The US horticultural zones changed, so I am re-examining the way I garden. Until 2020 I never thought about overwintering any food crops. Only hardy local plants could survive the late flash freezes and the dry winter conditions in my area. Even then, the local plants are sometimes bit back by cold snaps, especially in the little valley I live in.
The native crepe myrtle bloomed too soon in Spring 2020 and a late freeze killed the new growth. Those plants still haven’t recovered. They remain stunted almost a year later. I think they’ll pull through, but the weather is not helping!
Last year, like so many of you, I expanded the vegetable garden. We had more radish, spinach, tomatoes and peppers than we could eat! When the summer fruits died back I planted kale as a fall crop, and hoped it would serve as a cover crop until spring planting.
But instead of serving as a cover crop, the kale flourished overwinter. We had fresh kale on Christmas. It only suffered during the Arctic Blast that dipped all the way down to the Rio Grande. I confess, Kale is not my favorite green, but I’m still grateful to pick a garden fresh salad this early in the season, to say nothing of New Year’s Day greens. To put it in perspective, we can get freezes until April 15th.
In addition to the Kale, I planted garlic, and spring onions last fall. Both are doing great. The bunching spring onions are my favorite garden plant at the moment. They grow better than grass, and are already more than a foot tall. Grow spring onions by watering once a week, and “mowing” what you want to eat, when you want to eat it. They are easier to grow than the beans we sprouted as schoolchildren. In the fall, stop cutting them back after Halloween when the sunlight gets weak.
Garlic is a bulb and should be treated just like irises. I planted a dozen cloves last fall, of two different varieties. Although the bulbs are not ready to dig up the greenery is 7 inches tall already. I think I can get three crops out of this year.
As far as new planting goes, the radish are in the ground, not as many as last year though! I tried to make radish jelly but it was like cough medicine, and I tried canning it but the sulfur content was so high the end product was inedible. Yuck!
In addition to vegetables, I’m planting a bee garden with waves of single petal flowers, and trying my hand at moss. There is a rather large patch of moss on the North side of my house but some of it was damaged while some repairs were made last year. Hopefully I can introduce some new moss to the mix. I picked Irish moss because of the dainty little white flowers, and the cold-hardy nature of the plant.
Whatever happens in the garden, I’ll keep you posted.
simple heresy 