Broccoli bursting through the snowly layer that covered them before I was able to do the same with my row covers. It is still good.

My boyfriend picking lettuce and arugula from the cold frame.

Our winter fridge. 

The contents of the cold frame being cradled by insulating layers of straw and eel grass.

What We Woke Up To...

Mums just chilling.

The girls.

Guess the push to get everything under row covers is officially on!

Broccoli with little snow hats.

Raspberry canes in the snow.

We will have to start throwing a blanket over the cold frame at night to help with insulation and to keep too much snow from piling up around and on top of the frame. I can just pull it off in the morning when I go out to feed the chickens.

More Apple Juice.

I can hardly wait until we are able to build a cider press, it was a bit much to take on this year, however until then I am really enjoying homemade apple juice.  I dilute my apple juice and sometimes warm it up with a dash of allspice or just cinnamon. We still have lots of these apples to make more juice with and I may just have to treat ourselves to a homemade pie this weekend.

We filter our juice very little to keep the pulpy, apple goodness so it obviously needs a good stir prior to consuming.

Carrots, kale, beets, rye, parsnips, cold frame and killing  spent strawberry plants with straw. 

Broccoli Plants.

Green Onions and Swiss Chard.

More Broccoli.

Cold Frame Corner.

Broccoli Loves Cool Weather.

This broccoli was planted as transplants around the end of August. Our spring planted broccoli never seems to amount to too much but our fall planted always does well.

Our fall planted garlic in early May of last year.

Armchair Gardening.

Slowly but surely winter is creeping in and books are taking over my house. I recently had my 26th birthday and was lucky enough to receive Plants for Atlantic Gardens by Jodi Delong and Locavore by Sarah Elton from my mother and sister respectively. I picked up the other two books from a community bizarre I recently attended. In my opinion one can not have enough gardening literature to peruse during the colder winter months. With colourful pictures and gardening ideas at your fingertips, reading keeps your gardening spirit alive. Winter is a great time for reflection, education and planning. I am currently daydreaming in anticipation of the Vesey's seed catalogue I'm slated to receive. Come March I'll have dreamed up all kinds of new projects for myself as well as a to do list including new garden beds, new locations for perennials, plans for bulb and perennial divisions and other landscaping projects. I'm sure I'll pick up more gardening books to entertain myself, not to mention the numerous health books I consume daily. I'll also be working on developing some sort of a library space in my house. At this point it's becoming a necessity.  

Speaking of Spring Bulbs....

This is one of my favourite times for this flower bed. I just love the double daffodils with white and purple checkered lilies.

Spring Flowering Bulbs.

It is starting to get a little late for planting spring flowering bulbs and garlic. The idea is to get them in the ground before the ground starts to freeze so their roots can establish themselves.

If you are a little late planting your bulbs there's no need to worry. With a good layer of mulch you can prevent the ground from freezing as quickly as it would without mulch and there's a good chance your bulbs will succeed. I have even planted bulbs in mild December weather that, with a good layer of straw, bloomed in the spring. Make sure you use healthy mold free and solid bulbs. Follow the planting depth guidelines for the specific bulbs, work in a little bonemeal or bulb fertilizer, water well after planting and mulch with an insulating layer such as straw or maple leaves. Bulbs give you a lot of bang for your buck, most naturalize extremely well and are affordable to buy. They are some of the first flowers to bloom in the spring and attract and feed pollinators like bees in the garden. You can create quite the impressive display by planting a few bulbs. 

I'm obviously going for an informal look here with my bulbs. I picked a few different colours for my bulb colour scheme and amended the soil greatly before planting my bulbs. After amending the soil, I seemed to have woken up some dormant additions to the garden the previous owners had included. This threw my whole colour scheme off and I could not be happier. Everything still blends together in a very casual care free manner that matches my personality.  If you would like a more formal look in your bulb garden pick only a few, meaning 3, colours or kinds of bulbs and plant them in mass plantings, using at least 2 dozen of each bulb to create a showy display. When planting bulbs that naturalize really well and easily, I usually plant smaller groups and allow them to fill in over the years. This technique creates a less dramatic effect during the first years however it postpones having to divide the bulbs sooner than later.

Sum and Substance.

One of my favourite hostas this summer.

More of the Fall Garden.

Beets, broccoli, swiss chard, green onions, fennel, lettuces and other misc. items in this summer's miscellaneous corner. I usually keep a small corner or row for misc. crops that I either grow very few of, plant in succession or require very little space like greens, green onions, radishes, fennel and broccoli. This makes work a little harder for the crop rotating gardener, however with my kitchen garden I still manage to plant everything with good companions and follow a rotation plan. A kitchen garden is typically a small garden for herbs, greens and other vegetables that is situated close to the kitchen door for easy access.  A great location for anything you use frequently in food preperation.

Broccoli.

Rutabaga.

Again.

Mesclun mix baby lettuce.

Arugula.

 

Row Cover.

The Cold Frame.

Kale, green onions, lettuces, arugula, swiss chard, beet greens and beets.

Same with radishes.