Fall Garden Still Growing

[JimWWhite]

My fall garden is still going strong. We still have about a dozen or more heads of romaine lettuce and they are beautiful! We had a nice caesar salad with our Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. Plus we have nine heads of really nice Chinese cabbage we will start taking out this weekend. And there's a whole box of collards I can't wait to start on. I love fall gardening. I think the vegetables are better and it's a whole lot easier growing from the heat into the cold and from bugs into no bugs! Everything we have now is either in 4'x8'x12" or 4'x4'x8" boxes and I think there's about 22 of them at this time. Next spring there will be another 10 or so of the 4'x4' boxes. We've been adapting the Square Foot Gardening techniques promoted by Mel Bartholomew in his book and applying it to our little farm.

 

[Andy J]

I agree,JimWWhite.My fall garden is the best I've had so far.I've got about 10 types of lettuce,broccoli,cabbages,spinach,kale,turnips,mustard greens,and rape growing very well.I even have Brussell sprouts that might make this time.Pest problems have been minimal,except for a couple of rabbits that are now in the freezer.

I,too,have 3 raised beds 4X8 in size.This is the way to go.The square foot gardening works very well for me.

Andy J

 

[ninnymary]

Jimwwhite...Welcome to TEG :rainbow-sun I have really enjoyed reading about your little farm. You are doing soooo much! Those granddaughters of yours are so lucky to be growing up in a beautiful place like yours and learning so much from you.

Mary

 

[journey11]

I agree, a lot of those fall crops taste so much better this time of year, sweeter and more crisp. I've got a few things going under low tunnels right now. We've been enjoying our fresh salads!

 

[JimWWhite]

I agree, a lot of those fall crops taste so much better this time of year, sweeter and more crisp. I've got a few things going under low tunnels right now. We've been enjoying our fresh salads!

I went onto your web site and I'm impressed. I want to get more into the low tunnels and grow greens, etc. all winter long. One thing I was wondering about is that you mentioned you used the natural heat from manure to provide warmth to your tunnels. Can you elaborate? How deep of a trench are you talking about? How much soil between the manure and the bottom of the crop bed? How long will the manure put out heat, hence how often do you need to change it out?

Jim

 

[JimWWhite]

Jimwwhite...Welcome to TEG :rainbow-sun I have really enjoyed reading about your little farm. You are doing soooo much! Those granddaughters of yours are so lucky to be growing up in a beautiful place like yours and learning so much from you.

Mary

Mary, thanks for the great words!!! This is just plain big fun for me. I've always dabbled at a garden but now I'm getting more serious about doing something that is more than just a simple garden and more of a small farm. I remember that my Grandfather raised a rather large family on a small farm in rural NW Alabama. Almost every bit of food they ate come from the farm. I want to do the same thing. I have a great job but I'm closing in on retirement in a few years and I want something I can rely on after that. It's a dream...

Thanks!
Jim

 

[journey11]

Thanks! The manure pit I used was for a cold frame though. I dug a pit about 18" deep and put in about 8" of raw horse manure mixed with fall leaves. I can't say for sure how long it lasted, but it put out heat as it broke down. It helped warm the soil layer above it. It would have to be changed out each fall. That's part of why I abandoned the cold frame. It seemed to be more work for less food. They also make heat cables you can embed in sand for cold frames too, I just never put the money out for one.

I haven't done anything extra to my low tunnels, but I've heard for them you can put down black plastic which doubles for mulch and helps hold solar heat.

Our coldest winter temps here will sometimes get down to -15 below and my lettuce came through fine last year. I guess survival rates will depend on the crop.

I'm not sure, but I wonder if composting manure would generate too much condensation in a low tunnel that was sealed up in the depth of winter? I'll have to look into that.

 

[bills]

We really got hit with a taste of winter a few days back. -10 Celsius, -18 C with the wind chill, and 4" of snow. The snow stayed on the ground for about 4 days. Once the snow melted, and thing warmed up a bit, I went out to survey the veggie garden, and see if anything survived.

It appears the Arugula is actually perking back up really good, which is really a surprise, as it is a thin leafed plant that I thought would freeze through and through. The spinach and chard leaves in comparison have melted into mush. The chard may come back, as it is pretty hardy, but it may be awhile before I have enough for a meal.
I can already see new beet greens sprouting, which is good, as I love eating them freshly picked and steamed. The older leaves look slightly frost damaged, to the point I don't think I will bother with them. These are from some beets that I let grow, just for the greens. The beets themselves I expect may be a tad woody as they are bigger than a softball. I do have some smaller beets I planted later in the summer, that are still edible, and pulled a few of them to have for dinner.
Carrots look good still, although the tops are not as green as they were before the freeze up. I had a feed of Brussel sprouts, which still tasted wonderful. What a marvelous winter plant to grow.
My Broccoli looks very sad, and I'm not sure if it will come back. Collards look like they survived although there was some leaf damage on the older leaves. The little bit of lettuce that I had still growing looks like it is wiped out.

I noticed that my green onions (Evergreen bunching) have a jelly like substance inside the green top. I can squeeze this out, and the onions still taste fine for adding to a salad, but it is pretty yucky looking. I suspect this is some sort of natural anti-freeze the plant produces?
Other then those things, there was nothing more still in the ground to worry about. All in all it wasn't a total wipeout..