December gardens

[prairiewindmomma]

How does your December garden fare?

[cjzimmer1]

20 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

How does your December garden fare?

The only thing still surviving outside is kale but I'm trying my hand at some indoor gardening.

I have two bell pepper "sticks" that I'm trying to force into dormancy for the winter in hopes of earlier production next year.  Having never wintered anything over before, I figured I'd give it a try.  I also have one very large pot of 2 more bell peppers that I'm attempting to see if it will grow over the winter.  Unfortunately, I waited until the last possible day to bring it inside and it had sustained a lot of damage from cold winds by then and then had a massive explosion of aphids while I tried to decide how I wanted to treat it.  So it's looking sad shedding it's old leaves but it does have a nice set of young leaves starting to bud.  I also just planted lettuce this morning.  Stuff in the store is so expensive that I've got nothing to lose.  And my final item to experiment with is self pollinating cucumbers.  I've got a pot ordered to plant those in and will start those seeds as soon as it arrives.  

[gardenmom5]

It's under snow.  It started snowing in Nov.  We aren't known for snow.

[Rosie_0801]

I'm harvesting the last of the broad beans and wondering whether my tomatoes need more watering or if they just have an attitude.

[prairiewindmomma]

My fava beans were flowering when our first frost hit, and died. So, the rumors of being able to overwinter them here are not true. The rest of my cover crop seems to be doing ok. My roses keep trying to set buds and my kale and cabbage are doing ok on my outside crops. My turnip tops are green, but I haven’t pulled a test one to see how they are growing.

Indoors, my lettuce is lovely. I have been really happy with growing it hydroponically.

[Faith-manor]

Well, it is 29° F  or -1.6C. So nothing is growing. But I have mint, basil, oregano, and chives growing in the east window sill, and they are thriving. I use them every week in cooking. So that is a very step for me...keeping plants alive inside the house, and something edible no less. It had inspired me for next year. I may try green onions and parsley in pots next winter too.

[prairiewindmomma]

Have you tried the regrow green onions in a glass of water trick yet? I can usually get three good cuttings off each bunch I buy from the store.

[Guest]

This morning, it was covered in diamonds! (Of frost.) It’s a certain kind of beauty that I would miss if I move to a warmer climate. 

[Faith-manor]

17 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Have you tried the regrow green onions in a glass of water trick yet? I can usually get three good cuttings off each bunch I buy from the store.

No. I didn't know that was am option.

 

[Eos]

I piled all the volunteer kale with a mountain of leaves and it's holding ok.  Picked all the brussels sprouts for Thanksgiving and got those stalks out of the ground just before the ground froze.

[itsheresomewhere]

The greenhouse is going well. The broccoli plant has come back from the dead and is growing even with the frost and temps.  The rest of the garden is dead and decomposing for next year’s garden. Now it plant my bulbs before the ground freezes for the next few months.  That will get done this weekend. 

[KungFuPanda]

I never got around to building a greenhouse and it’s too soon for winter sowing. All I have left of my garden is some kale and some herbs. I’m still getting rosemary, oregano, parsley, sage, and thyme.  The houseplants were pulled back inside just in time. I think I had an aloe casualty because I forgot about him. 
 

I finally managed the last round of leaf shredding/vacuuming for next year’s compost. We get a TON of leaves and for months id put in a couple hours a week dealing with them only for it to look like no work was done two days later.   I’ll get really wimpy about the cold really soon and start giving more and more veggie scraps to the indoor compost worms rather that walking to the outdoor bin. 

[Rosie_0801]

1 hour ago, Eos said:

  Picked all the brussels sprouts for Thanksgiving and got those stalks out of the ground just before the ground froze.

I am in awe. I don't know how to grow those buggers.

[Rosie_0801]

I got replacements for the chocolate lilies that weren't, and they are going to seed. I do hope some of them will develop!!

[Serenade]

5 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Have you tried the regrow green onions in a glass of water trick yet? I can usually get three good cuttings off each bunch I buy from the store.

How do you do this?

[Eos]

3 hours ago, Rosie_0801 said:

I don't know how to grow those buggers.

We have to start seeds indoors in midwinter to get them big enough to go out by June/early summer.  When they go out I cover them with floating row covers to keep off the flea beetles until they are at least a foot high.  In early fall I take off almost all their leaves as the little sprouts are forming to send the energy into them, then all the leaves off by October/mid fall.  They will happily make it through several frosts.

[prairiewindmomma]

1 hour ago, Serenade said:

How do you do this?

Find a shorter narrower jar—I reuse one I bought roasted red peppers in. 
 

Buy some green onions, and when you use them in a dish, use only the greens bit, don’t use the bulbs. Leave the roots on the bulbs. (I usually leave about an inch of green also, just because they stand up in the jar easier.) 

Put the bulbs in the jar, fill with water to cover the white bits, but  don’t cover them completely. Set the jar in a window sill. Replace the water every other day or so. You should be ready to recut in a week or so.

I usually get three total cuttings off of each bulb set.

[ikslo]

My Seminole pumpkins didn’t make it. They were both beautiful and flowering and within 24 hours had shriveled and died. I have no idea why. I will try again in the spring. 
Mexican sunflowers are blooming. Greens are doing well, especially the Okinawa spinach and longevity spinach, as are all of my fruit tree seedlings I repotted. I have a few small tomatoes emerging on my Everglades tomatoes. Fingers crossed on those. Still getting lots of aji dulce peppers; I think my husband is done with them, but they are such good producers I am going to keep them going. I do have 3 or 4 hot peppers on various plants. 
Basil in the ground did not work here except for food for insects. Will keep on pots on the lanai only going forward. Those are doing well. 
I got one green bean off an extra long variety I purchased, but it had an odd flavor. Not sure how I feel about it or if I will plant again in the spring. It’ll stay for now.  
I have a lot growing, but not a lot to harvest atm other than spinach and peppers.

ETA: Still harvesting lemons. Plenty of those. Fresh squeezed lemonade is one of my favorite things.

Edited December 3, 2022 by ikslo

[Serenade]

9 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Find a shorter narrower jar—I reuse one I bought roasted red peppers in. 
 

Buy some green onions, and when you use them in a dish, use only the greens bit, don’t use the bulbs. Leave the roots on the bulbs. (I usually leave about an inch of green also, just because they stand up in the jar easier.) 

Put the bulbs in the jar, fill with water to cover the white bits, but  don’t cover them completely. Set the jar in a window sill. Replace the water every other day or so. You should be ready to recut in a week or so.

I usually get three total cuttings off of each bulb set.

Wow, what a nifty trick!  Thanks for sharing.

[ikslo]

I officially have fruit forming on my gooseberries. Not sure if they will mature prior to any winter frosts, but here’s hoping. I’d like at least one fruit so I have something to use for starting new plants early enough to actually get a harvest next year. The plants seem temperamental and I’m thinking they will die back with frost.

I made a sauce today with all of my aji dulce peppers. It needs a little tweaking but it’s pretty good for a first try, if I do say so myself! 

Learned today that DH left the native weeds along the side of the house because he saw so many bees visiting he thought I might want them there a bit longer to benefit any plants I may have flowering right now. 🥰 What a keeper!

[Carol in Cal.]

I’m still bringing in Fuyu persimmons.

We had a hard freeze Thursday night, and I have not been outside to assess the possible impact on my citrus, which is achingly close to being ripe.  We don’t have hard freezes very often, but one year a particularly harsh one froze everything solid and then of course the fruit all spoiled.  But it’s been cold and wet ever since, and I am not motivated enough to wade through the mud to check the oranges, particularly since my husband is sick.

I scored some more cotton sheets for my mulching rug project.  Yay!

[SHP]

I hate squirrels. 

I am losing more and more to them.

[cjzimmer1]

28 minutes ago, SHP said:

I hate squirrels. 

I am losing more and more to them.

I lost about 80% of my garden to them this summer.  I now have a giant cage in my backyard that will contain the majority of my garden in raised beds next year.  Unfortunately I didn't get it finished till just before the first frost so wasn't able to salvage much for this year.  On the plus side, we had 3 squirrels enter the cage when DS left the door open.  We turned our dogs loose in the cage each time and since it had a roof and the squirrels couldn't escape, they didn't last long.  So thus far it has not served the intended purpose of keeping the squirrels out, I do have three fewer squirrels raiding my yard. 

I've since learned there are some nifty squirrel catches but I didn't find out such a thing existed till after I built my cage.  But I do have a deep loathing of squirrels and I share your frustration.

[prairiewindmomma]

We've had unseasonably cold weather, and we're looking at 15F/-9C temperatures this next week. I'm really giving more thought as to what I should be growing, because despite being in a 9b/10a growing range, we are having zone 7 temperatures in winter. I don't think I want to go tropical in future plantings. If anything, I'm looking more at the plants I grew up with in the Midwest that can handle the wild temperature swings. 

I think my outside crops are pretty well done at this point. I'm going to dig about a bit this weekend to make sure, but I think these last few overnights have been rough on them.

Inside, I think I can declare a romaine lettuce favorite variety for hydroponics: Parris Island Cos Romaine. It's been nice to have a small but steady lettuce crop.  I really need to look at how to scale it up in size.

[Faith-manor]

I have been harvesting basil, oregano, mint, and chives from my east window pots, and will soon have some salad greens. I have spinach and leaf lettuce going. They seem to be cool weather crops that are not minding the house at 70° and the draft knees around the window. Next year I would like to replace these windows if finances work out. Mark can do the labor, we just have to buy them. I think I could have even more things growing in pots there if we eliminated the draft. Oh and the aloe is managing okay as well. I had a little grease splatter burn the other day, and was able to harvest aloe for it.

I have to admit to being proud of myself. I don't have any great amount going, but it is nice to be able to harvest them in small amounts. Given the state of salad greens and the prices as well, I would love to double the amount I grow next year. I recently harvested a little spinach to saute with mushrooms and red pepper to add to wild rice. It was delicious with my fresh herbs.

I other news, Mark found a trucking place near here with pallets, many hundreds of pallets. they are desperate to get rid of them, and told him he could take as many as he wanted for $1 each! So far he had hauled 24. He is going to get 24 more. They are wonderful oak pallets in beautiful shape. He is going to make 10 more 4ft * 2ft raised beds, and then some green bean beds as well as a garden bench.

Here is the link to the green bean bed. 

[prairiewindmomma]

Awesome! We just bought three pallets of oak flooring....the pallets they came in on look great and I'm hoping I can reuse them also. I want to go vertical against our back fence and go for a living wall look.

[Melissa in Australia]

Feeding the last if the brassica to the chooks. The cabbage moths have arrived. The chooks are loving it. A cabbage a day! 

Our first year in a long time if trying potatoes isn't going so well. They are dying. Maybe they are ready??? Will dig one up today to see. Hope they worked spuds are now iver$15 5kg bag. Only 5 months ago the same 5 kg bag was only $5

Raspberry harvest is in full swing. Boy they are a pain to pick. 

First ripe tomatoes. Yum. 

[cjzimmer1]

I planted lettuce indoors 2 weeks ago.  The germination wasn't great but there were 23 plants that came up.  Having never started anything from seed before, I was still happy.  Plants are about 2 inches tall now.  I just stuck some radish seeds in the spaces around the lettuce where they didn't germinate.  The seeds are a few years old but I'll give it a shot.  I did sprout my parthenocarpic cucumbers this week and just got them planted into soil.  I only keep the room heated to 65 so it's on the cool side but the grow lights do warm up the area so I'm hoping it's enough.  Plus it has a western window so there is a fair amount of light/heat from that during the day.  I also just got a seed order in with assorted other greens, carrots, herbs and a super dwarf tomato variety that only gets 10-12 inches tall.  I'm going to try to set up an area in the basement and play around and see what I go do there.  First have to get the grow light mounted but I'm hoping to get that done before Christmas.  Most of this won't be ready till early spring but this is just for experimenting.  If things go well, I will plant much earlier in the fall and try to actually have a winter harvest next year.  

[Melissa in Australia]

Sounds fabulous 

[Melissa in Australia]

Dh and I dug up a few of the potato plants. No wonder the tops were dying. They were finished

[cjzimmer1]

3 minutes ago, Melissa in Australia said:

Dh and I dug up a few of the potato plants. No wonder the tops were dying. They were finished

Looks great!

I've never grown potatoes before but I've been watching a youtuber who does a lot of indoor gardening and from what I can do has an absolute obsession with potatoes both regular and sweet.  Anyways, he has been growing potatoes indoors.  I have all the things he used included potatoes that are starting to sprout so I'm thinking I might try growing a bucket of two of them indoors just for fun.

[Melissa in Australia]

The problem we have had with potatoes in the past was they go glassy when cooked. Our soil is lacking some trace element.this year we added some trace elements as well as some clay soil from another town.

Really hoping these spuds cook up well. 😁

[Lady Florida.]

I'm worried about my garden when the cold gets here. While we aren't going to get the severe weather that will hit much of the US we're expecting freezing temperatures for a few nights. Fortunately I'm not in an area expecting a hard freeze. I'll snip the lettuce leaves and use them. The carrots and potatoes should be okay I think. It's the bush beans and sugar snap peas that I'm worried about. Both just started to flower. I have Everglades tomatoes thankfully in a pot so I can bring that in during the cold snap. 

[Clemsondana]

I just went out to my greenhouse and cut lettuce/spinach, celery, and green onion for the 7-layer salad I make for Christmas dinner. It's supposed to be crazy cold Friday so I'm not sure that even the indoor stuff will survive.  But, I figured that if I went this morning then it would hold any heat that accumulated today and tomorrow.  I'd love to be picking spinach all winter.  I grow microgreens but let them get too big - it's a quick turnaround and we get some interesting-looking leaves.  Oregano is still happy, too.  

I've got some stuff growing in a Greenstalk Vertical Garden, some is in pots, and some lettuce is in the big flat corrugated box that the plastic greenhouse siding was shipped in.  

As for regrowing green onions, we're on our second year of green onions that I regrew and then planted in a pot.  They died back for a while last winter but came back over the summer and are still going strong.  You can do the same with organic celery, although it's pickier. But, I have one bunch growing and just started another.  

[ikslo]

1 hour ago, Lady Florida. said:

I'm worried about my garden when the cold gets here. While we aren't going to get the severe weather that will hit much of the US we're expecting freezing temperatures for a few nights. Fortunately I'm not in an area expecting a hard freeze. I'll snip the lettuce leaves and use them. The carrots and potatoes should be okay I think. It's the bush beans and sugar snap peas that I'm worried about. Both just started to flower. I have Everglades tomatoes thankfully in a pot so I can bring that in during the cold snap. 

Same here! I'm even contemplating digging up and potting a banana pup in case the cold kills off our bananas like it almost did last year. I have LOTS of pots to find places for inside. Not sure if I have enough room.