Garden At Rest

Winter is upon us and it's time for me to put my garden to rest.  There weren't very many vegetables left out there so I decided to pick them all, turn off the sprinkler system and mulch all the beds for the season.  We are expecting three to four days of frigid temperatures and what's left out there will freeze and I'll lose it anyway. 

 

I wanted to introduce the puppies to the garden but still maintain control over them and their activities because the central theme of their training is I control everything.  So I brought their beds outside, tethered the pups to the outside of the garden fence, put a bowl of water between them and gave each of them a brand new pig snout to chew on.  They were pretty happy!

 Laci

 Going to town on the pig snout!

 Gretchen having a good time too!

 From inside the garden fence

Once I got the pups settled, I went to work.  I picked all the carrots.  To my surprise, there were still quite a few out there.  At least enough for one more meal.  They weren't very big, but baby carrots are quite sweet and yummy!

Next, I picked all the beets.  Again, these were tiny but roasted baby beets are one of my favorite side dishes.  I have a salad of Endive and Roasted Baby Beet with Gorgonzola Cheese planned for dinner one night this week.  Can't wait for that! 

I picked the last of the cabbage a few weeks ago so I pulled all the stems and threw some of the cabbage leaves over the fence to the deer and some went in the compost bin. 

There is only one small broccoli plant left in the garden that is still growing, but there were lots of little shoots coming off the six spent stalks.  So I picked all of those and it actually equaled quite a good bunch of baby broccoli florets . 

I had two Brussels sprouts plants left and again, the sprouts were small, but there was a good bunch once I picked them all.

I had a large bale of very decomposed hay left over from 2009's Christmas decorations, so I used that to mulch all the beds.  I'm hoping this hay cover will keep the soil somewhat moist and encourage lots of earth worms to grow.  Actually, I did see many earth worms as I was pulling plants and turning soil over.  That's always a very good thing. 

So I spread all the hay evenly over the beds and I had just enough to do all six garden beds. 

I had one head of broccoli left out there that was still growing and it has a little head beginning to form.  Since I hate to pull plants that are still growing and have a chance to produce, I left that one there and just mulched it really well.  Either it will survive the coming cold weather or it won't.  But I wanted to give it its best shot.  And I'll let Mother Nature decide that one. 

I feel the same way about my green onions.  They got a late start due to lack of sunshine but have begun to sprout.  So I mulched them really well and we'll just see what happens.

At the end of the day, I had a pretty good last haul of vegetables from my garden.  I'm very happy that I was able to pull all this before the freezing temperatures hit us.  There's at least four good meals sitting here and for me, that is what it's all about.

After a very long hard (but wonderful) day in the garden, reflecting on how my fall/winter garden produced for me this year, I'm pretty content.  We had many good meals shared with family and good friends and the deer that live outside my fence line ate pretty well too :-}  Life is good. 
 

First Hard Freeze

The Hill Country was expecting its first hard freeze of the season last night so I closely monitored the temperatures.  At 8:00 PM, the temperature was 30F; at 9:45 it was 27F; and when I went to bed at 11:45, it was 25F.  At 6:00 AM this morning, it was 21F.  That meant it was below freezing for about 12 hours.  Yep, that's a hard freeze.  As soon as the sun began to rise, I grabbed my camera and went outside to take a look. 

As I crunched, crunched, crunched, my way through the frozen grass on the way to my garden, here's a look at what I found: 

The beets got hit pretty hard :/

But beets can be pretty hardy, so I'm hoping they might come back.

The carrots looked a little droopy, but they, too, are pretty cold hardy and are likely to recover.

The Brussels sprout leaves were frozen and crunchy, but I think the little sprouts on the stalks fared pretty well. 

My lone remaining cabbage was covered with frost, but it should thaw out and be just fine. 

But the beautiful, arching bougainvillea in the planter boxes by my pool were fried to a crisp.  This was not unexpected as this happens every year.  Usually the first hard frost around Halloween takes them out, so I'm pleased they lasted until after Thanksgiving!

 

Even one of the persimmon trees in the front of the property was dripping with little icicles this morning :)  It sure was pretty. 

 

All in all, I was not surprised or disappointed by anything I found this morning.  No damage done, really; except maybe the beets.  But we'll see about those.  They should come back.  Luckily, I brought all my tender plants that were on the back patio inside and my lemon tree has been living in the house for the past two nights.  I can't imagine losing my lemon tree to a freeze! 

So...not too bad for our first hard freeze.  And the temperatures are expected to rise into the mid 60's today.  God, I love living in South Texas! :)

Snowy February Day...

...follows a Beautiful Spring Morning.  It's hard to believe just two days ago, the temperature was in the middle 70's and it felt like spring was just around the corner.  No such luck.  This morning we woke up to cold temperatures, low 30's, with a wintry mix of precipitation all around us.  The weather pattern this winter has been so bizarre and unpredictable.  It snowed and sleeted all morning long, very unusual for us here in deep South Texas.  North Texas and the Dallas area are accustom to real winter weather.  But it doesn't usually affect us this far South.  Still, I found it beautiful and a welcome change from our typical weather pattern.  Jut think, in 1996, the temperature on February 22 registered 100F! 

Enjoy the beautiful winter wonderland in the hills of South Texas :)

 

My snow covered garden.  I covered all my little seedlings with a thick layer of hay and a frost blanket.

 

 

Coldest Day

Today we hit a record low in the hills of South Texas.  The temperature this morning registered 12F.  I've lived in Texas 28 years and the last time it was that cold was January 1985, actually the night my twin sons were born (a day hard to forget, don't-ya-think?)!  The high for the past 24-hour period was 15F.  Unbelievable. 

Needless to say, my garden is just about wiped out.  The carrots and spinach came through OK, but the last remaining beets are gone and so is the rest of the toy pak choi.  But such is the price for gambling with a winter garden.  For the most part, I harvested a pretty good yield out of this winter garden so I cannot say that I'm unhappy.  I lost some vegetables but I learned several valuable lessons.  To me, the trade off was well worth it.  And it won't be long before I begin spring planting.  As a matter of fact, I bought my Texas 1015Y onion sets this morning.  And *that* is my project for next week!