Winter Gardens - Photos

Here's a new photo of my low tunnel. It's been about 8 weeks since the last photo, and half of those were Persephone days (not enough light for growth.) I can see things are growing again!


The potted parsleys didn't do well, but parsley elsewhere in the garden did fine. The rocket looks better than the wild arugula. I lost one komatsuna to transplant shock, but the others finally look healthy. The radicchio, salad burnet, minutina(herba stella), and beets are still alive. The lettuce died, except for what I think is actually a tres fine endive. I don't know what varieties of lettuce I scavenged and tossed in, they may well have been poor choices. I will try lettuce again this coming winter, I'm sure it can be done. The mustards, mache, and claytonia are thriving.

Here's what happened to that bed between the end of February and the end of April:


And that's after I got several greens servings, and cleared a few squares to make way for some of this year's plantings (like the lettuces on the front corner!) Some other lettuces appeared in there but I can't tell which are survivors and which are volunteers.

Nice!

audrey.jeanne.roberts wrote:Just looking at your pictures, Sanderson and remembering just how much you have added this year.  It's an amazing amount of work and looks so beautiful winter or summer!  

Here in California, rain makes my weeds look as pretty as my neighbor's lawn !

Here's my winter garden pictures.  We're overdue for our first frost so much of this could be gone overnight but right now it just keeps growing on.  

This is a table top and I need to remake the strings or do a grid for it (add to the to do list!)  A plum tomato that has been absolutely wonderful this year.  I eat them for breakfast as I check out the garden!  There are a lot of lettuce and radish seedlings in this that you can't see very well as they're still small.  Green onions that volunteered from last year's crop in the same square so I'm letting them grow and one Broccoli:



The greenhouse is still a mess.  At the far end is a cucumber that has a black mildewy something on it.  I have to rip it out and am spraying neem weekly right now to take care of the powdery mildew to keep it in check as things are cool and damp.



Growing also in the greenhouse are a mexican zucchini and a snow fairy tomato (will grow in temps down to 28 degrees as long as you keep frost off of it):


Also in the greenhouse, a tomato that produced fruit all winter long last year and is still alive 20 months after it was first planted!  Swiss Chard and Kale:


Potatoes that were too small to eat simply were replanted in the same garden and this is the result.  I'm not sure what will happen after our freezes, but often we don't have hard freezes so they might keep growing or die back and start early next spring.  I planted in the fall last year in these beds and harvested them early so it's an experiment in progress:


These tomatoes are about 15 feet by 10 feet sprawling.  One is a purple cherokee that I have had terrible success with any fruit this year, as they were all cracked, diseased and nasty.  If these ripen they'll be my first decent ones.  I won't plant them again.  Then the other plant is an italian plum tomato.  


More tomatoes at the other end of the garden along with potatoes and zucchini.  I pulled a two pound zucc from this single plant (5 stems growing) yesterday.  Behind and above are garlic and cabbage.


Chinese cabbage, broccoli and snow peas:

I want this mexican zucchini, but I can't find it, anywhere!

Would this one work do ya think?

https://www.rareseeds.com/store/vegetables/squash/summer-squash/nimba-zucchini-summer-squash

sanderson wrote:Folks, we showed ours.  Now, please show yours!

+1

countrynaturals wrote:

sanderson wrote:Folks, we showed ours.  Now, please show yours!

+1

Okay, here's mine:

This is my "A" garden, cuz the headliners are Asparagus (on the right) and Artichokes (left). The empty boxes are for next year. We plan on fencing in this area, and we have 9 more boxes to move in.


Here's one of the artichokes, grown from seed this year.


In that same area is our pomelo tree. This guy started out as a $5 rescue from Home Depot. It's now about 6'x6' and loaded with ripe fruit.



The Rescue Garden was decimated by deer. It's fate remains undecided.

This SFG bed has carrots and long-season radishes. The carrots are doing okay. The Daikons and fruit radishes are struggling. The left side of this box is empty. I'll be building up the soil over the winter. I use "humanitarian mix" instead of MM, which means a little of everything I have goes into my beds: rabbit litter, chicken manure, goat manure, horse manure, wood chips, leaves, coffee grounds, and composted kitchen scraps, plus a top layer of Happy Frog potting mix.


This is the left side of the Salad Bar. The rosemary has taken over the perennial herb bed. Everything else died when we were evacuated for the Carr fire. Our new place has more rosemary than we could use in a lifetime, so this baby will have to go next spring. This real estate is too valuable to be taken up by something we don't need and won't use.



Now we're inside the Salad Bar. This view is through the butterfly host garden (milkweed and Dutchman's Pipe right now).


Most of the containers and beds are finished, but there are still some brassicas doing okay.


Kale is always going strong.


I didn't realize this mix would shrink so much. The soil level is down about 18" for the past 3 years. The neighborhood kid came up and helped me rake today, in exchange for XBox priveleges, and we got it up about a foot, but that's with fresh leaves, so that will sink back about 8". I'm going to start adding rabbit litter, next, then goat manure and chicken manure. My goal is to get it back up another foot or so, before adding Happy Frog to plant in next spring.



I have a carrot bed that failed. I'm not sure what to do with it, but I'll think of something.

I got the brilliant idea of using these pics as a sort of journal, so I created a "winter" folder under my garden folder, and kept some of these pics in their original huge size, so I can zoom in and see details that would only be of interest to me. While trying out that concept, I discovered this mystery blossom? in the background. It's too late to go back over there tonight, but I will figure out what it is, tomorrow.


I still have the balcony garden and indoor gardens to document, but this is enough for tonight.

That was a nice tour of your garden areas. Since you originally filled the tall salad bar with organic material, the drastic drop in height was to be expected.

Do the artichokes freeze during the winter? I planted one this fall for fun and it seems to be doing good with nights around 40*F. Will it die when it freezes?

sanderson wrote:That was a nice tour of your garden areas.  Since you originally filled the tall salad bar with organic material, the drastic drop in height was to be expected.

Do the artichokes freeze during the winter?  I planted one this fall for fun and it seems to be doing good with nights around 40*F.  Will it die when it freezes?

I had one that survived last winter in a pot on the balcony, but I don't remember if it died back, then came back, or if it just survived intact. That plant eventually died anyway.

I just checked back and our hard freeze was November 29. I can't find when I transplanted this batch outside, which really ticks me off, cuz I thought I was keeping good records, but I'm pretty sure it was after the hard freeze, so no help there, but I think they're really cold-hardy.

I forgot about the sugar snap peas. I've been planting them in all the holes since September and haven't gotten a single pea from any of them. I'm pretty sure the rollies got everything I direct-sowed in the Salad Bar, but I don't know what went wrong with the rest. Here's what' in the Salad Bar now. These were started in the house and transplanted about a month ago. No sign of a blossom anywhere, but maybe they'll perk up now that we're getting a little more sun. I think it's time to start another batch inside.

countrynaturals wrote:

sanderson wrote:. . . Do the artichokes freeze during the winter?  I planted one this fall for fun and it seems to be doing good with nights around 40*F.  Will it die when it freezes?

I had one that survived last winter in a pot on the balcony, but I don't remember if it died back, then came back, or if it just survived intact. That plant eventually died anyway.
. . . I think they're really cold-hardy.

Thank you.

Okay, here's the rest of mine.

First, inside -- not much. Here's my jungle -- purple basil, Serrano pepper, & Sweet 100 cherry tomato.


My struggling brandywine is the only other plant, here. It's outside, taking the sun right now.


Okay, now for the kitchen balcony. It took 3 days to get it cleaned up. There's not much to see, but it is sweet to be able to go out there with my coffee and enjoy what's there.

Right side:Bay, chives, lemon balm, and stubs of tomato plants from last year. These stems are still green, so I decided to leave them in and see if they come back. The front containers are failed lettuce and carrots from inside.


Leaning over in the middle, is a volunteer sunflower from the chives pot, just about to bloom. I LOVE SUNFLOWERS!


Center: Bird-feeders, dwarf lemon, geranium, and empty container with volunteer sunflower sprouts.


Left: Birdbath, 2 more citrus trees, and some empty pots.

Back left: Lame radishes and empty pot in the background.


I'm not satisfied with any of it, but I'll probably keep doing it. I am still learning, so I can probably make enough improvements to make it worth the effort. Besides, it's more rewarding than watching TV, and I can only knit and paint for so long before going stir-crazy.

Suz, Any way to add a sloping overhead/side frame for the balcony - wood or PVC, and cover with plastic? You would need a spot to open the plastic during the sunny days, but maybe you could really extend the growing season. It would be cozier during the freeze with your hot cup of coffee.

sanderson wrote:Suz,  Any way to add a sloping overhead/side frame for the balcony - wood or PVC, and cover with plastic?  You would need a spot to open the plastic during the sunny days, but maybe you could really extend the growing season.  It would be cozier during the freeze with your hot cup of coffee.

Thanks, Sanderson, but that's more work than I want to do for too little reward.

I miss working in my garden ...I still can't get home because of the flying restrictions.

DavidLol23 wrote:I miss working in my garden ...I still can't get home because of the flying restrictions.

Oh, dear.....  I take it you're outside of the country then....