Winter Gardening

Honey built these wonderful garden tunnels/greenhouses for me before we went to NC on vacation in Oct. I was anxious to see if the seed that I’d sown was up when we arrived home. Sure enough it was. Of course all the plants including the lettuce are cold hardy. The lettuce is more beautiful than what I grow in the spring. I found a few of the harlequin bugs and smashed them on the spot. Then I sprayed well with Neem.

I’m really glad that my Rosemary will not be killed by the freezing temps and my German Chamomile looks gorgeous!

In this bed we have Purple Mustard Greens, Winter Kale, Rosemary, Chamomile, Lettuce and Carrots.

It seems as if the moisture from the ground is coming up in the boxes and it’s nice and humid inside. I still need to rig up some black painted containers of water to retain the daytime heat for the cold winter months to come.

In the other bed we have beets and spinach.

We had some Kansas winds blow through Maryland yesterday and as Dorothy & Toto were flying by the window, I looked out to see one plastic sheet come off. It mostly stayed in tact,and was only pulled half way off. After the front pushed though, Honey rigged it better with some cinder blocks and hopefully it will hold up this winter. I’ll have to be sure to brush the snow off when I go out to milk Butter Cupp and pick-up eggs! I’m really not a lover of the cold months but it looks like I’m gonna have to get used to it.

It’s looking more and more like we will soon be on the 100 Yard Diet. More than 80% of our food will come from our backyard! Our footprints will be from the house to the barnyard and the garden! It’s a good feeling to know that we can raise our own food and to know what went into producing it.

I’m so grateful to the Lord that He provides for all of our needs.

Isaiah 55:2

“Listen, listen, eat what is good and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.”

I recommend “Four-Season Harvest” by Eliot Coleman

Garden Tunnels

Look what I finally got!!! Wahoo! I’m so excited about growing greens this winter. Honey and I got this done in a matter of minutes, even though with Honey working we spread it out over a few days. But it was so super easy. We used 10 foot PVC pipes (uncut-easy), spaced 2 ft apart and he attached them to the sides of the boxes with some kind of simple plumbing bracket. Then he put a couple end posts on for support and used plumbers tape to hold it together. It’s finally raining and after it stops we’ll put the heavy plastic on that will be held around the bottom with split rails from our neighbors old fence.  The only thing that needed to be cut was the top ridge pole and the end posts.

We spaced our hoops 2 ft apart and made a center ridge due to the snow we get in the winter. The idea is to also have it held down tightly so our big winds don’t carry it off to Kansas!

I know there are many other ways to do this. But Honey and I are always thinking; SIMPLE!

I’ll be able to move the fence rails easily and pull the plastic up to reach inside. We’ll leave the PVC in place next summer since it won’t be a bother at all. The only thing that we’ll take up is the plastic.   I’ll use 5 gallon buckets painted black to hold water for condensation this winter.

Hopefully the seed I planted a week or so ago with germinate and come up in a few days!

Oh boy! This is going to be fun!

Planted Garlic

I ordered several garlic varieties from Johnny’s Selected Seed Co.

We should get our first frost tonight, so I got about 110 or so bulbs planted today.  They are about 2-3 inches deep and 6 inches apart.  I’ll mulch them with straw after they come up and before winter sets in.

I forgot to get a total count but it was something like, 5-6 Organic Elephant-mild (those were HUGE), 36 Organic Red Russian-stiffneck, 45 Organic White New York-softneck, and25 Organic Extra Hardy German-stiffneck.

This is my first year growing garlic.  I sure hope they produce, cause after I spent the money on these bulbs….well, lets just say, I had second thoughts!  Man what was I thinking.  I guess I can sell them at the farmers market next year to recoup some of the money!