Winter Gardens - Photos

VERY nice!

Clever use of zebra grass. Do you have the gigantus variety or ornamental shorter variety?

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote: but fresh greens are such treat in the winter, even if the servings are small.

I agree!
Best of luck. Keep us update please?
CC

sanderson wrote:Clever use of zebra grass.  Do you have the gigantus variety or ornamental shorter variety?

The landlord planted them, so I don't know the varieties. There's a short 3-4ft non-striped one with thinner leaves and a purplish hue that doesn't work well as mulch because it's too tedious to separate out the stems (they don't break down fast enough.) The tall one usually runs about 8-9ft rather than 12ft. I used the short 5-6ft, thin 'runts' from the larger variety for the greens bed, since they were more bendy than the thick ones. I set aside the stripped leaves to use as mulch/'straw'. The tall, thicker stems will be bean poles next year. That worked out pretty well this year. Not perfect, but good enough considering the cost savings. I don't think I got around to posting photos of how that turned out yet.

CC- Will do, but probably not until January since I expect things will change slowly. I've been reading Eliot Coleman's Four Season Harvest. I figure if Maine can do it, an amateur in Pennsylvania has a chance. Friday has a predicted low of 23*F. I guess I'll see what happens!

Thanks for the compliment, AtlantaMarie!

Wow, girl! You got it going on!  

Looks great!  I only have mache left in my beds.  I am a crappy fall planner....procrastination.  Incorporated.  

Keep us posted, looks great!

AtlantaMarie wrote:It's raining today & really nasty...  Sorry...

(That's my story & I'm sticking to it!!)

(That's my story & I'm sticking to it!!)
Now THAT'S funny A.M. I don't care HOO y'are.  I'll post my fall garden pics later today. Everything is doing well so far even with some 26* nights.

Scorpio Rising wrote: Wow, girl! You got it going on!  

Looks great!  I only have mache left in my beds.  I am a crappy fall planner....procrastination.  Incorporated.  

Keep us posted, looks great!

Thanks! But I think you missed the part where maybe you're not procrastinating hard enough!:
First, delay succession planting your squares properly. When plants mature let them go to seed and fling seeds everywhere.
Second, don't plan - that way you'll need to transplant everything to a randomly chosen bed when the time comes
Third, those seeds that went everywhere? Don't get around to doing your weeding so that you have lots of volunteers to choose from.

We have had some 26* nights and the SFG is hanging on. My camera shows yesterdays date but I just took these pics  12/01/16

            I was blessed with a lot of leaves this fall.  Been mulching for about 3 weeks.



There was enough grass clippings to get the pile heated up. It's been holding about 120*  since last Sat.



This is my 8x8 with pavers down the center.  I put down a good layer of mulched leaves then a few bags of compost to winter over.



Detroit Red Beets are still doing good but will get harvested soon.


This is January King Cabbage. Having corned beef and cabbage today.


These cabbage's will be covered soon in the hoop house.



This carrot is Huge. About the size of a tennis ball at the top. I'll post pic when I harvest it.


Some Carrots, turnips and beets.


Garlic was planted way too early. I dont think it will survive the cold.


 
Carrots, cabbage Beets and turnips. Trying to see how long I can keep them alive under the hoops


Collards and Chard. Still going and not under hoops.



Yes... More carrots and Parsnips.  And a pot of spinach... lol


My park bench overlooking my garden where I have my morning coffee at daylight and cold Bud lLight Lime in the cool of the evening.... Ahhh. SFG.  Life is good.



 Oh. I almost forgot my Pallet of bagged compost.

MrBooker wrote:

This one should be on the cover of a magazine. I only dream of a garden that looks like this.

countrynaturals wrote:

MrBooker wrote:

This one should be on the cover of a magazine. I only dream of a garden that looks like this.

Well, Thank you so much. What a nice thing to say. That's what this forum is all about.
This will be my first year trying to grow into the winter. It will be an experience for me. I'll will keep posting with pics as long as my SFG keeps going this winter.

MrBooker wrote:Carrots, cabbage Beets and turnips. Trying to see how long I can keep them alive under the hoops

MrBooker - They look wonderful! Much better than mine. Can you tell me when you started your cabbages, turnips, beets, and carrots?

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote:

MrBooker wrote:Carrots, cabbage Beets and turnips. Trying to see how long I can keep them alive under the hoops

MrBooker - They look wonderful! Much better than mine. Can you tell me when you started your cabbages, turnips, beets, and carrots?

Yes. According to my records, Cabbage seed started 7/31/16.  Turnips started 08/13/16, Bulls blood Beets, started 08/07/16 and I think that was a little late because they are still very small but the Detroit Red Beets are just right.  Tendersweet Carrots started 08/12/16 and doing very well. Little finger carrots started 09/06/16 and may have been a little late as they are still small but after all, they are "Little fingers"...... Hope this helps you.

GoodNESS, Mr. Booker. Everything looks wonderful!

AtlantaMarie wrote:GoodNESS, Mr. Booker.  Everything looks wonderful!

Thanks A.M.  It's an experiment this year and so far, so good. Going to see how far I can go with the hoop houses. I have some pics of some chard and Georgia collards still doing good with no hoops and we've had some 26* weather.

MrBooker wrote:

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote:

MrBooker wrote:Carrots, cabbage Beets and turnips. Trying to see how long I can keep them alive under the hoops

MrBooker - They look wonderful! Much better than mine. Can you tell me when you started your cabbages, turnips, beets, and carrots?

Yes. According to my records, Cabbage seed started 7/31/16.  Turnips started 08/13/16, Bulls blood Beets, started 08/07/16 and I think that was a little late because they are still very small but the Detroit Red Beets are just right.  Tendersweet Carrots started 08/12/16 and doing very well. Little finger carrots started 09/06/16 and may have been a little late as they are still small but after all, they are "Little fingers"...... Hope this helps you.

Seems to suggest it's not a timing issue on my part, which basically leaves sun - my garden is a little shy of optimal on hours of sunlight, but there's no where else in the yard I can put it, and I can't cut down the trees since I'm renting, and I can't cut down the neighbors house...   Guess I'll try again next year, and if it still doesn't work I'll have to give up on a few plants until I move somewhere with a better yard. It baffles me that my tomatoes, garlic, and beans seemed to do awesome, but most of the plants I started or transplanted in July or August just didn't grow much.

Does this count as a winter garden? It's my garden, and it's clearly winter!

Robbomb116 wrote:Does this count as a winter garden? It's my garden, and it's clearly winter!

Rob.  Glad to see you have a sense of humor.  That IS funny. I KNOW it's coming my way but I'm hanging on as long as I can.

Robbomb 116,

I love your interpretation!  And yes, I'd consider it a winter garden, according to your terms.  Beware of more of same!

countrynaturals wrote:

MrBooker wrote:

This one should be on the cover of a magazine. I only dream of a garden that looks like this.

I'm just tonight catching up on the Forum. I agree that this is a classy photo.

Rob,  Would you be so kind as to also post your snow photo under:  https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t4937p100-holy-snow-batman?highlight=snow

My garden now looks more like Rob's. Since taking this picture I've added a layer of plastic to the greens low tunnel I showed before (and most of the other structures in the photo.) Single digit temperatures are predicted Thursday night to Friday morning. I plan to check on things during the weekend - unless it doesn't get above freezing or is raining all day.

1. (two) Brassica wagon hoop houses, switched from AG15 to AG30
2.  Greens low tunnel w/ AG30
3. Wire-cube frame with doubled AG15 ...random cardboard and plastic stuff on the back where it didn’t cover all the way down (northside placement should aid in blocking wind without blocking light)
4. New 1x8 w/garlic planted, under straw mulch
5. (four of them) Upside down plastic box (plastic tub or fridge drawer)
6. (four of these, too) Wire-cube frame w/ doubled AG15 – see pg129 of the original SFG book; these are 15” square, so not perfectly sized -- but from a curb, so perfectly priced
7. Cold-Frame% -- see below
8. Cardboard boxes, open at both ends, filled with leaves around the leeks
9. Old bed, newly raised, partly planted w/garlic, under straw mulch
10. Old bed, newly raised and filled.  Some of my aging grid lines snapped when I lifted the grid onto the box, but fear not – I WILL fix it before I plant anything!
11 (two of them). Collards under snow. One is Champion, the other might be Flash.
12. Kales under snow
13. Fridge shelves haphazardly over the komatsuna (survived 16*F that way)
14. Oregano and thyme mostly under the snow
15. Windowbox bracket on the deck where I am photographing from
16. Old bed, newly framed, but not yet filled
 
%- picked it up for free back when I thought I wanted to do the window cold frame thing. Was trying to do something like Mel’s Sunbox (p137 of the original SFG book - compatible w/ ANSFG beds). But my garden tilts the wrong way, and it’s too heavy to move by myself because, unlike Mel’s design, this is one-piece. I couldn’t get it tilted enough to get more light than shadows and gave up before I hurt myself. Just weeds and old snapdragon plants inside. I’ll need to move it somewhere else before pea-planting time.

Beetles, That is a great photo and explanation of your garden. It has really explanded.

sanderson wrote:Beetles,  That is a great photo and explanation of your garden.  It has really explanded.

Agree 100 percent.

trolleydriver wrote:

sanderson wrote:Beetles,  That is a great photo and explanation of your garden.  It has really explanded.

Agree 100 percent.

Thanks! I'm planning on putting more OSSFG(old-style) on the back corner (upper right in the photo) for a net increase of 24sf once I shift the paths back there. Didn't get it done before the freeze but the planned beans and tomatillos gives me time for digging most of that, and while the Jerusalem artichokes would have preferred I already planted them I'm not worried about negatively affecting their yield.

I had an epiphany yesterday that the plastic I got for covering the hoops can be reused in the spring to get my MM and soil to warm faster.   

Since posting, I threw a big plastic tub over one of the collards, and tried to put a box over the other. The box of course blew over -- and the wind partly undid one corner of one of the wagon hoops houses. I went out today to right the box and put a brick on it (got to take that all off before any rain *imagines a brick sinking through a wet cardboard box and landing on the poor collard*), fixed the plastic, and fetched the mail. That's about all I could do. And I know it's a lot warmer less frigid here than some places. Brrr! Everyone stay safe!

Wow, wow, wow!!!  Very impressive pictures and descriptions from EVERYONE!  Ya'll are such an inspiration to me...

When we settle in a more permanent location I'd like to have a greenhouse, hoop houses and cold frames, but nothing so fancy, now. Using supplies I had on hand and a good bit of elbow grease, here are pictures of my winter set up for this year.  The photos were taken earlier this month; everything is under 8" of snow, now.

Garlic and shallots are in the covered kiddie pool.  Potatoes are in the freestanding cage (spuds were too small to harvest this year, so I figured there's nothing to lose with seeing how they over-winter with this set up).


I moved everything else under our deck, heavily mulched with fallen leaves from our yard, and surrounded by 1/2" wire fabric to keep hungry critters out.
Middle left, in the tall cage, are my raspberry bushes; lower right, strawberries; the shorter middle cage surrounds several grow bags of potatoes and a variety of perennial fruiting shrubs; while the furthermost (upper right) cage protects my blueberry bushes.


Unfortunately, I didn't have the time or energy to shred the leaves prior to using them for mulch and there isn't space to over-winter anything indoors.  Putting the plants under the deck affords some protection from the harshest weather, but still allows some snow to fall into the cages, so I don't have to water at all during the winter.

I also covered my compost pile with 12-18" of leaves and pine needles.

All of my gardening efforts this year are a grand experiment.  I'm still adjusting to this climate, doing the best I can with what I have. It will be interesting to see if anything survives to next spring. 

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