fromgardentotable

 My camera was on the blink.   Actually, it turned out to be operator error, and the sad part is, I’m still not sure what I did wrong.   It all started at my son’s graduation.  I couldn’t seem to get it to work in the low light.  But did get a few pics.  I know this isn’t about gardening, but so far my kids are about the best thing I’ve ever grown.  The graduate and his sister.

The garden is looking pretty sad right now, so it might be a good thing the camera has been on the blink.    It may have something to do with the fact that we have had a winter storm, complete with snow and temperatures around 29 degrees.  We had this same weather last year and I’m not complaining.  At least, not about the snow.  The snow covers all the dead stuff and it looks lovely.

I have covered my lettuce mix, arugula and watercress with frost covers.  That is working really well.  They are in pots, so it is easy to cover and easy to harvest.  I had a salad with fresh lettuce, arugula and watercress this week and it was wonderful!

There is still some green in the garden.  Garlic is growing well.

I also wanted to show you my carrots I harvested.  This picture was taken on Christmas eve day.  I cleaned them up and took them as crudite for our holiday snacking.  They were soooo sweet!  They are called Romeo and are small and round.

I am especially proud of these, because I have never been able to grow carrots.  These seeds came from my friend Patty.  Thanks Patty!

The Fall garden I planted is now up and growing. Slowly.  Our weather has been fairly mild with a few really cold days thrown in.  We’ve even had a couple of  frosts and the weatherman is speaking of  snow flurries tomorrow.  My feelings about that are to ignore him totally, because I don’t want to get my hopes up.

You may remember the empty pots of dirt I showed you.  They really weren’t empty. See.

This is arugula.

A lettuce mixture.

 Watercress

Another lettuce mixture.

My romeo carrots have grown quite a bit.

I am so excited, because for the first time I have …

Carrots!!  I love these baby carrots, aren’t they cute?

I have been covering the pots with frost cloth whenever I hear the weather may dip below freezing.  So far, it is working.

I also planted swiss chard, beets and radishes.  They have sprouted but aren’t growing very much.  I’m not covering them with the frost cloth.  I am afraid they are on their own.

My garlic has sprouted also.

My poor little Porter cherry tomatoes are hanging in there.

So I have had a few more tomatoes.  But don’t get too excited.  only a few

I am amazed they are still alive, much less producing.  Porter tomatoes were originally introduced to grow in the heat of Texas.   I haven’t been covering them with the frost cloth either, so they really are hardy.

Now if my lettuce would hurry up before my tomatoes are all gone, I might have a salad.

I  finally “readied” my beds for planting.   Only a gardener can truly appreciate the meaning of “readied”.  Back breaking, 40 lb. bag lugging, turning the soil, hoeing, and raking.  Whew!

This year I planted garlic in those “readied” beds.  The variety is             

   which I got from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.  It was the best place to find garlic in a small quantity (8 oz = 4 large heads), to plant.  Many of the other sites minimum was a lb. of garlic.   Way more than I needed and cost about $25-27.  A little pricey for my uses.   This variety is a softneck which is the best variety for the South.

I didn’t plant garlic last year, and I sure did miss having it.   I am hoping this crop does well.  It went into this bed.

I also planted a few weeks ago Romeo carrots, in a pot, which certainly have a lot of greenery up top.  Hopefully, carrots below. 

I also planted in pots, some watercress, arugula and a lettuce “salad” mix.

Now wasn’t that exciting looking at pots with dirt in them.

I also planted in another “readied” bed – swiss chard, beets and radishes.  I planted these last year as well, but no luck with the beets and radishes.  Which is pretty sad, as radishes are supposed to be the easiest garden vegetable to grow.  It’s the one children usually start out with.  yeah.

I have decided to be the manure queen this winter.  I am determined to have my beds so soft, you can stick a fork in them.  about two feet down!  I am always adding compost but this winter it is going to be pure doo.

Fall bounty so far has been rather pathetic.  I planted cherry tomatoes late in the summer and have this to show for it.

Yes. one.  there are a few on the vine but I’m not sure they are going to grow anymore. sigh.

I also harvested A single  bell pepper from each of these two pitiful plants.  Poor things.  It’s like the whole plant had only enough energy for one pepper each.  

  I also picked the rest of the hot peppers. 

But what I did have the most of were ground cherries.  I harvested all the plants and this is what I got. 

 Next year I will have ground cherry plants coming up everywhere.  I have started the jam making process and will show you the results in my next post.

I am so sorry I haven’t posted in over a month.  I had minor surgery and couldn’t lift or bend over …etc.  Try gardening with THOSE restrictions. bleh!

But this weekend I am itching to get out in my garden.  There are a million (no exaggeration) things to do.

See you soon.