Remembering June

Here's a picture from June 13, 2011. The garden is lush, green, and full of promise,  with potatoes, onions, garlic and fava beans burgeoning.
 Today is December 19th, and winter officially starts in a couple of days.  It was 15 degrees  at 7am this morning, and I wore my dpwn jacket  with the hood up when I walked Sol this morning (he has a jacket too).
  This picture reminds me of what makes winter bearable for northern gardeners-- anticipation! You can't miss what you always have (so I tell myself) and gardeners in more temperate climes never have to look out on dead and dingy winter landscapes, dreaming of spring. Thus the full bloom of summer is not as  wonderful for them, because there is less contrast.
But I don't just dream.  I plan, and  seeing the planning pay off as the garden unfolds over the season is the greatest joy.   And that's what i'm going to write about over these winter months.  I'm going to analyze what worked in my 2011 garden, and what didn't, and plan a better garden for 2012.

The Great Thanksgiving Clean Up

Our first hard frosts at the the end of October killed the morning glory and lima bean vines on their supports at the back of the fenced kitchen garden.  I was intimidated by the task of cutting back and removing the vines, but the sad mess made me feel guilty every  time I looked at it.

Finally, on a warm Thanksgiving morning I tackled the job.  Among the dried and withered 'King Of The Garden' lima vines I found a  trove of seeds nicely dried-- here they are, next year's bounty in small white packages.

Next I tackled my blueberry patch, which was overgrown and unruly.  I cut out four wheelbarrows full of grayed old stems and whip-like unbranched waterspouts.

I have had no berries for two years because the wintermoth worms were eating the buds, and the shrubs were too tall to spray with BT.  I will fertilize in the spring, spray early, and see what happens. If there is a crop, the bushes will now be low enough to cover with netting to keep birds away too.

The 'Tom Thumb' bib lettuce has been growing well under a makeshift milkcrate  and remay shelter.

And the parsley patch loves the cool fall weather:










I harvested some greens from each patch for my Thanksgiving salad.

Finally, I dug and transplanted Jerusalem Artichokes. They are neither from Jerusalem,  nor artichokes, but the enlarged root of a native sunflower, and were very likely part of the first Thanksgiving feast. The name is thought to be a corruption of  Native American.
I have read that Jerusalem Artichokes can be invasive, so I originally planted them along the back fence behind my bed of large grasses in a unused waste space.  But in that spot they have been repeatedly eaten to the ground by rabbits slipping through the fence, and the production of tubers has been disappointing.
So on Thanksgiving morning I dug all the tubers I could find, kept the biggest to eat (only a half-dozen) and planted the remaining twenty or so smaller roots back into rich soil in one of my raised beds. Maybe this year I'll see the promised six foot sunflowers in September and a decent haul of roots  for next Thanksgiving.
Here are the biggest of the  tubers I took inside to cook.  They were delicious fried in butter until crunchy outside and soft inside, and I felt they made our Thanksgiving an authentic one.

Eight point buck

For the last week there have been three does feeding in the hayfield out back around dawn and dusk, so I wasn't really interested when I noticed a large brown presence over the fence this morning.  But then the deer came closer to the yard that the does ever have, and I stopped reading the paper and looked out the slider through the top of my bifocals.

Instead of the shy does, a brave and relaxed eight point buck was just beyond the fence.  I grabbed my binoculars and watched him for a while, then picked up a camera.  He looked healthy and fat, ready for winter.
I know that in some Eastern communities, especially in Connecticut, deer have been very destructive of vegetable and ornamental gardens. But  around here we've got lots of good deer habitat, as well as a healthy population of coyotes, so they are still good company rather than the enemy.  And that's the first time I've seen a buck in about ten years.

The last flowers of the year: Witch Hazel

My fall blooming Witch Hazel began blooming  inconspicuously when the leaves were still on the tree, but now that the leaves are gone, the flowers are still going.  The small clusters of strand-like blooms fill the air by my front door with a delicate citrus scent, and cheer me up when I come home from work in the early afternoon twilight of November.

After the snow

The storm   last week wasn't bad here-- we had only a dusting of snow and did not lose power.
Here's a shot of the
snow:

                                But we got a really hard frost on Nov.1-- just like last year:

But the hardy crops are still going-- chard, lettuce and parsley. 

I also found some overlooked onions re-sprouted as scallions, which I combined with parsley, potatoes and a balsamic vinaigrette for a tasty fall salad.

A storm is coming....

Last year we had  the first hard frost on November 1. This year we had frost on the 27th.  Still later than the old standard for this area of October 15th.  Now a long storm of rain and snow is bearing down on the Northeast and my garden.  My winter rye is sprouting in the barrel by the gate, and elsewhere in the garden.  It will help hold the soil in place during the winter storms, and can survive the cold.

I threw a row cover over the fence surrounding my patch of 'Lucullus' chard, and tucked it as well as  I could, but the winds will be up to 60 miles an hour, and I fully expect to find it either ripped to shreds  or on the other side of the garden, or both, tomorrow.   Or may be not-- the bed is surrounded by fence and a patch of blueberries, which may shelter it.   I did a  pre-emptive picking of both chard and lettuce this morning.  I did not cover the lettuce, but in past years it has survived well when sheltered in light snow.  Update tomorrow, after I shovel!

Fall Greens -- Heirloom pics

Here are two heirloom greens that produce wonderfully for me:

 ABOVE:
Tom Thumb lettuce--- wonderfully tender buttery little heads.  I had a spring crop that was also very heat tolerant, and here's the fall crop.
BELOW:
Lucullus Swiss Chard-- not as pretty as 'Bright Lights', but tender and productive, not to mention frost resistant! I've got them in a small fenced bed that I can toss a row cover over on cold nights. Great stir-fried with tofu and anything else you care to add in a ginger, sherry, tamari and sesame oil sauce.