this coated fencing made 10 cages at about $3.65 each, which is very reasonable. It's an experiment. I'll report back how it goes.

Seedling ID

 Blanketflower

 Feverfew

 Hollyhock

 Morning Glories- pink striped

 Salvias-top and bottom

Notice how the mint members have similar cotyledons

I just like how they are flat on one side and rounded on the other.

Can I have a favorite cotyledon or is that weird?

Overwintering Updates

 The pathetic chilies at this time of the year.

Ivy Geraniums have begun to bloom again.

Growth

 Greens

 Lovage

Various

March 10, 2015

The above notes were saved as a draft and I'm just now getting around to posting with updates. 

I started to wonder if my gardening addiction isn't related to the soil microbes that are associated with positive feelings. Maybe my addiction is really soil/bacteria related and less about the plants and I just don't know it. I suppose it's a relatively harmless addiction to have if one must have any.

On Sunday March 1 we received almost 6 inches of snow. Might it be our last? This week is suppose to be in the 50's with lows in the 40's.

Dome updates:

 Collards are looking nice and no bug holes!
First hyacinth to emerge (below).

 First seedlings to germinate (above).
Kale bouncing back nicely. No sign of slugs yet.

Well, if there is going to be an assault to the dome I
would prefer it happen in March.
And it did. I suspect the neighbor cat. The plastic
on this door was 2 years old so it is a little weak and the cat is
of healthy weight. And he likes to sit on the dome. Ugh.

 Chard, leeks and shallots perking up (below)

Basement seedling updates

 Above: Rustic Colors and Chimchiminee Black Eyed Susans
Below: Celery

 Above: Cipollini Onions- red
Below: Hollyhocks and Blanketflower

 Above: Peppers. Going to need to restart a few varieties.
Below: Salvias (2x) and Feverfew

Tomato seedlings!

First Harden off day-March 10, 2015

With the promise of above freezing temps for the next 5 days, along with the drizzly gray day it seemed as good a time as any to start hardening off some early-seeded plants from the basement.

These spent 1 hour in the light rain and then went under the east porch for protection. 

 Above: fennel, parsley, lovage and valerian
Below: spring greens and lettuces I've been cutting from since November

Book recommendation

I just started reading Eating on the Wild Side, but I am enjoying and thinking. The premise is that we have, for the most part, been selecting against nutrition since the dawn of agriculture some 10,000 years ago and should consider eating either more wild foods, more foods closest to their wild relatives or planting seeds of plants that have been bred to have higher nutritional content (think purple carrots). So far the highlights for me have been that artichokes are healthier than I thought and so I'm going to eat more of them and that smaller onions have more nutritional value than larger ones. Green onions, shallots and leeks are healthier than bulbous onions and sweet onions have the least nutritional value. In many foods the stronger the flavor, the more nutrients it probably has- bitter greens for example. When we selected for sugars, we lost other nutrients.

Food Stuff and my "More of this" List

Empty jars slowly create promises to fill tomorrow. I'm eating a lot from jars this fall-winter-spring and have a running list of "more of this" to freeze or can next summer.  Today's soup, for example, came from 1 jar of enchilada sauce, 1 jar of tomato sauce, 1 jar of zucchini, 1 bag of corn (all frozen) and 1 can of store-bought black beans, plus spices and brown rice.              Enchilada Soup

More of This List:

Frozen pesto

Frozen garlic

Frozen Okra (for gumbo)

Frozen Zucchini (I sauted in olive oil and then packed in quart jars)

Frozen Roasted Fresh Salsa (best salsa I've made)

Frozen whole roma tomatoes

Frozen cut corn

Frozen Broccoli and Cauliflower (from Scharf's when in season)

Frozen sauted Hen of the Woods mushroom (or at least- do this again as it turned out well)

Frozen- chopped, olive oiled onions in jars

Frozen- fresh herbs in olive oil

Frozen Lamb's Quarter

More dried herbs: oregano, thyme, Thai basil

Because I like to plan even if I don't actually follow the plans. I know. Whatever.

The 2015 Summer Garden plan on paper. Even though I've mostly switched to garden journaling here, instead of on paper, I still make a paper plan and a big ole To Do list. 

 The many gardens and lists

Time to get yo shit together, according to Clyde:

Clyde's Garden Planner says I could have done my first plantings 9 days ago! Damn. Of course, the ground was frozen then, but it's time for first plantings of: onion sets, peas and spinach outside. 

I haven't done any of these yet! Geesh. Gotta get on that.

TEN. Count them- 10 days until the first day of spring, folks. 

Remember when we thought it would never warm up- like last week, remember?