Outdoor gardening comes to an end...

It was inevitable that the day would come; still, it seems unreal that I no longer have a viable garden to tend to, and that I won't, again, for months. This morning I brought in the last of the broccoli (frozen) and one frozen kohlrabi.


The row covers I put over the kale and the Swiss chard were no match for 18 degree nights.

The brussels sprouts were not planted early enough, I think, to fully mature; or else I just had them so doggone crowded because I didn't realize that there were more than one plant in each pot when I bought the set of six. I did not get one brussels sprout.

You can see that my broccoli has been blooming - a sure sign that I had more than I could contend with. Again, as they got bigger it became obvious to me that I had way more than a dozen plants. I won't be making that mistake again.

Here's a good shot of the general state of things...

I'll be honest though; for the time being, I'm ready for a break. I'll be checking back in here periodically with winter growing projects and I'll be posting as I start to sprout seedlings.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

This afternoon's harvest

It went down to 29 degrees last night! The row covers that I put over the kale and the swiss chard worked perfectly. This basket represents (I think) the last of the carrots. The verdict is still out on whether or not I'll be getting any more turnips...

The Indoor Winter Project

Well, we managed to well and truly kill off all of our pepper plants, but we have had a few surprises. Of all things that we might be able to grow inside the house over the winter, tomato would not have even made my list of possibilities, and yet tomatoes are exactly what ARE doing well. Go figure.

These were our two volunteers that we found in the garden when we were doing our cleanup at the end of the summer. No doubt they came from some rotten or bug-eaten tomatoes that I tossed across the garden at some point. a couple of those seeds sprouted, and voila! There were two tiny tomato plants coming up, in September. So we brought them in and potted them up, and I'll be darned if they're not getting bigger, and looking fabulously healthy to boot. I'm curious as to whether or not they'll actually bloom...

My spinach outside finally did come up, but not much of it, and it's not exactly burgeoning. So as an experiement I dug up a little of it and potted it and put it in the vestibule under an agri-bulb. It still gets cool in there, but there's lots of light. It's too soon to tell how that's going to work.

I also planted a shallow pan with mixed baby lettuce seeds and put it in there under the bulb. And it looks like I'll those seeds are coming up! Awesome! This is going to be my Christmas salad! I'm really interested to figure out what we can successfully grow inside over the winter to keep us in fresh veggies, and so far the lettuce is looking promising! Pics to come.