Recommendations?
This coming spring/summer I plan on adding raspberry beds to the garden. As I was looking through the Nourse Farms catalog last night, I got to thinking that perhaps you guys might have some recommendations for raspberries with great flavor and great yield. When it comes to soft fruits, sometimes the fruit can be amazing and sometimes simply OK. I have found that we like ‘Sparkle’ strawberries the best and really don’t like our ‘Seascape’ overbearing plants. They will also be replaced next spring with ‘Mara des Bois’ which have been recommended to me by a few people.
So, do you have any recommendations for soft fruit varieties that you love? I’m particularly interested in raspberries, but I’ll take recommendations for blueberries, strawberries, and any other type of soft fruit.
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Cover Crop Trials
I’m writing an article for a magazine about using cover crops in the small garden. In order to have great recommendations, I’m doing cover crop trials this winter to see which options offer the best cover in winter and the most weed free seed bed in spring. When I was out in the garden yesterday I noticed the only cover crop that was still lush and green was the crimson clover.
Of the other varieties I tried, most were killed by frost months ago and are already starting to break down. It looks like crimson clover is going to get high marks for soil protection throughout the winter. I also love that it provides a little extra green in the garden when most plants are brown.
Do you utilize cover crops in your garden? Which is your favorite to use over the winter?
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Friday Favorite: The Wood Stove
“Snow was falling and winter had come; the season of fire. Candles and hearth fire, that lovely, leaping paradox, that destruction contained but never tamed, held at a safe distance to warm and enchant, but always still, with that small sense of danger.”
Diana Gabaldon in A Breath of Snow and Ashes (Outlander)
As I read this passage I was sitting in front of the wood burner surrounded by cats. It was very early in the morning, the house was cold when I first woke up. After starting a fire and doing a few other things, I sat myself down with my back to the stove and started reading.
We just got a new wood stove. The old one wasn’t quite big enough to heat the entire house when it’s in the single digits outside. We have a wood fired furnace we use when it’s super cold, but we prefer using the wood stove instead. The stove was also old and starting to fall apart. More about this particular stove later, until then, I’ll be warming my toes in front of it.
Have you ever lived with wood heat?
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Crafting Winter Warmth
I’ve been needing a new winter hat, so I finally settled on a pattern and whipped on up. Crochet is such a wonderful creative outlet. I love that you can quickly make something useful and beautiful!
This is the ‘Divine’ hat (you can find the free pattern here on Ravelry). I used Manos del Uruguay wool yarn in’Spirulina’ color to match a cowl I made last winter. It was a quick and easy project, only taking an hour or so. I may be making these for gifts next Christmas!
What are you crafting this winter?
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Winter Activities for the Gardener
I appreciate living in a climate where I have 3-4 months of winter in which gardening outdoors is pretty much impossible without a greenhouse. While I spend a lot of time reading about gardening during the winter months, I still want to get my hands in the soil and nurture plants. What is a gardener to do? Attempt to start interesting plants from seed.
This year I have a few interesting things to try, most exciting is the Cedar of Lebanon seeds along with a large leafed magnolia. I also have seeds of various plums and sour cherries in the fridge getting their prescribed dose of cold weather before putting them up to see if I can nurture a few little trees for my orchard. I’ll keep you posted on my efforts, perhaps in 100 years there will be a Cedar of Lebanon to be enjoyed by those living here at the time.
What sorts of fun gardening things do you do in the winter?
