Winter Greens
Category: Vegetables
December
Went to the garden today to check on things. We had a terrible rain/sleet/snow storm yesterday, the first Nor’easter of the season. Still going strong is my lonely curly kale plant and my leeks. Surprisingly, I still have baby fall greens and baby arugula. I need to collect those very soon as hard frost is in the forecast.
Fall Cleanup and Planting Garlic
I took advantage of the nearly 70 degree weather today (mind you it was snowing just a week ago) to clean out my plot. I harvested the last carrots and radishes, weeded and cleared all the plant debris. I also dug up the dahlia tubers. Currently, there are only leeks, kale and baby greens growing, plus some shallots. I planted garlic today, about 60 cloves – half of them hardneck garlic the other half softneck from my biggest heads saved from this summer’s harvest. I decided not to add hay or straw this winter (except to cover the garlic) because I am having a big pill bug problem and I am trying to get rid of them. I suspect they might feed on all the decaying mulch and hay.
October Snow
As predicted, it snowed today. I am glad I harvested most of my veggies a couple of days ago.
Last Big Harvest
There is rain and raw weather in the forecast for the next couple of days and hard frost for the two following nights, so I harvested all my tender veggies this afternoon – eggplant, three teeny zucchini, all the green tomatoes and a bunch of hot peppers plus a ton of chard. I also harvested my butternut squash (sadly only three this year, but weighing in at 7 lb. 7 oz. total). I cleaned up those plants and did some weeding and disconnected the hoses. The water was shut off a few days ago. Always a sure sign of the season ending. Still growing are fall greens (we will see how well they will take the frost), kale, carrots, radishes, chard and leeks. And a ton of flowers: dahlia, cosmos, marigold, nasturtium. I still have to plant garlic, which I plan to do this weekend.
Mid-October
The “fruits” are winding down, only a few more tomatoes on the vine, and a couple more eggplants. There are still carrots in the ground, leeks, fall greens, radishes, hot peppers and winter squash. And some beautiful dahlias. Still lots of kale and chard. Chorizo/kale frittata and a side salad for dinner tonight.
Fall Harvest
I went to the garden today to check in and harvested some carrots, an eggplant and some green tomatoes. The tomatoes were quick-pickled to top tomorrow’s sandwiches – I am taking my teenagers apple-picking in the afternoon and we will have cheddar/apple slices/grainy mustard/pickled green tomato sandwiches aka Farmers Lunch Sandwich (No. 9) as served by City Feed and Supply around the corner.
Other People’s Plots
October in the Garden
There is still a lot going on: butternut squash, late tomatoes, carrots, leeks, still a couple of eggplants trying to grow fatter, hot peppers, kale, tons of chard, radishes, a few beets that survived the rabbit, fall greens (very much in their baby state), flowers. I plan to clean up much of the spent plants and some weeds this long weekend.
