December Winter Garden

I realize it's been a month since last posting. The gardens have been feeling weary, barely growing. The cauliflower and broccoli seem to be making head way, pun intended. But I think the snow froze the cauliflower to its core. 

 

The rows of cauliflower, broccoli, kale and radish were covered with cloth then covered with plastic sheeting overtop the hoop piping. 

Last week when the snow came, there was an ice pond on top of the plastic sheeting which became weighed down and hurt the plants. This past Sunday, I readjusted the cloth and plastic sheeting, and reinforced the hoop piping with metal stakes in the ground. This particular garden is very cold, and has a dark, chilly hillside as it is North facing. 

At my other wintery garden. I have kale and radish growing. They're covered the same way, with cloth over top and plastic sheeting over the hoop piping. This acts as a mini greenhouse. This garden is South facing and gets mostly full sun, so this garden tends to thrive more than my other garden. 

I have a picture here of one of the weirdest radishes I've grown this garden year. I had some large radishes this year, and this one is definitely one of the largest, but it's mostly the weirdest shape. 

Out of everything this fall and winter, particularly this garden year in general, I have picked mostly radishes. The kale this past fall season grew enough for a couple of harvests to eat, but it has been a slow grower this winter. 

The remaining winter, I will be tasked with cleaning up debris, organizing supplies, ,storing materials, composting, mulching, cutting back brush and weeds. You name it, I'll be doing it. 

Overalls, swamp boots and a thick coat and gloves are an essential this cold season, so don't forget to use them!

To keep busy in this time, we either stay indoors doing crafts or fiddling with the indoor plant garden or work in the gardens outside. 

Pictured here, I have decorated our door with pine cuttings and ribbon. And a picture of the indoor potted plants with Prince, the cat.

Spring flower Garden & flowering fruit trees

Daffodil

Hyacinth, smells so sweet

Bouquet for my girlfriend 

Daffodils

Cilantro and veggie garden beds

Garden beds full of radish, 7 different lettuces,
Spinach, kale, peas, and much more

Sowed artichoke and okra seed next to the Hibsicus 

Radish and lettuce patches

I have been showing you the pink blooms of the peaches and nectarines, but the beauty of the pears and plums persists too...they're petals are white and delicate, and just bloomed spectacularly...

Damson plum tree blooming 

Sowing greens in early March! Mini greenhouse polytunnel

Finally! Today I sowed the first seeds of the year outdoors.

With the first garden bed, I used the bulb planter tool to make pockets in the mulch, and filled them with fine garden soil. I sowed different lettuces and radish.

On the following days this week, it was nice warm weather, so I continued to plant....

In the second bed, I sowed French Breakfast radish seed, Lollo Rosso lettuce, black seeded Simpson lettuce, ruby red lettuce, and Oakleaf lettuce seed amongst the radish.

In the third bed, I sowed Spinach and arugula together.

In the fourth, I sowed Swiss Chard and Dinosaur Kale amongst the already established cilantro plants.

In the fifth, I sowed Cilantro, Chives, French breakfast radish, and Peizehead lettuce seed were sown.

In the sixth bed, Iceberg lettuce and Buttercrunch lettuce seed were planted.

Now, all six garden beds are filled with seed and they're each covered with plastic or cloth. I planted raspberry plants as well amongst the blueberry bushes. I watered the garden beds and raspberry plants then covered them back over.

 Now we wait for the seedlings to sprout...

Garden Hoop houses polytunnels

Netting on mini hoop houses to keep out the cats and rabbits

Hoop polytunnels for spring transplanting

Netting polytunnels in the garden

It was 74 degrees today--in early February in Kentucky! We have had the craziest weather. It has been warm all week when last week it was 0 degrees.

So, I'm doing a little bit of garden work everyday since it's a warm week. I put a polytunnel over one mound and put netting on top to keep my cat out. But I can also place transparent plastic over top on those extremely cold spring nights.

I'm slowly putting up more polytunnels over the garden mounds. It's slow going because I always run out of resources fast on these projects. I bought plenty of netting, but ran out of garden stakes and plastic tubing. So tomorrow I'm going to buy these before work so I can work on them through the weekend.

I covered my flower gardens because the weather is going to be cold again

These are the crocuses I have transplanted in pots

The porch back into a greenhouse for houseplants

A couple of weeks ago, I cleaned off the porch and ripped off the old transparent sheeting. My dog lives in the porch so everything was grimy and desperately needed a good cleaning.
I had been keeping ceramic tiles stacked all over the porch too, so I got them cleaned off and stacked in my garden shed to make space for the tropical houseplants.
The houseplants will die from these freezing nights now, so I had to get these covered. In my spare time, I put the plants on the porch then cut the pieces of transparent plastic sheeting  to fit the sections of the porch. I had collected pieces of wood to drill or hammer screws and nails to the wood to secure the plastic. I double layered the plastic as well as added layer of prote tion from the cold.
I still need to add the second layer of plastic to the door side of the porch. This design isn't professional or even amateur, I just put it together hillbilly style, and it will keep my plants protected and my dog warm in the upcoming winter season. I'm not sure they'll survive outside all winter and I'm running out of space in my house for the plants, but I might end up bringing them in when it gets into the single digits.

And I have added to this halloween scene because I'm a sucker for this time of year!

Made another mini greenhouse garden tunnel for winter growing

still harvesting figs and lettuce

 It's getting in the 30s this week at night, so I will be covering the fig trees since I'm still harvesting figs. Additionally, I am covering the broccoli plants and lettuces with plastic to protect from the colder nights ahead. I put together a polytunnel today using rebar to hold the plastic hoops and used plastic sheeting to cover over the lettuce.

growing lettuce in winter

I have patches of radishes, swiss chard, collards, and lettuce growing among the broccoli plants that I cover at night. I use what I have on hand which happened to be glass panes from an old refrigerator. In the photo here you see some covered this way. There's many ways to cover plants with recyclable materials. I use the grow bags to cover plants, as well as blankets, garden canvas, jugs, plastic pet cones; and I'm sure I will use many different materials in the future.

plus I made a winter shelter for the outside cats

Pineapples & Tropical house plants going indoors for fall & winter (& keeping cats out)

I really struggle to keep the inside and outside cats out of the garden and the houseplants. I have found ways of controlling this problem. In the garden, I made a fence along the rows to disorient the cats and keep them off of the garden mounds, in addition to fencing around houseplants indoors. To keep cats out, I also sit houseplants on top of dressers, stands, or grow hanging potted plants.

Here are some of my houseplants that I have been moving indoors to stay warm during the cool autumn nights and through the winter. I made a video of the houseplants which I will post on here soon, but I have rearranged the houseplants to all stay in the utility room with the cat litter to control the air quality. The utility room also has decent lighting and a heater for all the plants to get plenty of sunshine and heat. I also keep the ceiling light/fan on for the plants as well.

 Heartleaf Philodendon in hanging pot by window & stove to keep warm

With these houseplants, I have them on a short table with mesh fencing around the table to keep the cats out.

Christmas Cactus, Peace Lily, Dracaena, Heartleaf philodendron by window & heater for warmth

The palm tree is on an elevated stand to keep the cats out of the pot. Up from the palm is pineapple plants, another palm, snake plant, and heartleaf philodendron on a tall table.

Palm trees, pineapples, snake plant by heater with other houseplants

heartleaf philodendron with the other houseplants on table

It's not a good idea to put the big snake plant on a table considering its weight. But I have another snake plant sitting on an elevated stool to prevent the cats from getting in it.

Snake plants with other houseplants 

 I have additional house plants to bring indoors for the winter. Not only am I trying to keep the cats out of the house plants, but I am running out of room in the house for big plants. And this pineapple plant weighs at least a hundred pounds, so for now I am keeping them in the porch/greenhouse. At night I cover these with plastic so they are double covered. Eventually I am going to bring these plants in for the winter. I don't want to risk losing them to the cold winter after I have been growing them for years. I believe it is the pineapples fourth year...

Pineapples & aloe in outdoor greenhouse/porch

 One of the corn stalks fell over from the last storm, and to my surprise there was a big cob, so I picked it. The corn variety is Trucker's favorite, and it grew very quickly. I planted this corn late summer! I love the little surprises that the garden gifts us...