Winter Garden

Here's my garden, sleeping beneath the snow. Time for snuggling into my warm little burrow and planning for next year. I am still growing things: sprouts! I got a nifty sprout-growing set for my birthday and it's fun (not to mention, delicious) to have fresh, green growing things around. Stay warm everybody! My next post will be when I'm readying to buy seeds for the spring.

2008 Garden Awards and Yearbook

And now, ladies and gentlemen, awards and accolades will be presented to the best garden performers of 2008!

Most Aptly Named:
Provider Green Bean

Most Adorable:
Hakurei Turnip
8-Ball Zucchini (runner up)

Biggest Disappointment:
Carson Yellow Wax Bean

Least Successful Category:
Tomatoes
Bell Peppers (runner up)

Most Successful Category:
Turnips

Category I wish I had more of:
Carrots

Category I wish I had less of:
Greens

Most Pleasant Surprise:
Amour Pickling Cucumber
Celery (runner up)

Most Useless Vegetable of All Time:
Kholrabi

Most Underutilized (by me):
Summerfest Komatsuna Greens
Goldberg Golden Purslane

Most Prolific per Area:
Purple Top White Globe Turnip
Sunburst Patty Pan Summer Squash

Sunburst

Most Rewarding per Effort:
The Herb Garden

Cool Names:

• Scarlet Queen Turnip (most evocative)

The Scarlet Queen

• White Satin Carrot (sexiest)

White Satin

• Sugarsnax Carrot (most descriptive)

• Provider Green Bean (most apt)

• Purple Top White Globe Turnip (most obvious)

Exactly what it looks like.

• Cupidon French Filet Bean (most lyrical)

Cupidon, by W. A. Bouguereau.

• 8-Ball Summer Squash (most amusing)

Eight Ball

Described as "Moon Food":
Purple Kholrabi
Toscano Kale
Sunburst Patty Pan Summer Squash

Most Beautiful:
Redleaf Amaranth
Garnet Giant Mustard Greens

Most Unpleasant Tasting:
Garnet Giant Mustard Greens

Agreed Upon as Most Delicious:
Cauliflower

And finally...

If I had to take one variety with me on a space ship/desert island:
Provider Green Bean (greatest overall nutrition, yield, and ease of growing)

If I were to sow one variety in the garden of my enemies:
Garnet Giant Mustard Greens

End of the Growing Season

After the light frost at the beginning of October, the heartier plants kept producing into early November, when we were hit by several hard frosts. I'm not sure of the dates on these photos, but they're from early November, just before the hard frosts that happened around the 6th-8th. The tomatoes that were close to the soil and protected by foliage from the October frosts continued to ripen as the plants no longer were putting energy into the leaves. Some of the green tomatoes I picked also ripened on the counter and as of December 20th, I have one left!

One of my last acts in the garden was to cover the herb bed in a thick layer of straw and cardboard. I'm hoping that this will protect the iffy perennials from temperature extremes and root damage, so that I might find my oregano, thyme, sage, and marjoram greening in the spring. So far we've gotten a lot of snow, so there's a good chance they'll be insulated enough to survive.

Behold the carnage! After the october frosts, all the tender crops looked like this.


I simply can't imagine how many cucumbers I would have had if I'd started earlier in the year. As it was, I struggled to use them all!

The green beans weren't as thoroughly decimated as the squash or cucumbers. I was able to keep harvesting small amounts for a few weeks.

The obstinate wax beans surprised me with their cold tolerance and I wound up harvesting more in October than earlier in the year.


This is what harvesting tomatoes was like: searching for ripened survivors under the protective layers of dead foliage.


One of my final harvests of tomatoes and beans. The hearty onions were usable well into November, and I may even find some of them still alive in the spring.


These were harvested after the hard frosts of early November and were just fine, if a bit spicy. I'd like to find a milder variety for next year.


Of course my brassicas were going like gangbusters after the frosts, happy that the evil caterpillars were finally dead. This cabbage became delicious sauerkraut.

The hardiness champion was the Brussels sprouts, naturally. I harvested many right out of the snow!

These were the very last thing harvested from the garden, for the occasion of Kristine's visit. They were fantastic! (The visit was a great time too!)