getting ready for winter, and spring

Been a while since my last posts here…. been meaning to post for a while, but getting the yard ready for winter has kept me fairly busy, so for now I’ll just post up a quickie recap and preview.

I’ve mowed up all the leaves a couple times, and got a nice heavy mulch down on the garden beds. I pulled off the rock mulch on the lilac and flower bed… with the success of my tomatoes this summer, it’s too valuable a piece of real estate to dedicate to non-edibles.

I pulled up a few dozen carrots from my self watering containers, as well as a couple dozen small (or rather thin) leeks. Those containers worked great, and required very little attention all summer – weeks of rain didn’t hurt either. yet it didn’t overwater the carrots causing them to split as I feared they might. I’ll make more to also use them for tomatoes next summer.

The zucchini failed miserably, no self watering container for that next time. I also only got one baseball sized buttercup squash from the three plants that grew from 6 seeds (in a raised bed) I guess those seeds might have been too old, or perhaps not quite enough sun in that edge of the yard location.

I put in a heads worth of garlic cloves a month or so back, and mulched that heavily with leaves, so that is all ready for a summer harvest. Meanwhile I’ve got 7 plants of lettuce going in my indoor hydroponic garden. Should have just enough for sandwiches everyday, and salads all winter and spring.

I meant to get some spinach in, but while I was researching all the winter vegetable possibilities I missed my opportunity there. Did spread grass seed in the bare spots though.

I’ve already saved seeds from butternut squash, from the local farm stand, and this years jack o lanterns. horrible (seeds) for eating – i tried – but nice looking for decoration (the pumpkins, I mean), which is too bad because these had almost no fibers and all seeds inside. I may buy some other heirloom variety to plant that will do double duty, otherwise my daughter will get a kick out of growing the next generation of this years jack-o-lanterns.

In checking out what I could grow outdoors this winter, or get in for early spring harvest I’d read about how to keep your cherry tomatoes going indoors all winter. If only I’d read that a few weeks earlier I could have kept cuttings from my plants. Unfortunately none of the garden centers had anymore flats I could have, so I may start some tomatoes from seed – just as soon as I set up a place the cats can’t get at. They sure like the oregano, sage and rosemary I brought inside. (Yes I’ve recently learned that I could have kept two of them outdoors. I’m glad to know what I have thats a nice edible perennial.) Speaking of the cats, they really like the hops. I might have lost those.

All that, and plenty of dried herbs and pesto too. Totally can’t wait for getting the garden going strong again in the spring.

-- southern NH. - smack dab in the middle of 5a and 5b - with lots of shade and full sun, in all the wrong places.