The January Garden - January 17, 2016

Harvest on January 17, 2016

We had heavy fog in the morning, which burned off when the sun came out for about 4 hours.  Then rain clouds came in and we were overcast with showers.  High of 46 degrees.  I decided to look in the tunnel.

January 17, 2016.  Yes, all of this came from my garden in the low tunnel.

Let's back up.  Here's the tunnel before I opened it.  

Every edge of the tunnel is held down by brick pavers, and the baling twine is criss-crossed over the top to hold the fabric in place during breezy conditions.  Small white stones in the foreground bed are marking the spot where I planted garlic in November.

I removed the bricks from one side of the tunnel and slid the Gro-Guard fabric up.  

The fabric is held up with some large clamps that I bought from the local dollar store.    You can see the lightweight frost blanket over the second and third bed, which is covering the peas and carrots, lettuce, kale, chard and beets.  Also notice the broccoli plants in the lower left corner of the picture.  They look a little wilted. 

I do not know if the broccoli is really frosted dead or if it will rebound.  The soil is very, very dry, so I will give it some water and check again in a few days  

Meanwhile, I will definitely pick these broccoli florets!

I pulled back the frost blanket and here's what it looked like underneath!

Peas and carrots are doing well.

Let's pull a carrot!  It's kind of small.  About 2 inches.  

Oh Wow!  The lettuce looks great, and ready take a harvest!

Kale is looking good, and ready to take a few leaves for a harvest.

More kale and also chard.

Small beet seedlings. C'mon little beet seedlings... get growing!

 I am really excited about how well the garden is growing under this agricultural row cover. 

The December Garden - December 6, 2015

A Warm Sunny Day - Let's Open the Tunnel!

All these pictures were taken on December 6, 2015.  

The coldest day (so far) this winter was November 28, 2015.  It was 11 degrees Fahrenheit.  The longest cold spell was from November 26 to December 3, constituting 8 consecutive days with below freezing temperatures.  

After some below freezing temperatures and gloomy days, the sun came out and I thought I should open the  tunnel and give it a chance to "breathe".  I don't know if it needed to be aired out.  Mostly, I just wanted to see how the plants were doing.  

First, I lifted off the pavers along one side of the beds.  You can see them along the left side of the bed in the above picture.  Then I carefully eased and slid the Gro-Guard row cover down the other side.  That is it, laying along the right side (in this picture) of the bed.  The frost blanket is still on top of the bed, covering the kale, chard, beets, carrots, peas and lettuce that I planted 

I held my breath as I pulled the frost blanket back.  I had no idea if any of the tender plants would have survived that heavy frost.

Wow!  Not only did they survive the below freezing weather, they had actually grown!

Chard, kale and lettuce look great!

Carrots and peas are growing well!

The broccoli had produced several large heads  Yummy!

Well, I consider the Gro-Guard agricultural row cover a success!  I hope that it continues to be successful for the rest of the winter!

The November Garden - November 11, 2016

Planting Garlic... in November

I decided to plant garlic.  I had been told that I should have planted the garlic earlier in the season.... at least by October.  So, I am a month delayed.  

I bought my garlic at Zamzow's in Meridian.  I always like to go to that particular store because a 4-H member I used to work with is employed there.  Is is so great to see her all grown up now!!!  Anyway, Zamzow's carried several different varieties of hard neck and soft neck garlic.  I always wondered what the two different designations of garlic meant.  Hardneck garlic cloves develop in a single circle around a woody stem.  Softneck garlic cloves develop in several layers around a soft central stem.  Softneck garlic is reputed to have a longer storage life than hardneck garlic.  I selected "Inchelium Red" garlic.  

According to the Territorial Seed Catalog:   Inchelium Red is a national taste-test winner in the softneck division.  This mild flavored garlic is great baked and blended with mashed potatoes.  This large, top-quality softneck was discovered on the Colville Indian Reservation in northern Washington.  Stores well for 6-9 months

First, I prepared the raised bed by digging up the soil

Then I spread organic compost over that area, and dug it in.

Then I raked and smoothed the soil.

I separated the cloves of Inchelium Red garlic from each other.  There were ten individual cloves.  

I dug individual holes, 2" deep and 6" apart, for each cloves.  I put a clove in each hole and then covered them with soil.  

I marked each planted clove with a small stone placed on the soil surface.  That way, I won't forget where I planted them!

The garlic are now all tucked away for the winter.  Hopefully, I will see them sprouting up in the Spring!

The November Garden - November 9, 2015

Tucking the Tunnel in for the Winter...

The Gro-Guard agricultural fabric row cover arrived and it took me a long time to get around to installing it.  I scoured the internet for ideas.  I wanted to make sure that it would work, and more importantly... that I could do it. 

 Finally, I did get it done.  

Low grow tunnel 

Now a little more about how the Low Grow Tunnel is constructed.  

I had already installed the pvc hoops in September (mentioned in The September Garden).  Now, I unrolled the fabric, laying it the length of the garden.  I gathered up the end and wrapped it tightly with baling twine and then used a heavy duty tent stake to secure it to the ground a couple of feet beyond the end of the garden bed. 

End of tunnel fabric; gathered, wrapped with baling twine and secured to the ground with a tent stake.  Loose edges held down with brick pavers.

Then, I gently pulled the fabric over the hoops.  The fabric was very light weight.  It slipped on the hoops and was a little bit difficult to handle.  Not only that, but it tended to catch every wisp of a breeze.  The breeze would catch it and it suddenly became like a sail.  I realized that in order to get the fabric over the hoops and evenly secured, I would have to use some weight to hold down the edges.  

I first tried a couple of 2' X 6" boards.  But they were too smooth and the fabric slipped right out from under them.  I had some leftover paver bricks from a previous project... so I used those and they worked very well. 

I would put one paver down on the south side, then walk around to the north side of the bed,  pull the fabric over and down,  and then lay a paver on it.  Then I'd return to the south side, pull the fabric down into place and lay a paver on that edge, then go to the north side, pull the fabric down and place another paver.  I repeated this process until I had the fabric evenly placed over the  hoops the entire length of the beds (40 feet).  

Paver bricks in place,  holding down the long edges.   

Once the fabric was evenly draped over the hoops, I gathered the other end, wrapped baling twine around it (like I had done with the first end) and secured it to the ground with another heavy duty tent stake.   

I did not trust the pavers to hold down the fabric in a heavy wind, so I put in tent stakes along each side and used baling twine to secure it; first on one side, then throwing the twine over the top of the tunnel and securing it under a tent stake on the other side; continuing back and forth, all the way down the length of the tunnel.  

Baling twine looped over top of tunnel, then secured around tent stake and back up and over to other side of tunnel.

Finally it was done.  

Low grow tunnel 

I think the low grow tunnel is ready for the winter!

I credit  two sources as my main inspiration:  Curtis Stone from Green City Acres and Cathy Rehmeyer who authors Mother of A Hubbard blog and has written an ebook titled Garden Under Cover.  Both of these individuals have facebook pages and both of them have lots of great information on their facebook pages and blogs.  

The November Garden - November 2, 2016

The Impending Frost ....

Here it was, November, and we had not yet had a hard frost.  Every night seemed to get colder, so I was trying to get all the vegetables harvested and stored for the winter.   

November 2 was the date.  I was out in the garden, picking everything I could. 

Winter Squash! - Clockwise from top left: Tetsukabuto, heirloom Vermicelli, Sweet Mama, Sweet Dumpling, Orange Magic, Delicata and Red Kuri

Broccoli!

Tomatoes - After bringing them in the house in a cardboard box, I set them  in a single layer, on the kitchen counter.  I could easily spot the ones that were ripe and use them first.  The green tomatoes would gradually ripen over the next several weeks.

Cherry tomatoes - Yummy!  I ate these in salads every day.  

Tomatillos - I removed the husks, cooked them down a little and then froze them.  I will use them to make salsa verde.  

Eggplant and Peppers 

Cantaloupe, Cucumbers and some tiny Zucchetta!

Even with all the scorching days of the summer that had set the garden back, I still had plenty to harvest.