Mightier Than Winter

I went outside to walk around my backyard this morning and there in my raised beds, my kale was still growing and producing! Now, we have had day after day of temperatures in the low 20's, we have had sleet and snow. Everything was frozen! I looked at it one day after a heavy snow and it was all crushed under the snow and I was sure that was the end. But not so! I picked a large handful of new leaves of kale and even swiss chard this morning.

Then I wandered over to the other bed and my broccoli is still producing broccoli. Isn't today December 16th?

This has stirred up some thoughts in my early morning brain. After I finish with all my changes to my back yard next spring, I should create a special raised bed up by my patio where I grow some hardy vegetables and even protect them in the early winter with a small hoop greenhouse.

I would imagine that I could plant all the early spring vegetables like sugar snap peas, onions, broccoli, swiss chard, kale, lettuce and other greens. Which also means that I should be able to plant these same vegetables very early in the spring. I saw where Gardengirl (on Youtube.com gardengirltv has lots of info) covers her beds with black plastic to warm the soil before planting. So I may add compost to one of my beds, put black plastic down for a couple of weeks and then build the hoop house and plant! Sounds like a plan to me!

Last year, I started my plants indoors late. They still did well when planted outside, but could have done better if I had used the hoop house more and planted inside earlier. So this year, I am vowing to correct those mistakes and do it all right!

Bugs! Ugh!

Today I sacrificed one of my plants. My green pepper had to go. It really wasn't doing anything. It was looking pretty sad, and the darn thing all of a sudden was covered with tiny bumps that quickly began to crawl. So, I gave up all hope of green peppers off of it this winter and put it out into the cold backyard. If it lives, then great, if not, well natural processes will win. Okay, I know it is going to die, it is winter here in Michigan. At least I think so. I believe I heard on the news tonight that our temp may go up to 50 tomorrow?

My radishes are doing pretty well, they are a little leggy. Now that the green peppers beast is gone, I moved the radish bucket into that spot so maybe the light will be better for them.

At this time I may need to give a disclaimer. Although I have gardened most of my adult life, I consider everything I am doing now and for the last 2 summers as a learning experiment. I have researched some things, but a lot I have just jumped in and what works, works, and what doesn't, doesn't. At least I am learning from my mistakes. And I have made mistakes!

Which brings me to the rest of my story today. I don't know what happened to my spinach. I planted it at the same time as my lettuce, same conditions, same watering, same light, but although my lettuce looks great, my spinach looks pretty sad.

But, as I said, my lettuce is doing fantastic, thick and getting taller. My swiss chard and kale are still hanging in there and I am considering transplanting them into more substantial containers as I know they will get pretty large.

I planted a container of bok choy and another of okra last week. Unfortunately, I didn't label which was which so I am not sure which one this is. But one of them is growing pretty well and so, I will be needing to get my hydroponics system on line within the next few days.

Which brings me to another issue I have. I want to grow all this stuff organically, and that to me means making my own fertilizer for both the hydroponics and the dirt systems. I will confess I have been a slacker and have been fertilizing my dirt plants with Miracle Grow. However, I would really like to use a CHEAP home made fertilizer for the hydroponics.

I thought about running water through my worm bucket since I have so much organic matter in there. I also have buckets of vegetable and fruit compost in my back yard that I thought about. I could run water through them and catch that and use it. But I worry about the smell, mostly. I am about ready to give up and just buy organic fertilizers for the unit. Or use the Miracle Grow for this year until I get a fertilizer figured out.

I have been filling buckets with my kitchen vegetable scraps so by the time spring comes around I should have a bunch of compost to use in my raised beds and buckets. I am also planning on adding more raised beds out there so I need lots of organic matter. If I am at the restaurant during their prep time, I usually grab their lettuce and other vegetable scraps and add them to my buckets. So maybe closer to spring, when my scraps are turning into compost, I could actually make some compost tea for my indoor plants.