Keeping Active: Winter Gardening

I love being outside, moving, being productive, making projects for myself and especially when any of this involves gardening. In Britain they call their entire yard their garden. They don't have yards, so when I say I am gardening, you may consider it yard work.

Final Final Harvests
Of course, we are finally experiencing nightly frosts, but there were several threatening days in October and November where I would dig up, cover or harvest whatever remained. I had several "final" tomato harvests. The real one came the third week of November, when we finally got down to 25 F on Friday night/Sat morn.
We are still eating tomatoes that have ripened since the killer frost.

 The above tomatoes were all harvested green and

allowed to ripen in the beer flat in the kitchen (where I could see them daily). 

As they ripen, we eat them. They aren't as good as vine-ripe, but always beat the

flavor of store toms. 

In the geodome house, I decided to harvest all of the eggplant and cut the plants back. I'm curious

to see if they will make it through the winter. I've never had the soil freeze in there, but I have had frosts.

I know greenhouse culture depends more on the difference between high and low temperature, rather than just one or the other. There is a moderating effect. So far, the plants are still healthy looking. 

Final eggplant harvest from dome.

Final pumpkin, pepper and tomato harvest.

I love this pumpkin. It is super productive, even in part shade and

nothing stops it. I've been saving seeds for 3 years. It was

originally from a Autumn Harvest Mix from Pinetree Garden Seeds

so I have no idea what it could be. If anyone has thoughts, please let me know. 

I don't normally pick bouquets, but when I know the flowers are going

to die, I allow it. 

 Zinnias

Red Salvia below

 This Salvia was purchased by mistake or

mislabeled in the catalog. I thought I was buying

a different one. Normally, I do not care for this kind of

annual salvia, BUT I didn't know they grew as anything other 

than dwarf. Apparently, the old fashioned ones grew into large (3+feet) shrubs.

This ended up a beautiful, healthy and productive plant, so...I saved seeds and changed my mind.

Seed from Pinetree (with wrong photograph in catalog)

Chickens: The 3 young girls (Mavis, Petunia and Ruby) plus Rosa are laying like crazy! I'm consistently getting 2 eggs per day, even with the shorter days. We are getting some "double yokers" too. See the one on the left? 

Left- double. Right- single.

The single yoke eggs seem smaller than they should be,

but that's okay by me. 

Rooster update:

Mattilda decided one day to stop liking the kiddo. He has attacked her and chased her down the street. If you TRY to read anything on the internet to help with learning rooster language and recovery 98% of what you will read is- make him soup. This is not an acceptable response. Clearly we just aren't understanding each other, so I've made it my responsibility to learn rooster behavior. I'd say 50% of the time I go in the orchard/chicken yard, he pecks my foot. 

Things that are helpful- hold him for awhile and he stays away and Papi keeps him away from me. Give him treats. Treats don't come from other roosters, so why fight me? Walk slowly. Don't look at him. Don't make eye contact. Pretend you don't even know he is there. I've contemplated building him his own coop, but then I feel horrible about the idea of confining him for life. If I could find a person who has only females and wanted him (not to eat) I would probably give him up, because I think he would be happier. For now, he stays and we accept and learn. I really need a book about chicken behavior- if anyone has a source, let me know.

Projects:

I'm still working on redoing the orchard/chicken yard, which includes new fruit trees (new trimming/dwarfing method), raised beds for permanent food plants and pots (for bees, natives/perennials and things for chickens to eat).

The raised beds/cold frames are made from fencing, which is 6ft long pine. It's super cheap and easy to work with. Not sure how long it will last, however. Below is a cold frame of kale, gailan, chinese cabbage and lettuce. The cover is an old shower door. 

 Below is a long view of the beds in progress. You can

see the geodome in the upper right corner and 2 new blueberry

plants in the lower right corner. One bed is made from

cabinet doors (white). I plan to have things like perpetual chard (already in),

Good King Henry and some other permanent food crops in these. 

 GKH needs a cold spell to germinate, so I sowed it in 

cells and it is in one of these frames, under glass.

 Working on a retention wall. I lose soil to erosion down this slope 

to the drain. Hoping this will help with the slow process of raising this bed.

Green shrubs are Boxwoods and I just added a Holly by the pole (see below).

I plan on topping these 16 x 8 x 6 blocks with something more decorative (brick, natural rock).

New Holly.

Two were planted along this bed for winter interest, screen, 

protection and food source for birds.

Another slow project is this bed behind the garage. 

I transplanted some natives- Joe Pye Weed, Gray Goldenrod and

Short's Aster behind here and recently added these

fallen branches to create a border. 

 Other plants back here: Coralberry, Blackberry, hydrangea, 

concord grape, pecan tree

More projects with fencing:

I built these 1 x 1 foot boxes each from just 1 6 ft fence board.

They are 5 1/2 inches deep, which is great for staring native seeds, 

which have deep roots. I was looking into plastic deep cells for starting seeds, when

this idea came to me. It's cheaper and sustainable. I've started Aromatic Aster seeds in one.

The next one will either be- N Sea Oats or Button Blazing Star. I only have 2 at present, but

want to sew more seeds so....more to come

Bottom

Growing on:

 Red Trumpet Honeysuckle still greenish

Below: Shallots and parsley

 Multiplier Onions up and green (below)

 Garlic up and green (below)

Gardening still happening:

Transplanting (gray goldenrod)

 Seed collecting (Senna above)

Planning (always). I think I want

a dry native plant in here next year

Maybe Purple Prairie Clover?

Other things you can do now: 

Plant bulbs (yes, still) and they are on sale now. 

Prune- a great time as you can see the bones of the trees

Plant/transplant perennials while the ground is still soft

Mulch- still raking leaves? Spread wood mulch

Construct- to get ready for spring gardening

Plan, plan, plan (my fav part!)

Seed catalogs are arriving.... plan, order too much and

Start seeds! Especially perennials or slow growing things (like peppers-due to my cool basement)

Cook! 

Speaking of which:

The makings of a pizza with homegrown toms

Vegan Pasta Primavera

(really super good- a nutritional yeast sauce)

Who knew?

A dal pancake. So yummy. Not from the garden, however.

 November: preserved Hen of the Woods 

 Veg tacos

Gardening is an under-appreciated activity in many ways- one of which is for exercise. I was pleasantly surprised to find out how many calories I burn compared to my husband's purposeful gym visits or race events. I'm burning more than him, getting Vitamin D, creating food for me or wildlife, creating a pleasant and therapeutic space and accomplishing something other than burning calories for the sake of burning calories. I hate gyms. I don't care for routine. I also think this is cheaper than a gym membership. You can do it without a lot of special gadgets/clothing. I wonder if more people would consider it if it were promoted seriously? 

Anyway, I obviously love it and I hope you do too.

Happy Winter Gardening.

Still Gardening

I just read The Moneyless Man. It's about a young guy in the UK who decides to go an entire year without using money. I'm not into New Year's resolutions because I can't understand why you can't start something on any other given day of the year, but that has me back to that question of whether I can garden every single day of the year. Don't worry. I'm not going to do it. I can't commit, but I can't see a reason that I couldn't do it either.
Evidence: I planted lettuce seed a few weeks ago and it came up without any protection- IN THE END OF DECEMBER!!! Amazing or scary? Here's proof:

I think this includes Matina and Winter Density. 

This got me thinking about planting other seeds so I dug a couple of buckets of soil from the chicken coop, spread them in a small area of the garden and planted 3 kinds of carrots- Amarillo (yellow), Cosmic Purple and Nantes. I'll let you know when they germinate.

The kiddo and I discussed what she wants to grow in her garden this year and she said- Fushia Zinnias, Cucumbers and Green Onions. She eats onions straight out of the garden year-round. She decided she wants her own now. So, we went to her garden from this past summer and collected the seed heads from the Zinnias since she wants them to be EXACTLY like last year. We'll see if they come true. 

I had purchased a bag of mixed tulips with the intention of planting them at my moms and never got around to it so I tossed them into a pot on the back porch today. I don't have great expectations, but I did dump a shovel of chicken coop soil in with them so maybe they will surprise me. I've had some success planting bulbs in December before, but these were starting to dry and sprout. 

I love this little vignette of a cool heuchera and mixed lettuces I planted in fall. The colors are cool together. I need to get my hands on more of these heuchera. 

I finally decided I needed to bring the Black Mission Fig inside, since it is really not hardy in this zone and I've exposed it to plenty already. It looks as though the buds are still alive. For now it is just sitting in the corner.

A random mix of "wildflower" seed that I received as a gift has me pondering this healthy looking plant. I'm not sure what it is. I'm assuming it will bloom next year. Anyone? Maybe it's a coreopsis?

And lastly, when we think there certainly can't be anything in bloom in December we saw a forsythia starting to flower on a walk yesterday and I noticed the catkins on the Hazelnut are growing. The world is not dead.

You CAN garden in December. The world is not dead. 

Garden Snobbery

I had one of those ah ha moments the other day while taking this picture of my Cobweb Houseleek (a kind of Hens and Chicks), which has the latin name Sempervivum. I enjoy learning the meaning behind scientific names because it gives insight into the plant. Kind of like why Jamaicans call marigolds "Stink'n Pretty".  But anyway, Semper means always and viv relates to alive. Makes sense since it is hard to kill Hens and Chicks. I see a lot of Semper Fi bumper stickers around here and I never really knew what that meant, but I made the connection to my plants. Turns out the "Fi" comes from fidelis meaning faith, so "always faithful". Oh, I love when I can make a connection to plants. Turns out that isn't hard for me to do when I'm so obsessed. Anywho, back to plants. Hens and chicks are native to dry and harsh conditions, often found in the mountains and scree of Europe and Northern Africa. They are one of the few hardy succulents to grow outdoors. I like to pop mine into tin cans and every once in a while you may be lucky to see them flower. Here's what it looks like:

Thyme plant creeping on the right side.

Houseleeks are easy. Moving on to something that isn't easy for me: Amaranth. When I buy a packet of Amaranth seed I hesitantly look down the envelope and say a little prayer that there will be a million seeds at the bottom because I suck at getting them started. There never are, but oh well. I keep trying anyway. Why? Besides being optimistic that I'll get it right someday I'm also on a perpetual search to extend the growing season of greens in my garden, because Amaranth flowers are cool and because I believe once I get them going I can collect my own million seeds to make it easier next year OR they will reseed on their own (which is ideal). So, here's what I've discovered to be the best scenario for getting them going. You need fine soil. Scatter the seed on the top of the soil just before a nice rain. Make sure it rains again for a few more days just enough so the soil doesn't dry out for a week, which is to also say it should be warm enough and yet not too warm at the same time. But also, it shouldn't rain too much or else they will rot. Got it? I hate to say it too soon, but I think that magic happened this week. I saw the clouds, I ran out with my packets of Kerala Red, Miriah, Vietnamese Red and Elephant Head. I scraped the top of the soil and sprinkled the seeds over it. It rained. It rained again and then it has been in the upper 70's and low 80's since. The soil is still moist, but it's sunny out and TA DA:

I think there are a million coming up. 

Easy. Hard. Now for the rejects or Stuff That is Overrated. I like Globe Amaranth, but starting it too is a P.I.T.A. I found this new "Fireworks" Globe Amaranth that looked really cool in the picture and it was in a small pot so I didn't need to worry about getting it started. Well, let me tell you about these fireworks. They're a dud. Sorry. It grows into a small bush. Right now mine is about 3 ft wide and about 2 ft tall (and smothering my lantana) with sparse leaves and even more sparse flowers. The flowers are ok. If the "shrub" were covered in them that may cause some fireworks for me, but they also have no other redeeming qualities that I so snobbishly look for in plants- it doesn't seem to attract any insects, it has no aroma and I can't eat it. Dear Fireworks Gomphrena, Hope you enjoyed the summer we had together. 

Creme de Cassis. The pictures of this Hollyhock made me salivate. Hues of deep purple waves in luscious saucer shaped blossoms. I got a pack. It looked nothing like the picture. I thought, maybe I should buy another pack. Maybe my first pack was genetically flawed. The pics I've seen had me believing there was no white to speak of in these flowers. I should only expect a raspberry and blackberry jubilee. But every time I got the same thing. Now, maybe this isn't so ugly after all, but I can't seem to get over what I had in my mind which is causing me to cast this one aside. I suppose if seed shall fall and new ones pop up I will likely not terrorize the offspring, but I won't be buying this again and maybe I hold out hope that there is some gene that will resurface in the progeny yet to come....

Only because I'm feeling particularly prissy about the ghastly false advertisement of plants I'd like to point out another flawed dawg. Purple Prince Zinnia. Now, I actually like the color of this zinnia. It is called a "true purple zinnia" and it may be the closest thing to purple you can find in the world of Zin, but purple it is not. I would like to rename this fella Fushia Queen. This transgendered dude can stay, but I have a feeling he is going to cross with the other rogue Zins I allowed to reseed last year. Such is life. 

I think I've had enough of riding this high horse. Time to step off. Got work to do in the garden. There are other plant names to slay. Now, where's my machete?