Monday, October 26, 2009

Gardening into the winter

It seems to me that it's getting cold early this year. I've been hobbling about with an infected toe and haven't been able to finish digging dandelion roots and I haven't even touched the Jerusalem artichokes or the horseradish root. Who can dig when you can't even wear a shoe?

I was glad, in a strange way, to see the first frost of the year; maybe because it was such a strange summer that the garden seemed like a battle. Even with that feeling, it was with a tinge of regret that the garden tools, the hoses, the snips and the rakes and hoes, have all been put back in their places to stay for months and months.

I'm definitely missing the taste and convenience of fresh produce already. There is no grocery store in the nation that sells a cucumber that tastes as good as one fresh off the vine, or a handful of baby yellow crookneck so fresh that they taste like squash blossoms themselves.

I'm not going down without a fight, though. This year I will grow leaf lettuce and radishes and maybe some spinach or wild spinach (lambsquarter) on my windowsill. If I can come up with a deep but narrow container, maybe I'll grow some dandelion greens, too.

And some green onions! I have onion seeds saved from a couple of onions this summer.

Maybe I need a wider shelf under the window...

12 comments:

  1. I wish you a speedy recovery, Pat.

    I'm with you on the cucumbers...nothing like homegrown!

    Take care.

    Susan :)

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  2. Thanks, Susan. I guess if we had homegrown cucumbers all year, we wouldn't appreciate them so much. :)

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  3. I hope your toe will recover quickly.

    I had great luck growing kale outside in northern Virginia during the winter. It did better through a little snow than during the pest problems (cabbage worms? or something like that) of the summer.

    Many of the vegetables I buy at the supermarket have very little taste. It is amazing the difference between those and home grown veggies.

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  4. We get more than a little snow here. The weather gets too cold even for kale, I'm afraid. Our low last night was 19. That's early, but not uncommon.

    I agree about the grocery store produce. I can hardly eat it (and don't eat much of it) during the winter because it's tasteless.

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  5. I have followed you now for a few years. You are amazing! Such an encouragement to me! I scrimp to save, and every bit that I save, my husband spends! Lol! God has been good to me and our family and has provided for us always. Thank you so much for your trials to help me squander away another penny! I hope that you have a blessed day and I enjoy every bit that you have to give! Lona Pritchett, Danielsville GA

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  6. Thanks, Lona. I appreciate your comments! Hope you have a blessed day yourself.

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  7. Pat,
    I know how you feel! Being from Phoenix growing season is opposite most everyone else. When summer is here everything burns up instead of freezing so I go for months and months thinking about gardening. For us here in the Southwest NOW is planting season. I will surely be thinking of you when I put in my garden! Enjoy your winter, feel better and Think Spring!

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  8. "Anonymous," enjoy your Phoenix garden! :)

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  9. Pat, wish you a early recovery...

    Take care..

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  10. Winter vegetables are awesome...and if they are garden fresh nothing like it in the age where pesticide free veggies are hard to find these days.

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  11. I agree. Buying organic produce is so expensive and usually trucked in from at least a thousand miles away.

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