Early Amaryllis.

I am not sad I started this guy off a little too early. I have lots of paperwhites needing to be planted, to fill in the spaces. Besides, there is still several flowers that are  going to bloom on this amaryllis. Lovely!

The Cold Frame and some Unattractive Onions.

From the outside looking in, bok choy, kale, spinach and arugula corner. 

Hard not to catch a reflection on a direct shot, that's the pea trellis. 

A random clump of overgrown green onions that I'm still using, still tasty! 

Does not look anywhere near as cold as it was! We've had some frosty mornings here.

Uh-Oh!

My amaryllis bloomed! It has two large flowers on it now with at least 5 more following. 

Earlier than I had hoped but lovely anyway, and now i know for next year!

Inside the Cold Frame.

A tiny piece of summer still lives in my cold frame's microclimate, where these guys weren't told it is time to stop growing.  I had planted my cold frame a little later than I would have liked to, although you'd never really know. The crops that do well in the cold frame are doing just that. I can not explain how lovely it is to have these veggies growing in the frame. Any time I need some greens, I take a quick jaunt to the frame and can pick arugula for a wrap, spinach for a salad or kale to steam. The veggies stay their very freshest since they are still in the ground, providing us with their best to offer for nutrients. Powdered 'green' drinks got nothing on this production! 

Bok Choy, perfect for a holiday meal. My mother always made authentic chinese dishes for X-mas eve, Bok choy would have been perfect to have.  

Spinach in the baby stage. 

Radish growing away. 

Transplanted Kale. 

Arugula. 

Outside the cold frame we have some frosty broccoli. 

More frosty broccoli. Can you believe that broccoli freezes like this and then perks back up looking no worse for wear? Very cold tolerant, cold frame not required. 

Tucked In.

My back garden bed, where my three sister's garden grew this summer, covered with oats for a cover crop of green manure. The oats will be killed over the winter, and then can be either raked off the bed and composted, raked to the side and planted through or tilled into the soil. We are really hoping to avoid tilling this year to avoid disturbing the little eco-system that has developed under the soil. The reason we have had to till over the years is mainly because our garden soil consists predominately of clay. Clay compacts harder than concrete over time and after being exposed to elements like pounding rain and heavy snow. The cover crop protects the soil from the elements and erosion, keeps nutrients from running off and adds nutrients when either tilled back in or planted through as mulch.  I go on like a broken record about cover crops and protecting the soil. I have found the rule, no bare soil at any time, to be one of the most important factors in a healthy garden. No bare soil = no weeds, more consistent moisture, more biological activity underneath, no erosion, less compaction and less run off. The roots of cover crops run deep under the soil, keeping it workable. A cover crop keeps the soil where it is supposed to be for the winter and ensures it stays there in the spring rains. 

Chicken Dinner.

After having butchered our 30 meat chickens last Sunday day/night, we could finally bring ourselves to have a chicken dinner. We will leave the majority of our parsnips in the ground covered with a thick layer of mulch to keep the ground from freezing around them until the spring, when we will dig them up to eat then. We will probably steal a few here and there to try, especially now that we have had some heavy frosts to sweeten their taste. I like to cook carrots and parsnips around my chicken not only because they're extremely delicious, also to save energy, time and dishes.  These parsnips were really tasty, and yes I did peel them, the dirt was a bit much to scrub off. 

A Little Change.

My Amaryllis and it's buddy, Paperwhite, as of today. I am still wondering if my Amaryllis will bloom early or not, only time will tell. It may need some support in the future, I should have put a bamboo stake in already. 

The Easiest Garden Task Ever.

Seed collecting time. Collecting all seeds is relatively easy, even tomatoes that need to ferment, however there is not much easier than saving seeds from melons and squashes. 

When harvesting your squashes and melons, look for the largest ones that ripen the earliest and are the most flavorful. Keep them marked in your mind. 

When either cooking or eating the specimen, grab a handful of seeds from the pulp. 

Clean them of the pulp that clings to them. Pictured here if pumpkin seeds. I find throwing them in a small dish of water and letting the seeds float away from their pulp and to the top an extremely easy way to clean them.  

Scoop them out, discarding any pulp that still clings to them, and spread them out in a single layer to dry. When dried, package and label.

 This is where gardening gets to be so cheap it's free. You can grow the majority of your vegetables from saved seed, potentially making your garden free. As far as my knowledge extends, you can not save seeds from the Broccoli family in our climate, as they need to overwinter to produce seeds. Almost anything else is possible. I save lettuce seeds, tomato and ground cherry seeds, pepper seeds, swiss chard seeds (hopefully, as they haven't fully formed yet), melon seeds, squash seeds, mache seeds, cilantro seeds, radish seeds, bok choy seeds and many more, including many flowers.  

Growing Up.

My baby hens are growing up. You could probably say they are teenagers now. The hens we have now started laying at 16 weeks, I'm hoping these guys will follow suit. Until then, they are loving life, having the 'big barn' all to themselves.  I often catch them all sleeping together  on their big pile of straw, growing up is hard work. 

Oh no, Amaryllis!

I don't know about this guy. I was reading a bulb book last night, that stated an amaryllis bulb can bloom in as little as 5 weeks. I know they can grow alarmingly fast, however this seems like a bit much. I may have been slightly ambitious getting the bulb started for the holidays, although, early or late, indoor blooms aren't exactly a disaster.  I had timed this planting for exactly 8 weeks before X-mas day and have a feeling it will be here for some early cheer. I started one paperwhite bulb early, in the mug, for succession paperwhite blooms. I had the paperwhite bulb timing down perfectly last year. I planted them at the very first of December and had them bloom from the 23rd on. 

This is last years paperwhites, about to bloom on December. 20, 2011. 

One stalk in bloom on the 24th, with the rest to follow quickly behind.

Garden Candy.

Three yellow carrots. We have already had a couple frosts here now, and the taste of the carrots reflect their occurrence. When the temperature drops and you have a frost the starches are converted to sugars in root vegetables, making them taste sweeter than they previously did.

I really like the colored carrots we grew this year. They did really well and are tasty! Nice for a change. Next year we'll grow them again and I'm really hoping to add purple to the mix.

Extra Credit.

My cold frame bed is actually doing much better than I initially gave it credit for.  We've had some really nice days that the seedlings seemed to have appreciated. The Bok Choy is coming along quite well, as you can see pictured here. 

Kale, those are some oats that snuck their way into the cold frame bed in the back. 

Radishes and arugula seedlings. 

Little baby Kale outside the cold frame. I'm going to put a row cover over these guys for the winter since kale is so cold hardy and one of the only vegetables I can grow year round. We eat a lot of kale in the winter months, good thing it's so tasty. 

Brussel sprouts after I removed all the leaves. You remove the leaves to encourage the sprouts to form. 

Again. 

Ruby red radishes. We also eat a lot of radishes into the fall and winter months. They certainly don't mind the cool weather, they enjoy it. 

I love growing celery.