The Farmer's Almanac says my region is supposed to have a particularly cold and snowy winter. Now, I'm not sure what the track record of the FA is but I do know the people around here say if the berry bushes are full, it's going to be a tough winter. This year, the mountain ash and saskatoons were as laden as I'd ever seen them and folks reported record numbers of huckleberries in the high country. Funnily enough, the temps have been dipping way down, as low as 3*C/37*F overnight. That's a low we shouldn't really get for at least a month. At least the colours are fantastic. On the one hand, this cooling trend has got some challenges (tomatoes... so... close); on the other hand, it's been great. No one in my house is a heat lover, so there's that but more so, it's kicked us into squirrel gear big time. The woodshed is filling at an all time high rate, we've got canning going like crazy, though the dehydrator's been a bit quiet (I'll have to get on that asap). And, I've actually got winter crops started early enough that we might actually get to enjoy them as the weather turns! I've got a tonne of things coming - kales, broad beans, spinach, chard, cilantro, nasturtiums, and the all important carrots: I had great success growing carrots in buckets this year. I love the idea of being able to move them into the greenhouse to overwinter, mulch them, etc. But also, I don't have the usual worries about tree roots and our rocky ground. I've been improving it and building ever up and hope to have at least one big overwintering carrot bed but these are the insurance. There was a quick bit o'harvesting. The crookneck is an old beastie. Something between a summer and winter squash. If you catch it early, it's tender and cooks up just like zucchini. As it gets older, the rind gets pretty hard and then, well, I'm not sure. But I do like how it looks. And just because they can't help themselves, there's yet another hen on yet another nest. So, there may be another crop of babies coming. And there's more news but we'll save that for later. For right now, I need to get to my dye pots! So, here we're in the last gasp of warmth before the real cold starts. We're having fires in the evening and sunny, warm (but dry) days. Confession: I started this post three weeks ago. It's much chillier in the day now! I have been giving a lot of thought to what I'd like for this winter and I would love, love, love to have at least my own greens growing all winter long. I do have seedlings growing in the greenhouse and tall broad bean plants in the garden but they're already seeming to feel the bite of the cold. Why broad beans? They can tolerate some pretty significant drops in temperature. They're not as hardy as kale but they're decent. I may, however move them into the greenhouse or at least under the overhang of the greenhouse to keep them limping along. What else do we have growing for the winter? There's the kale and broccoli that survived the dreaded cabbage moth and is now truly spectacular. Beets And some stunning herbs, as well as seedlings coming up in the greenhouse. Those are collards, more kale, various Asian greens, corn salad, leeks, cabbage, and chard. Maybe there are others but I don't think so.
At this point, I will be ecstatic to have anything that overwinters well. I just love zipping out to the greenhouse or garden for a fresh bit of this or that. I think I'll have to consider hooping over some of the raised beds but maybe not this year. I might just have to make do with row cover. Though a hoop house inside the greenhouse and with row cover directly on the plants... that might be something to consider. If you'd like more winter gardening resources, I really enjoyed these pages: http://www.motherofahubbard.com/10-vegetables-more-cold-hardy-than-kale/ https://littlehouseontheurbanprairie.wordpress.com/ Clearly winter is coming - we have the woodstove going again. But we will be ready - or so the seedlings would suggest! Green sprouting broccoli! It definitely needs to be in bigger pots. If we have this long, slow, slide into winter, I should have a healthy crop of broccoli for the winter.
Now I don't know about you but here we re having a major drought. Summer came early and it came hard. I have raspberries ripening about two weeks ahead of schedule and lacking about two week's worth of flavour. Bummer. Everything's kind of like that this year too. So, here I am thinking about the fall and wanting to be sure I have an awesome garden that sustains us and I have no idea of how to go about that. Is it a warm El Niño year, or a cold one? I have no idea. Both seem to be written about. And if the season is two weeks (or more) ahead, will we have a longer growing season or an earlier winter? Yikes! So many decisions and as you all know, two weeks can mean the difference between life and death for a young plant. So, to that end, I've decided on a couple of courses of action. First of all, I'd always thought we were Zone 4 and truthfully, I'm sure we are some years. But largely we're just not. More like Zone 6 according to most of the hardiness charts. So, I'm going to garden as though we're Zone 5. I'm not just splitting the difference. I think if I go with the expectations that it will be a slightly harder, slightly earlier start to winter, likely the plants will survive. After all, it's better to have them a little mature at the start of winter, rather than too young. So, better to have it be all a bit more mature and harvest it sooner than have this happen too early: Though I confess, by the time it comes I will so be happy to see it! So, my plan is to use one of the garden planners to figure out what I need to be planting and when. Now, if you're super fancy, you could use this frost date finder along with this handy chart of temps that keep plants happy. While I am super fancy (of course) I'm also going to cheat and use something like this: Here's another one specifically for zone 5. Either way, it's definitely not too early to start thinking about which delicious things you'd like to eat over the winter fresh, from your own garden or greenhouse. And also think about ways to make that happen.
Not sure what I mean about that? Well, that will be a great topic for the next post, won't it? 'Night! |
AuthorI'm a 40-something writer and smallholder living in the wilds of BC with my family, our small herd of Nigerian Dwarf Goats, chickens, ducks, dogs, and cats. Archives
August 2017
Categories
All
|