Winter gardens

[Bartato]

How are your winter gardens doing (or summer gardens for our brethren on the other side of the equator)?

I generally harvest kale and collard greens all winter. Sadly my greens got nailed by some really cold weather back in early December.

I'm still harvesting carrots.

Most of my winter cover crops are also a little wimpy, as the cold weather hit them pretty hard.

I do my main composting over the winter, and the giant pile is running around 140 degrees, so it should be ready come spring.

The chickens are laying pretty well, and are helping prep the garden for spring.

I'm starting to think about starting seedlings in the basement.

 

[PeteR]

Our Cackle Berry bushes are still bearing, though most everything else is doing nothing...

 

[Bartato]

You have more cackleberry bushes than we do.

I'm a little bummed that you haven't got winter crops, seeing that you live in the "Sunny South". You must still get some cold weather there.

 

[NickF]

My garden is nuffin but mulch right now. I've been too busy!

 

[Joleneakamama]

Our cackle berry bushes are getting going. We are at maybe 25% of what should be possible...but about triple what they were doing....so better.

 

[Bartato]

Our cackle berry bushes are getting going. We are at maybe 25% of what should be possible...but about triple what they were doing....so better.

We've got eight of the cackle berries and are running about 5 berries a day which seems surprisingly good considering the time of year and that we are not supplementing them with artificial light.

 

[FollowingHim]

We're eating plums and early apples straight off the trees, and harvesting honey.
Of course I'm cheating on the whole "winter" thing...

 

[MeganC]

Our winter crop of snow and ice is coming along just fine.

The chickens are also doing a pretty good job of laying. I'm meeting orders and we have enough left over for the family. Nothing is going to waste or going unsold and that is a blessing.

 

[Bartato]

Apparently nobody crops going in greenhouses or poly tunnels.

I've been thinking about adding a poly tunnel greenhouse to increase winter crop production.

 

[NickF]

Hopefully I’ll get my poly tunnel up this summer.

Apparently nobody crops going in greenhouses or poly tunnels.

I've been thinking about adding a poly tunnel greenhouse to increase winter crop production.

I’ve asked friends with them if they’re worth it and the answer is always a resounding YES! “Worth every penny and then some”

 

[FollowingHim2]

They're worth it if they don't blow away, like ours did. If you're in a high wind area then I wouldn't get a poly tunnel.

We're planning on building a proper glasshouse in the future.

 

[Bartato]

They're worth it if they don't blow away, like ours did. If you're in a high wind area then I wouldn't get a poly tunnel.

We're planning on building a proper glasshouse in the future.

I live in a high wind area

 

[FollowingHim2]

I live in a high wind area

Samuel tells me there are better ones you can buy, commercial ones that can handle it. We get such strong winds here, 120kph (75mph), on a regular basis.

 

[Bartato]

Samuel tells me there are better ones you can buy, commercial ones that can handle it. We get such strong winds here, 120kph (75mph), on a regular basis.

We also get 100kph+ (maybe 125kph) winds several times a year. I do have a partially sheltered area where I can put one, and I know that orientation relative to prevailing winds also matters.

Still, the wind makes me nervous.

I also tend to buy less expensive products. That might get me in trouble with a poly tunnel.

The neighbor's trampoline frequently ends up on the top of our fence, and I have had the wind flip my chicken tractor before.

 

[NickF]

You both need windbreak treelines.

 

[Bartato]

Samuel tells me there are better ones you can buy, commercial ones that can handle it. We get such strong winds here, 120kph (75mph), on a regular basis.

The wind in our area is so bad that tumble weeds shut down the highway a couple years ago. They had to bring in snow plows to clear the road and rescue cars trapped in the mountain of tumble weeds.

A Blizzard of Tumbleweeds Trapped Cars on a Highway in Washington State

Cars slowed to a halt on State Route 240, but the plants just kept bounding along.

www.atlasobscura.com

 

[FollowingHim2]

I also tend to buy less expensive products. That might get me in trouble with a poly tunnel.

Yeah, the commercial ones are more expensive, but stronger and bigger. That might need to be the way we go.

The wind in our area is so bad that tumble weeds shut down the highway a couple years ago. They had to bring in snow plows to clear the road and rescue cars trapped in the mountain of tumble weeds.

A Blizzard of Tumbleweeds Trapped Cars on a Highway in Washington State

Cars slowed to a halt on State Route 240, but the plants just kept bounding along.

www.atlasobscura.com

That's nuts! We don't have tumbleweeds here, they're such a bizarre thing!

 

[Bartato]

Yeah, the commercial ones are more expensive, but stronger and bigger. That might need to be the way we go.


That's nuts! We don't have tumbleweeds here, they're such a bizarre thing!

Its not just cowboy movies. We really have them, and sometimes they get bad.

 

[Joleneakamama]

Apparently nobody crops going in greenhouses or poly tunnels.

I've been thinking about adding a poly tunnel greenhouse to increase winter crop production.

My hubby is working on a heater for our high tunnel. It's 32'x70' or so, 12' at least high, and it handled the wind we get, and the snow....so far. It just gets too cold to keep pepper and tomato starts happy without heat.

The neighbor's trampoline frequently ends up on the top of our fence, and I have had the wind flip my chicken tractor before.

Doing tree service they often would get calls for a barn damaged by trees, but once they got called out for a row of windbreaker evergreens that had been topped by a flying mare motel! Basically a pipe pen with a steel roof....this one went flying in high winds.

We have a growing crop of lamb chops out there....with more to pop soon.
Cackleberry of course.
Two more peach trees arrived today. A Silver Logan (excellent peach!) and a Baby Crawford (and I've heard very good things about that variety).
Gotta dig holes tomorrow.

 

[Bartato]

My hubby is working on a heater for our high tunnel. It's 32'x70' or so, 12' at least high, and it handled the wind we get, and the snow....so far. It just gets too cold to keep pepper and tomato starts happy without heat.


Doing tree service they often would get calls for a barn damaged by trees, but once they got called out for a row of windbreaker evergreens that had been topped by a flying mare motel! Basically a pipe pen with a steel roof....this one went flying in high winds.

We have a growing crop of lamb chops out there....with more to pop soon.
Cackleberry of course.
Two more peach trees arrived today. A Silver Logan (excellent peach!) and a Baby Crawford (and I've heard very good things about that variety).
Gotta dig holes tomorrow.

That's a nice large tunnel.
I know it gets too cold in the winter to keep tomato and pepper going, but can you keep brassicas and lettuce through the winter in there?