Blog Update!
For those of you not following me on Facebook, as of the Summer of 2019 I've moved to Central WA, to a tiny mountain town of less than 1,000 people.

I will be covering my exploits here in the Cascades, as I try to further reduce my impact on the environment. With the same attitude, just at a higher altitude!

Saturday, January 5, 2013

What the Winter Garden Looks Like Right Now

I'm always fond of gardening voyeurism so I thought I'd share what mess our garden currently is in.


In the far back, against the fence (from left to right), there's lavender, oregano, mint, rosemary and chives. The spindly tree in the blue pot is a sweet bay. And off to the right (out of frame) is thyme and sage. Paco loves to poop in the thyme. Bad chihuahua.

Starting with the back row:

Left: I've got about a million garlic cloves planted in there. Yes, there are a lot of weeds setting up shop so I'll need to clear those out so they don't compete.

Right: This is the leftover crazy from the previous winter. I had planted a bunch of cabbage and fava beans and let them go to town over the summer. I didn't get around to clearing out the bed this fall.

Second row from the back:

Left: That's the kids strawberry bed, year two. This summer will be year three. It needs some trimming, but for the most part it is a pretty prolific producer, except the slugs or other critters tend to get there first.

Right: I replanted the entire bed in the fall with cabbage and lettuces. It's not looking too fabulous right now, but once early spring kicks in, it will pick up and, hopefully, we'll have a good crop of overwintered stuff.

Third row from the back:

Left: Yes, you guessed it. That bed is full of grass. It's been non-productive for almost two years, so I'll need to clear it out and start new. It used to be full of carrots, beets and chard. Paco dug up all the carrots and ate them. Bad chihuahua.

Right: I cleared out and replanted this entire bed in the fall as well. It, too, has some broccoli, Swiss chard, cabbages, lettuce and herbs.

Front row:

Left: This bed is brand new. I just put this together in the fall and filled it with a combo of purchased compost and composted chicken poop to mellow over the winter. I'll do some soil analysis and add whatever it needs and plant it in the early spring. This bed will get the most sun of all of them, so I have high hopes for it. I think it will take a few years to mature since I didn't dig up the sod underneath it.

These raised beds represent all the current space I have for growing vegetables (except for an asparagus experiment in a container) and a few potato bags. What you don't see are the grape vines,  fig tree, cherry trees (2), plum tree, blueberries (2), peach trees (2), apple trees (2), blackberries (4) and pear trees (2) planted throughout the rest of the backyard that aren't doing much right now.

I'm obviously not using the hoops but will with a spring planting.

How's your winter garden looking?

5 comments:

Diane said...

My garden is buried under snow in minus twenty degree Celsius temperatures.

Crunchy Chicken said...

Yikes! That's cold!

Lisa said...

Want to come visit and start a garden for me? I always say I'm going to but never do ha.

KathyB said...

My garden is also covered with snow, so I'm looking yearningly at all your green. :)

I'm intrigued by your hoops. What are they made from? And how tall are they? I'm planning to try broccoli and brussels sprouts this year for the first time and am exploring inexpensive & convenient row covers to keep the bugs at bay. I've decided to buy tulle from the fabric store for the covering ... but I'm still deciding how to make the hoops. I was thinking I'd make individual rows, but your whole-bed hoops look great. Details, please? :)

Crunchy Chicken said...

KathyB - Here's a short description of my hoop houses that should help a little.

I use 2' sections of rebar, covered with irrigation tubing and floating row covers. As for how tall they are - 3 feet? It depends on how long you cut the irrigation tubing.