Garden December 2021

  

December Garden List

1. Clean up seed starting area

2. Start Winter garden

Winter gardening has started about two weeks ago. This is the lettuce before transplanting. It's 16 days from planting. In about another 10 days I'll be harvesting the first lettuce salad. I'm going by the last time I grew salads. Radishes were a little faster, but I haven't been able to grow radishes after the first time of success.

The radishes look good, but the radish part is not producing a radish bulb. I'm wondering if the soil is too rich for the radishes. If there's too much nitrogen in the soil, then the top will grow great, but the roots won't produce. There could be left over fertilizer in the soil from the reused potting mix. I have discovered that even if the radish doesn't develop the top leaves taste just like radish. So the plant can be used in salads for the radish taste.

Garden November 2021

 

November Garden List

UR Cleanup yards

UR Cleanup seed starting area

UR Plant basement garden salads

UR Test viability of seeds.

TNG Continue to cleanup road strip

November 1

My thoughts for today is to work on Urban Ranch yards. They need a lot of cleanup. I still have some buckets to empty in the bucket garden and one raised bed of tomatoes that needs to be cleaned up. The front needs to have all the flower pots taken down and emptied. So there's much to do today if I choose to do it. I feel like I'm getting a little lazy this time of the year. I suspect it's natural to get lazy during the short cold daylight days of winter.

I bagged up two bags of tomato plants and put them in the trash can. I cleaned up the front yard flowers as well. I still have the buckets and two more tomato plants to clear out of the raised bed. The tomato bed will be the bed to rebuild from landscaping timbers to concrete blocks. Then the raised beds will be completed. I will start on the brick facing.

November 2

My thoughts for today is to finish the cleaning up of the last couple tomato plants from bed 4. I have filled up the trash can so this bag of debris will have to wait until next week. 

The temperature finally dipped below freezing with a low temp of 28 degrees this morning. That officially ends the garden season. Now the plans for next year begins. I still have a few buckets to dump as well. 

I will go to Terra Nova Gardens tomorrow. The high will be in the forties but still warm enough to work with the mulching.

Here's the last bed to be rebuilt. It was the bed that grew the regular sized tomatoes this year. As you can almost see it's quite the mess. It's time to clear it out and get it ready for next year. The 2x2 structure has been there for almost 10 years. It's been support for many different things over the years. But now it has to go.

Here it is all cleaned up. Another bag of yard waste is now ready for the trash can. I'll have to wait until next week as the can is already full. You can see the deterioration of the landscape timbers in this picture. Another load to the landfill will be needed.

The bucket garden has been taken down and the soil put in the storage area. I will be taking all the buckets and pails out to Terra Nova Gardens for storage. I will clean up the patio area so that it looks nicer before winter sets in.  I've been thinking about putting in a drain system around the patio to keep water from setting on the patio and putting pressure on the foundation

November 3

The plan for today is to go to Terra Nova Gardens and continue to mulch the road strip up to the garden fence. Just a little bit each time I go there will get the strip mulched. 

This is a picture of Terra Nova Gardens as it is today. Yes, it's an ugly mess that needs much attention. All I can say is I'm working on it. The mulch given to me is going on the frontage strip but I don't think I'm going to have enough to get it all covered.

The picture isn't too clear but this is turkeys that I haven't seen in a couple years. I didn't think there were any around any more but I guess there is.

It was a good day at Terra Nova Gardens. I moved 15 wheel barrows full of mulch in three hours. That's a good day. Usually I can only move 8 or 10 wheel barrows.

Thursday, November 4

No gardening today

Saturday, November 13

Yes, this is my happy place. The first seed catalog seems to come earlier every year. It used to come right after Thanksgiving but the last few years it started coming earlier. It's never the same catalog that comes first. I suspect there's competition in the seed business and also the opportunity to select seeds before they are not available. The last couple years has put pressure on the seed companies to produce more seeds for folks that have seen the benefit of growing their own food. I usually order from the seed catalog's website but enjoy browsing through the catalogs. The purchased Baker Creek is the Cadillac of seed catalogs in my opinion. They are my first choice for ordering seeds. They are efficient and fast and always throw in free seeds with each order and no shipping cost. I'm hoping that I can get down to their big two day spring gathering this year. I haven't been to one in a long time. Mother Earth doesn't seem to want to have a Fair in Topeka so Baker Creek is the next best.