Time to plant a winter garden

Posted by: PerryMK

Time to plant a winter garden - 09/29/12 02:29 PM

You can see three plots and for the sake of simplicity I'll refer to them as front and rear. It's hard to see what's there, I know.

First the purchased started plants.
In the right rear I planted savoy cabbage and iceberg lettuce. In the center rear the lettuce carried over and finished up with broccoli. Both of these sections are laid out so I can put my popup greenhouse which is about 4x8 and looks like a see through pup tent. I can hang a drop light in there if needed for warmth.

In the left rear I planted onions. These can by mulched when it gets cold.

I also had some old seeds. Maybe they're good, maybe not.
In the right front (in front of the cabbage and lettuce) I planted beets, radishes, and lots of carrots. Again, these can be mulched when it gets cold.

I still have a few pepper plants in the center front and left front. The Caribbean habanero and jalapeno are still producing. I even picked a jalapeno today. They'll die off when it gets cold enough.


Posted by: hikerduane

Re: Time to plant a winter garden - 10/09/12 10:20 PM

I till under winter rye I've had growing in the same spot for 10 years and spread some Spelt a couple years ago in Sept. All that gets crushed by the snow, so I have just a fair to poor stand in the Spring. I just like to see stuff grow.
Duane
Posted by: billstephenson

Re: Time to plant a winter garden - 10/10/12 12:03 PM

At the end of Summer my garden was just overgrown with weeds again this year. It just gets too darn hot and buggy to keep weeding in July/August and last year I never did get out there to get them out, so this Spring my garden wasn't in the best of shape.

This year I let my burros in there for a few days late last month and they ate most all of them down to nothing. Of course, they stomped on my raised beds a bit too, but they're easier to put back that do all that weeding, so I think I'm on to something there wink

Since the donkeys did the weeding for me I planted some lettuce and radishes the past few days. I made some low hoop tunnels from light fencing and put a cover of visqueen over them to make a sort of mini greenhouse.

I've read about this for the past few years and decided to give it a try. I've only done one row in my garden so far. Not sure if I'll do more, I might just wait and see how it works out. From what I've read I should be able to keep cool weather veggies growing in them all winter long. We'll see...

I'm still getting a few green peppers and some potatoes sprouted up from where I planted them in early Spring and are growing like crazy. I got a couple spuds from them this week too. That was a surprise. I'll let the rest grow for a few more weeks or until the first hard cold snap and then I'll go gather up the last of whatever they have to offer.

Also got some tomato plants coming up from seed off of this years plantings. Some are already about a foot tall. They won't make it, but I'm letting them grow to see how far they go.
Posted by: PerryMK

Re: Time to plant a winter garden - 12/18/12 06:32 PM

It looks like I'll be eating fresh broccoli this weekend. The lettuce is looking good and the cabbage is just starting to head. The onions ar still going but are underground and I haven't checked one yet.

The weather has been so mild that I am still getting hot peppers and even made a bottle of habenero sauce last weekend.
Posted by: billstephenson

Re: Time to plant a winter garden - 12/19/12 11:05 AM

Wow, that's great Perry!

My lettuce is still producing. The radishes didn't do too well, but the seed was probably pretty old.

It's been incredibly mild here so far. Nice weather for backpacking, but not a lot of rain yet. The lakes and stream are pretty low for this time of year. Kind of scary...