Today's Pickings

[headfullofbees]

With a hard freeze due here in another day, today picked a few various veggies onions, carrots, radishes, broc, cauli to add to the table fare for the next few days.

View attachment 93812

If there were no shops, you'd be fine.

 

[FrostyGarden]

That’s very impressive! I would like to grow vegetables through the winter months. My garden is not productive this time of the year and that is something I would like to change. Have you any tips for growing once the temperatures drop? Do you have a greenhouse? Use cold frames?

 

[Meadowlark]

Thanks for the comments. It certainly helps to garden in a climate with relatively mild winter temps which very rarely fall below 20 deg F. Plant selection is important. Cool weather plants are mandatory for winter gardening regardless of location.

I don't have a greenhouse or use cold frames but do on occasion use plant covers when temps are dangerously low. I like to stagger start my seedlings so that I can have continuous production all winter and not have everything mature at the same time.

Soils rich in organic matter promote healthier plants with strong root systems which make them more able to withstand the low temps of winter. Also, I practice crop rotations each year especially with the brassicas like cabbage, broc, brussels etc.

Its the most rewarding time of year to grow green veggies, in my opinion.

 

[FrostyGarden]

Thanks for the comments. It certainly helps to garden in a climate with relatively mild winter temps which very rarely fall below 20 deg F. Plant selection is important. Cool weather plants are mandatory for winter gardening regardless of location.

I don't have a greenhouse or use cold frames but do on occasion use plant covers when temps are dangerously low. I like to stagger start my seedlings so that I can have continuous production all winter and not have everything mature at the same time.

Soils rich in organic matter promote healthier plants with strong root systems which make them more able to withstand the low temps of winter. Also, I practice crop rotations each year especially with the brassicas like cabbage, broc, brussels etc.

Its the most rewarding time of year to grow green veggies, in my opinion.

That's encouraging to hear. I think that I will need to be organised and plan ahead with my planting. Thanks for all the tips.

 

[headfullofbees]

That’s very impressive! I would like to grow vegetables through the winter months. My garden is not productive this time of the year and that is something I would like to change. Have you any tips for growing once the temperatures drop? Do you have a greenhouse? Use cold frames?

Cabbages, sprouts, kale, leeks, parsnips, swedes, onions can all be grown in Kent in winter.

 

[FrostyGarden]

Cabbages, sprouts, kale, leeks, parsnips, swedes, onions can all be grown in Kent in winter.

Thank you for the suggestions - I did take a look at my local allotments to see what was being grown and could see kale and leeks but I will add your other suggestions to my list.

 

[gary350]

Many seem to be posting threads, with photographs of their harvest, (and rightly so, as many are very impressive), so I hope you don't mind if I join in.

Another stone or so of rhubarb (I've used two stone for wine, have another stone in the freezer, made three batches of jam and lost count of how much I have given away) shows how poor a summer it's been weatherwise.
Usually rhubarb goes dormant here before the end of June, as temperatures rise, and, if lucky, we get a second flush in September as "summer" abates, but it's been so cold and wet this year, it's still growing.
The savoy cabbage on the left is approx. 3 lb and is destined for tonight's dinner, with the left-overs used to make a big batch of bubble & squeak, with home-grown onions and potatoes.
Then we have three courgettes (zucchini) to go with the dozen or so already in the fridge, 2 aubergines (my best attempt at growing them so far, as I'm well into double figures), 11 little cucumbers, delistar and superbel, all female varieties, with fine skins which mean no peeling, and a beautiful, if delicate flavour.
The bottom row has an ice-cream box crammed to overflowing with tomatoes; the standard ones are f1 Nimbus whilst the large cherry tomatoes are the delicious Maskotka, which I've posted about previously.
The beans fill and overflow from a 5 litre plastic tub. I'm picking this amount of them every day.

If you grow Rhubarb in the dark in clay pots it is very sweet not sour. Sun turns Rhubarb green same as potatoes turn green. Black plastic $5 trash cans work but I have a terrible time keep wind from blowing trash cans away. We have a lot of 40 mph wind in spring.

 

[Meadowlark]

Harvesting hügelkultur container grown lettuce today. Two of these tubs have supplied us ample fresh lettuce all winter long. I sure wish I had discovered these containers much earlier in my gardening life as they are a boon for fresh greens through winter.

 

[zigs]

Looking good @Meadowlark