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.

Still harvesting...

Look at the size of this Daikon radish! It's almost as big as my kid. Remember how excited I was when I pulled up my first Daikon this past spring? Well, I'm over it. I don't like them that much and I don't really know what to do with them, and I don't think that I'll be growing them any more.


I'm still getting nice baskets of food. I just love the colors. And you know, I don't really miss summer any more, fall has so much of its own beauty to offer.

We're thinking ahead towards a really big garden for 2010. For the nitty gritty details, click here.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

The Sun Is Out!!!!

I managed to get out with the camera yesterday. Here's a summary of the general state of things.

The broccoli plants are just gigantic. I can barely make my way through them. I'm still harvesting heads, and every plant is putting off numerous side shoots.


The collards aren't looking too good.

I'm still battling cabbage worms. YUCK. It looks like of the 6 cabbages that I planted, I'll end up with two good ones. Better than last year, when I got 0 of 6....

Turns out I can grow a carrot!!!! And a weed, but let that pass....

Brussels sprouts are forming!!!

Here's yesterday's bountiful harvest.

What's going on here with the technicolor collard green leaf?

Oh, and here's something interesting. Those broccoli plants that some creature ate? They're growing back!!!!

Checking in...

Well, it has rained almost constantly since I posted last Friday, and I've been out to the garden once, last night, to pull out a small head of romaine for dinner (in the rain). Finally, today, there's nothing coming down out of the sky, so I plan to get outside and check things out.

On the indoor front - all my pepper plants are dormant, and/or have developed aphids - they are so not going to make it through the winter. My eggplant is finally dying too, and no, I never did get to eat an eggplant this year. Sigh. After all of that. Oh well. There's always next year. I'm not sure if I will grow the Hansel again. They were much smaller than I thought they would be, or maybe they shouldn't have been so small, and I could never tell when they were ripe. I'll be working on my plan for next year soon. I've been collecting my thoughts on this.

The fig tree we bought a month or so ago and have indoors is still doing fine. We have a few herbs and an aloe inside the vestibule with a grow light. I'm thinking of trying spinach in there in a shallow pot. We'll see. I've been eating kohlrabi, and rutabega, and lots and lots of broccoli. I know I need to get out there and harvest broccoli today....

Ah...November!

This is what I woke up to on Tuesday...lovely foggy morning. This is not sarcasm...I really love the fog we get down here.

I've had some good harvests this week. Carrots, spinach, collards, chard, kohrabi, rutabega, and still getting bell peppers.

I'm sorry to say that our great pepper project has failed miserably. None of the pepper plants survived indoors - that is, they're not dead, just going dormant - which means, we're not getting peppers from them anymore. Today I actually BOUGHT some jalepenos for the chili I'm making this weekend. It REALLY bummed me out to have to do that, because if we hadn't messed so much with all of our big, healthy, and heavily producing pepper plants we'd still have tons of them because we haven't had a frost yet. I wish I'd preserved some peppers this summer. I will DEFINITELY do that next year. Looks like I'll end up with three or four heads of cabbage - my first time!

The garlic is coming up!

This colander is the makings for the roasted root veggies I had a few nights ago for dinner, all from the garden! Every single one! Whoo hoo!!!!