Sunday, November 20, 2011

The garden at the end of the year

Not much is left in the garden. Quite a few leeks, a few scallions, next year's garlic, and some lettuce.
I tried something new this year with lettuce, which was to scatter lettuce seed inside the frame, which I did on October 12th. When the nights started approaching freezing I added the glass cover.
Today is November 20th and there are a few tiny seedlings inside the cold frame (see the photo below) and it will be interesting to see if they will survive the winter, be eaten by slugs (I don't think so this year), or die because they just aren't big enough to make it.

In past years I have started seedlings in the cold frame, generally with success. Those in the upper photo were transplanted earlier in the year and I have harvested some of the leaves since then. Once the snow falls they will just sit there waiting for spring weather when they will start growing again.

There are two other vegetables still in the garden - kale and beets. The kale was seriously eaten by cabbage white butterfly caterpillars (cabbage worms) but after I picked the worms off (about 30 of them) the kale has started to revive and may begin producing again in the spring. The kale is not protected from cold in any way but kale seems pretty hardy.

The beets aren't large enough to harvest and I don't know if they will start growing again in the spring. We will see.

I planted garlic on October 15th and have been surprised that I have seen no growth. I did plant somewhat deeply and I have had garlic not emerge until spring so I assume all is fine. I have now covered the garlic bed with straw.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Index


It is hard to find topics that I know I have written something about. So here is an index to some of the topics in the past posts.

Brassicas and Cabbage Worms - 7-19-2011
Cold Frames - 4-42010, 3-10-2010, and 1-14-2010
Cover Crops - 4-6-2010 and 1-6-2009
Deer Fencing - 5-28-2010
Dinosaur Kale - 6-13-2011
Kale chips - 6-13-2011
Grapes - 8-27-2011
Lettuce - cold frame - 10-17-2010
Lettuce indoors - 2-1-2011 and 12-16-2010
Overwintered Crops - 4-4-2010
Pole bean trellis - 6-13-2011
Potatoes - 8-7-2011
Squash vine borers - 8-7-2011
Toads - 6-9-2010