I can't say that I have put a lot of effort into my winter garden again this year. There are beds that have bare spots that I could have planted and haven't. On the long bed I planted the seeds grew at first then all died off except on one end and I need to replant something in there, just haven't gotten to it. Christmas is taking up more of my time this year. I normally don't really like Christmas that much. It stresses me to try to get things for everyone but with the invent of online shopping things have gotten so much easier so that this year my Christmas spirit is quite a bit better. I even sent out cards and I haven't sent out cards for 15 years!
Anyway, back to the garden. I haven't even gotten down to my garden all week and even today I only took pictures and didn't do any actual gardening work. I might not have even gotten down to the garden except I could see from the driveway that the plants had grown quite substantially since I had last visited, probably due to the nice rain we finally got this week.
We'll start on the porch with a picture of the lettuce and kale again. It is doing quite well. Now this really isn't enough lettuce for a salad but it makes nice lettuce to add to sandwiches. The kale can be added to any soup, stew or quiche if we don't get enough for a meal but we may get enough between the pot here and some that is growing in that half bed in the garden.
Down to the garden we have these nice big cauliflower in one of the "bed" beds. It would be nice to get some decent sized heads this year but I will be happy with the small ones if that is all I get.
In the other "bed" bed is the cabbage which looks to be doing fine.
Then in this long bed is the savoy cabbage. It is growing much slower but then I think it probably does that naturally and not because anything is wrong with it.
The 3 broccoli are also doing well in the center bed.
Besides this there is just the blueberry bush beds which aren't real photogenic now with their leaves off them and the one bed that has a few kale, turnips and garlic in it. Rather a pitiful garden for someone who would like to be self sufficient but it is all we can do right now.
I had a good winter garden this year, I was surprised. I still have a lot of turnips, collards and mustard greens out there but Dean is tired of greens so I guess I'll just leave them alone. I've tried to give some away but surprisingly a lot of people around here don't eat them, I guess. Or they grow their own. I have some nice cabbages but I don't know when I should be harvesting them. Some are nice size and some are still small. I guess I'll cut one when I want cabbage. I wish I had planted more broccoli because it was very good, I only had 4 plants so that didn't last long. I am still trying to figure out this different climate so I'm happy with what I got. I canned 23 quarts of greens and I think that's enough since Dean is tired of them. LOL
ReplyDeleteWe don't eat greens a lot but I love home grown spinach in the spring. Spinach mustard tendergreens are good as well and Phil liked arugala (more than I did) the one year I grew it.
DeleteI wish I lived closer I would take your greens off your hands. We do like turnip greens and Phil says he doesn't like collards but I am pretty sure I could make them so that he would like them.
Last year I had a collard grow all winter, even with snow! Every little bit counts so grow what you can, it's all good stuff!
ReplyDeleteThese should grow all winter here in GA.
DeleteYou may not have a huge quantity, but those brassicas look really healthy. Not a caterpillar-hole in sight!
ReplyDeleteWe don't usually have any bugs once we get our first frost (we got one last week) which is why I like winter gardening.
DeleteI think it looks good! I'd love to have crops still going in December!
ReplyDeleteThese should grow all winter here.
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