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Still Harvesting

December 5th, 2018

On Monday I harvested that last of the vegetables from the garden, it was a mess of lettuce that I had under a plastic low-tunnel with an additional layer of remay on top of the lettuce itself.

The ground inside the low tunnel isn’t frozen at all, in fact it’s still soft. We’ve had a lot of nights in the teens and a few nights that were only 3 degrees, which means this lettuce did a great job surviving such cold temperatures.


I ended up with quite a harvest, at least a week of salad for dinner. Some varieties did better than others, I didn’t specifically plant cold tolerant varieties for this experiment, I just used seed I had on hand. The variety that performed the best was ‘Alkindus’ from Johnny’s Seeds. Next winter I’ll most likely try to find a cold tolerant variety or grow mostly the one variety that did really well in my garden.

Are you attempting any winter gardening?

Winter Interest

March 6th, 2018

One of the things I love about hydrangeas is the winter interest they add to the garden. The dried blossoms look great throughout the winter, though this time of year they’re starting to snap off and tumbleweed across the yard during wind storms.

These are ‘Annabelle’ hydrangeas that look fantastic in the summer. You can see the echo of their summer glory.


None of my other hydrangeas have any dried blooms left, they are all planted in areas that get quite a bit of wind. Only these bushes planted up against the house get enough protection.

Hopefully, as hedges grow and windbreaks are planted more and more of them will retain blooms throughout the winter to add some much needed interest in the garden.

What’s your favorite shrub for winter interest in the garden?

The Garden In Winter

January 24th, 2018

I’ve been thinking more and more about the garden winter. As I look around outside, I notice things that add structure and interest to make the garden shine in this dormant season. My two favorite things this winter are the trellises I left in the garden (usually I take them in) and the ornamental grass.




Both are adding much needed interest in the winter landscape. The boxwood hedge out front adds some, not as much as the one around the garden will when it’s filled in and trimmed to neat boxes. Overall, the winters get better and better as I add things specifically for interest in the winter months. Even small things like pruning a shrub or small tree in a very specific way can add some much needed interest in the dead of winter.

What’s one of your favorite ways to add winter interest in the garden?

Harvesting Belgian Endive Roots

November 22nd, 2016

I’ve been waiting for the weather to turn cold so I could harvest my Belgian endive roots. These are ‘Totem’ variety, the seeds were sourced from Johnny’s Seeds. I’ve tried growing endive roots for forcing for many years and something has always eaten the tops, or the seed was washed away in a spring rainstorm, or something else happened to them. That never stopped my from sowing seed every year, hoping I’d end up with large roots to force chicons for winter eating. The cold weather finally hit and the leaves wilted a bit in the cold.
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I became interested in doing this after reading Eliot Coleman’s book Four Season Harvest. He has a nice section on how to grow them and what to do with them in order to force them. Johnny’s also has a nice resource page on their website (which is not available right now because of their redesign, I’ll try to remember to post a link to it later). It’s pretty simple to force chicons. The first step is to cut the leaves off the plants leaving about an inch or two of stem, you want to be careful not to cut too close to the root so you don’t damage the crown. The chickens were super happy to gobble up all those leaves.
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Then carefully dig the roots, they’re like parsnips or large carrots. You only need 6-8 inches of root, they’re much longer than that but can be quite difficult to dig up in their entirety. Some of my snapped neatly right at the perfect length when I was digging them.
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There are several methods for treating the roots, I decided to follow the methods recommended by Johnny’s. I layered the roots into baskets, covered them with damp burlap, and put them in a cold room of my garage. They’ll stay there for 3 weeks or so, then I’ll start planting them in buckets of soilless potting mix.
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When I want to start growing chicons, I’ll put the buckets on my seedling heating mat the basement. The top of the bucket will be covered with a black plastic pot in order to ensure darkness. They like warm soil and cool air temperatures for producing chicons. I figured the heating mat would warm the soil in the buckets but the ambient air in the basement is the perfect temperature for them. I’ll keep you updated on the progress of my efforts. Here’s hoping I’m eating chicons in January!

Have you grown any new and interesting veg this year?

Snug as Bugs

March 23rd, 2016

My greens are all snug as bugs in the low tunnel in the potager. After I transplanted them we had some really cold nights, down into the teens. I added an extra layer of agribon to my little lovelies and they came through with flying colors.
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When I went out in the morning the temperature under the agribon was 10 degrees warmer than outside the low tunnel. It’s pretty amazing what you can do with a little bit of plastic. Hopefully I’ll be eating lettuce in a few weeks.

What’s the temperature like in your garden?

About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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