Winter 2008

It's midwinter, and cold. It's been getting down below freezing the last few days, and only warming to 40s or 50s during the day. It's been particularly dry, although it rained last Sunday.

Last weekend we bought 3 new fruit trees: a satsuma mandarin, a marsh grapefruit, and a granny smith apple. They aren't planted yet, but they will go along the fence line.

The chickens are thriving and we get 2 to 3 eggs a day. This is the perfect number of chickens, and the pen, although far too heavy, works well enough. I'm using the chickens to clear the garden area. I put their pen on a site for about a week, move it off, till it up, then put them back to clear anything that survived. By spring I should have it all cleared.

The vines have died back from the gourds, so you can see them along the fences now. I have more gourds than I'll ever need! Huge ones!

The lettuce bed is doing fine, although not growing much. Come spring, it should take off. I'm sure there are fine roots. The cabbage and broccoli were planted WAY too late. I should have started them in mid summer. This time of year, they should be finished and holding in the garden. As it is, they are about transplant size, and not really growing. The mustard has been producing well though, and is a good addition to sandwiches and salads.

The peas in the back bed are full grown, and even flowering. Again, come the first hint of spring, they should take off. The tatsoi in front of them is actually growing well. It seems to like the cold weather. The chard I had originally planted there got pretty decimated by the snails, but the few that survived are doing ok.

The lemon has a huge crop this year, and I'm making Limoncella from the harvest. I had been eating several a day, but that was too much for my allergy. I should stick below one per day, and even that might be too much. I need other things to make out of the juice. And give away more! The lime has rebounded too, although this week's cold weather has wilted some new growth. I think with the willow gone, both will do much better.

Winter Review

Peppers did really well, all kinds. Plant more, plant earlier. Simply can't have too much salsa and hot sauce.

Beans. This year I will plant pole beans, and I'll stagger them more. The beans were delicious, but we had too many at once. Even I couldn't eat the pounds and pounds of dilly beans.

Tomatoes. Disappointing year. It was so smokey early in the season that they didn't get a good start. I planted too late, and RickC's were in too much shade.

Squash. Basically, I don't much care for it. I won't be growing any this year. The exception was the trombetta, but even then, it wasn't that great. I'll use the space for more delicious things.

Greens. This will be a good area for better production. I have big hopes for the lettuce table, plus chard and the various asian greens such as bok choi and tatsoi,

Tomatillos: These did well but I think RickC is right that they should be pruned and trained tall.

Things to plant next year:

Onions: I'd like to do more onions, both scallions and bulb onions.

Garlic: Can't have too much garlic.

Carrots. I didn't grow any last year, but I have all that sandy soil where the pool used to be. I will try several varieties, and pull them small.

Radishes. Delicious in spring.

Beans: Pole types, in succession. I think I'll grow towers or teepees, possibly even make a shaded spot with them. Shelling beans worked well too, but I need to plant a lot more to make it worthwhile. Could put those along the north fenceline, behind the orchard.

Tomatoes. I'll go with mostly roma type, and a few slicers.

Potatoes. I think I'll try the above ground method (using layers of mulch) around the orchard area.

Greens. Obviously I'll have the lettuce table, plus some chard. My thought is to have a few sturdy chard plants, and harvest them heavily while the leaves are still small.

Tomatillos. I liked the purple ones for ease of finding the ripe ones. Train them on vines.