December 1, 2015
Beginning of November
Beginning of December
At first glance, the differences are in the leaves. The blueberry bushes are a lovely red while the peach tree and some of our shade bushes have lost most of their leaves.
Let’s take a walk in the garden and see what is growing! First, here are some transplants that never got planted. They are all hardy. I may eat the tender leaves in salads throughout the winter or maybe even attempt to transplant them as I harvest throughout the winter, as room becomes available under the tunnels. We’ll see. 🙂
Next up, a test plot of some late planted lettuce, spinach, and carrots (you can’t see anything but the lettuce because they are so small right now). I also planted some lettuce stumps from store-bought lettuce. I’ll need to cover this section pretty soon but right now, it’s still pretty mild around here.
Next up, the tunnels! In the first tunnel, there are late-planted purple cabbages. They are pretty small so I am not sure when we will harvest them. Hopefully, I will remember to write down when we do so I know for next year 🙂
In the tunnel next to this one, I have some green cabbages, some broccoli, and a lot of sprouting broccoli (purple and green). I have never done sprouting broccoli before but last spring when all of you other bloggers were overrun with PSB, I was wishing for some good broccoli so I bought some seeds this summer. I hope it works out. I’m hopeful and excited 🙂
Next to these covered tunnels is an uncovered tunnel of celery. These were planted from store-bought last fall. They were shaded over the summer by tomato plants and they are providing us with a lot of wonderfully flavorful celery this fall.
We have really enjoyed our volunteer kale this fall in our morning smoothies 🙂
In the last row of tunnels, we have some of our earliest-transplanted cabbages.
They are planted super close (I am horrible about doing this!!!) but some of them are starting to head up nicely. 
I’m basically waiting for them to harden. I am looking forward to fresh cabbage in our coleslaw and soups this December!!!!
Next to that box is a box of lettuce (direct-sown and store-bought stumps), spinach, and carrots.
If you follow this blog and/or if you watch L2Survive’s videos of Paul Gautschi, you know that in his garden, he does NOT put down woodchips anymore. He puts down compost from his run. I decided to try this. Someone warned me that it would just encourage weeds but I wanted to try it. It worked in some sections and did not in others.
It seems to come down to sections of the garden with plenty of woodchips down already vs. sections of the garden with only a thin layer of woodchips. Here is a section that is newly covered with woodchips. This section has only been planted in once.
So, the bad news is, covering this area with compost (instead of woodchips) produced a mat of weeds. The good news is, because of the woodchips, these weeds come up incredibly easily. Now, not two feet away, here is another section that was covered with compost (instead of woodchips):
Not a weed in sight. So, it’s still an experiment but I’m not giving up. I would like for my garden to look more like Paul’s eventually (more compost, less woodchips). It is easier to plant in when you don’t have to dig down 6″ every time you want to plant, that’s for sure! 🙂 At the same time, I don’t want to encourage weeds. So, again, I’ll just keep experimenting and I’ll be sure to keep you updated 🙂
As far as December chores go, whenever we are blessed with a mild day, we will:
- WEED
- Possibly expand the garden (depending on my husband’s schedule and my energy level)
- ORDER SEEDS!!!!!! AND BERRIES!!!!! (can you tell I’m excited? 😉 )
- order bees (yes, we are venturing into that part of homesteading. I’m pretty nervous)
What’s going on in your garden? Do you grow crops in the fall? winter? What do you grow? Do you cover anything? I am always in experiment mode so any suggestions are more than welcome! I don’t want December to pass by quickly but at the same time, I am looking forward to seeing what everything looks like in January 🙂
The section above was also planted in a new BTE section, so that did not help. 
This section of potatoes that are dying off but are not dead yet were planted in a higher section, getting less rain, which is interesting – I would not think they would have done better. However, this area is a 2nd year BTE section so…
Some are still decent. 
Most are not. 
I would LOVE a cattle panel to be able to grow the melons on but we don’t have a truck to transport it from the store to here so… 😛 Maybe one day we can bribe someone to do that for us. It would save SO much room! It is amazing how much watermelon plants spread! Check out the watermelon vine below. ONE seed and it is already spreading into my sweet potato patch!
We are seeing some watermelon fruit, so that’s always fun 🙂
The section above has never had manure on it and was only covered in woodchips two years ago. That could have something to do with the stunted growth as well. 
However, this section never had manure in it and was covered less than a year ago. The corn is even more pitiful here but the sunflowers (same variety) are outshining those in the previous patch. Amazing how microclimates work! 
This is also the first year I’ve grown ground cherries. They are looking good so far 🙂 
Loving all the green! At first glance, the peas that I was worried about (yellow) greened up on their own, the peas surpassed the cabbage hoops, the fruit bushes and trees have really filled out! A lot more green altogether. Love it! 🙂
Lettuce 
Peas 
Beans 
More lettuce (maybe if I harvest them small (rather than heads), they won’t be as bitter?) 
Pretty pitiful patch of spinach 
another sowing of lettuce 
Kale 
and some carrots
the section by the driveway is doing much better (see pic below) 
(green and beautiful above, yellow and pitiful below – same patch) 
I threw some chicken manure on the yellow corn. This week has been really rainy so I am hoping all of the compost tea will help with the color and growth.
We are harvesting LARGE amounts of peas every other day.
Cabbages are not ready to be harvested but they are sizing up nicely. I am going to uncover them and see if they are healthy enough to withstand ‘the elements’ (ie. bugs). 
Here is a recently weeded and mulched section. So pretty 🙂 
These are the smaller of the tomatoes. The larger ones are setting fruit but I found horn worm droppings on them yesterday so I’m going to have to keep my eye out! 
Our summer and winter squash seem to be doing well (though I’ve already found 4 squash bugs – HATE those things!!!). The cucumber plant in the pic above actually has baby cucs on it now 🙂
Looking healthy! See the fencing falling down to the right of the picture? I didn’t notice and that night, something got in there and ate most of the berries 😦 The fence is back up and hopefully the strawberries are, once again, protected. 
Greener, and growing bigger, faster.
(beginning of April)
(beginning of May)Â Â Â Â A lot more green but the real story is up close.
The first planting of peas never did well. I think it was too early and too wet. This is the second planting (mid-March). It has doubled or tripled in size since last month’s update. 
The cabbages are looking good under the covers. ^^^ Green cabbages above. Purple cabbage below. 
The third planting of peas are doing well. A little yellow, which is weird because they are planted in aged chicken manure. I’m just going to wait them out. Maybe I won’t need to add any compost tea. Lettuce is growing to the left. They were both planted at the end of March (2nd planting of lettuce). 
4th and last planting of peas are just starting to come up. 
Cilantro is a new plant for me this year. We are enjoying nibbling on these Vitamin C treasures. 
I also grew some lettuce in the milk jug greenhouses. These are the greenhouse transplants (transplanted in the carrot/beet bed). 
First planting of carrots (first of March)
And are starting to set fruit 🙂 
It’s one of those things that is not high on the list of priorities but at the same time, it needs to be done before it gets too overrun.
(the 5th chick was under its mama) 
(one of the 10 chicks we bought at the tractor-supply store – 2 died this past week because of all the rain and chilly weather 😦 smart chicks didn’t know to go inside the coop to get warm) 
Our old biddies (2yrs old with the 1yo rooster) don’t know what to think about all the hulabaloo 😉
Gardening Without... 