Here we go with our discussion of our 2022 Veggie gardens.

My garden beds are put to bed for the Winter with a thick carpet of Fall Leaves. All ready for planting in the Spring!!

Not quite put to bed, but most stayed covered if I had them covered. 50* at 5am dropped to 18* with windchill by 9 am. So sunny! 1/8" rain was tiny brittle puddles on the frost covers, what was left with the 14 to 18 mph gusty nw winds.



House stuff happy at least, tho I woke up thinking I had forgotten something outdoors

Mine are still growing thanks to the recent rain.

Thanks Rita!

Howdy!
Snow forecast... 1-3 inches pfftt.. for me and, my broccoli is under a row cover, just a little more time and I might get heads worth eating. Also cut greens as I am not sure how much cold they can take. Brassicas everywhere. Cuz what else is there in winter?

sallyg said:Howdy!
Snow forecast... 1-3 inches pfftt.. for me and, my broccoli is under a row cover, just a little more time and I might get heads worth eating. Also cut greens as I am not sure how much cold they can take. Brassicas everywhere. Cuz what else is there in winter?

Alliums, Pastinaca, Spinacia, and Daucus are types that I am familiar with, there may be some exotics. I am not overly fond of parsnips, but I do like most species of Allium and I really enjoy a winter harvest of carrots and spinach

I've got to plan my fall winter garden better

Hey, I'm still harvesting too - it just doesn't come out of the ground for me this time of year, I have to go to the garage to raid the refrigerator, freezer, and the potato and onion storage crates...

Nothing but six collard plants and a patch of overgrown radishes in the garden and a bunch of oak leaves. I imagine that in the morning the collards will be a bit tattered looking....so for the highest recorded wind on the weather station is 23mph, steady 8-10mph winds.

Temperature is dropping. Last night's low was 71F, it's currently 48F, with a predicted low of 30F. High winds forecast for tomorrow with tomorrow night's low at 28F. Then, a slight warm up with no more freezes in the near forecast.

I made a hard call today. I shuttled the two poblanos and the lemon bush into the garage and plugged up the heat lamps. But, the rest of the scraggly bunch are huddling beneath a tarp on the deck...I think it was just a gesture...it's time to let them go. Of course, it may surprise me. We'll see.

My gardening work thus far in 2022 has been to move those plants into the garage, as mentioned. Also, I picked a mess of collards for our New Year's dinner...they went with a baked ham and black-eyed-peas, naturally. Just finished off a tasty ham sandwich a little bit ago!!!

The other thing that I've done is rig up a little solar panel to charge my electric fence battery. We'll have to wait and see how this works out. The little waterproof charge controller that I used in the setup has a bright green LED that it uses for the battery status. At first I thought "that sucker's mighty bright!", not sure if I liked it or not. I've still got reservations about it, but I can see here in the house 120-feet away at the computer, look out the side window and see that green light shining. It tells me that the battery is charged up good....doesn't do a thing about telling me whether a deer as ripped the fence down, though. Oh well, hopefully it'll workout ok so I wont have to lug the deep-cycle battery to the garage for charging. So far we've just had clouds and rain so it hasn't done much for the battery...except use a little more juice powering that bright green LED!!!!!

It's going to be near freezing tonight, my collard greens might taste better.

ppssttt: Sally "what else is there to do i the winter?" drink hot cocoa and plan/scheme what gardening/outdoor improvements to do once it gets warm again!!

And then there is ALWAYS winter cleaning the house! (Yes, I know its not fum, but think of the time you'll save to devote to your garden come summer.)

I have put my garden in "Winter mode": had L/GH store (and tie down!!) rain barrels and swap out summer downspouts for the winter ones, collect equipment etc and store in the shed, cover my evergreens to protect them from the arctic, gale force winds, move containers to make wind breaks. . .

In between rain and too cold days, I'm doing outside improvements: creating a new raised bed (filling that tire with compost and organic matter, encircling it with landscape cloth and marble chips), laying a "crawlway" for access to the water shutoff UNDER my house, making a "compost heap" using summer accumulations. . . . Cleaning house cleaning house cleaning house (can you tell I'm BORED?????)

I've planned 2022 garden, ordered all the seed, sourced one plant to buy in the spring, still trying to source the other plant I want. . .

Made my gardening budget, stuffed the envelope for my L/GH (his part of the gardening budget). . . .

Clean the house clean the house

I am with you, BetNC, about cleaning house in the winter. I try to do enough to make me not feel guilty for neglecting it during any weather good enough to go outside.
Oh yes, cocoa too

Ed I hope your efforts reward you

My "gardening budget" (if there actually is such a thing) extends to at least the amount of my husband's golf membership; and if necessary I can subtract what we would have paid in the store for the veggies - oh, and maybe the gym membership that I wouldn't have time for anyway, what with the garden and all

Ed's poblano peppers:

Happy. New Year to Yall! I was thinking my broccoli looked pretty good until I saw Ed's on the eating from your garden thread….. my heads are about the size of a half dollar coin. 19 degrees last night had me scrambling yesterday to cover everything in fleece blankets. I've eaten all the spinach but still have two pots of lettuce because it's been so warm here.
Planning for next year, but not really organized at all except to cut back on all gardening….. veggies and flowers. I can't seem to gain my former health and seem to move from one health issue to another….. now I have severe sciatic nerve pain and will go this afternoon to the chiropractor for the third time in three weeks, hope this trip helps me.

I like your math, Sandy!!!
Lynda

I am glad my garden has a nice thick Blanket of snow against the coming cold.

All that snow last February was what saved many plants from the severely low temps. Snow is a great insulator. I am looking forward to getting onion sets and planting them. I love homegrown onions, and they're so easy to grow. I have lettuce and broccoli, now all I need is onions, and maybe radishes.

Sally, I was just watching the Weather Channel and it looks like there is quite a mess of snow out your way - along with a lot of power outages.

Lynda, I hope the chiro visit helps you

Lynda, how awful! Do you have Motrin?

Been working on cleaning out the greenhouse, dumping the pots into some of the raised beds.


Even got the tillers out for a run at breaking everything up.. A little mouse smell goes a long way around here

tillers!

My chickens were great compost facilitators.