N&C Midwest: November/December 2018

You are right SR, don't know where the summer went so fast! Ate our last tomatoes for lunch today, took all of the tomato vines I had hung up with green tomatoes out to the compost pile.  Winter is rapidly approaching....

Scorpio Rising wrote:I am already thinking about what worked/didn’t, etc.  We will be posting on that all winter!  Regrets, plans, etc!!!!

Planning is the funnest.

Last night my wife was laughing about me sketching out plans of where which vegetables will be planted in the raised beds. 

'Tis the season.....   The raised beds are ready for the long winter.

Yesterday was a beautiful November day here in SW Ohio - temps in the mid-50's, and a bright sunny day. Finally got to finish some of the fall gardening tasks that never got finished.  Worked the BioChar I have been saving into a couple of the smaller beds, and got to transplant the Rhubarb plants into their new beds so they can get their roots developed before the spring growth. Set up another drum to hold the compost from the tumbler until next spring when I can add it to the beds, and spread some coffee grounds on the beds to add a little natural fertilizer (thanks, Starbucks!).  Dug up the Sunchokes (Jerusalem Artichoke) and laid them out in the garage to dry. Pulled the last of the green onions and stored them in the fridge for salads, and collected the last of Red Russian Kale and cut the plants off at the soil level - they look great, and didn't seem to mind the recent snows that covered them. Cleaned a few flower beds and mulched the perennials to prevent frost heaving. Rain started moving in for the evening, so worked in the garage for a while cleaning & oiling the tools, and storing the compost tea equipment. Rained all night, and still raining today, but now we're ready for the long winter.


Tomorrow it is supposed to be in the high-50's to low-60's, so I might fire up the BioChar Kiln and get rid of some of the brush I have been collecting from trimming the trees.  Starting early next week, we are to have the high's in the low-30's, and there won't be much outdoor work then...

sanderson wrote:I don't know how you northern folks can handle the cold!  It's 55*F right now and I have 2 layers on with a heating pad!  I'm like Miss Lily during the winter.

I guess that after 70-some years, we just kind of get used to it...  18°F this morning, but it is going to get up to 30.....  Brrrrrrrrrr....

I guess the best thing about the cold weather is that it allows the garden beds to regenerate for next year's vegetables, and it kills off a lot of bad bugs that would be waiting to eat our plants.  Meanwhile, the compost tumbler is composting, the coffee grounds are breaking down to provide nutrients in the soil, and the Winter Rye roots are reaching down deeply into the ground to pull up minerals to the surface.....and, life goes on here in the northland....

“To be a successful farmer one must first know the nature of the soil.” - Xenophon, Oeconomicus, 400 B.C.




The raised beds at rest for the winter....

Fall finally arrived here in SW Ohio, after some bitter winter weather.  It has been up in the high 40's for the past several days, and yesterday it was almost 60°F. It is supposed to stay in the mid- to high-40's through the end of the week. Looked out at the raised beds this morning, and the Winter Rye is greened up like it has spring growth.