Frosty Giveaway Reminder

My normal 'overreact to any cold and cover all plants with 57 blankets and heat lamps' self is quite surprised at how calm she's reacting to the apparently 'everyone is dead' state of the garden she didn't cover with anything but a scant layer of leaves. If only i'd had more leaves on hand. Sigh. I made some sauteed broccoli from frozen garden members last night, and i'm pretty sure the thaw will expose many limp, unspringing-back crops. Thankfully, the garden was really down to pretty much volunteer herbs, kale and onions. I'm hoping the kale springs back, as well as the onions and garlic. The rest may be a wash. Live and learn! I really wanted to see how cold these plants could really take it as a learning experience, after all. Thinking on the bright side: maybe the cucumber beetles will finally be eradicated.

The 'thaw' doesn't appear to be on the horizon any time soon, by the way. We even have a call for flurries tonight. Overnight. Of course. I want to see some snow, dangit! I grew up sledding all Winter and am desperately hankering for some snow to play in. I think i'll harvest more of the sad broccoli tonight, but i'll be leaving the kale and cabbage to see if they persevere. 

I'll post 'after' photos as soon as things thaw out. Here are the greens i harvested last night:

Inside the broccoli: ice particles!

Last but not least: REMINDER REMINDER, GIVEAWAY GIVEAWAY. I announced last Friday that i'd be choosing two winners this Friday for a prize worth over $75 bucks! I think that's worth entering. You have 4 chances to win a gift card for $45 at CSN Stores (they have books, gardening tools, bedding, dog toys, kitchenware: ANYTHING) and 2 coupons for original art by Miranda R. Mueller Illustration. I'll be choosing the winners at 4pm tomorrow: so enter now!

Pocket agrees it's been a bit chilly, and was all tuckered out after watching "Legend of the Guardians" with us last night. She enjoyed our walk outside, and i really hope she gets to see some snow!

Baby It's Cold Outide!

 Not quite COLD, but brisk enough to consider bringing in the lemon tree...   What DOES one do with a lemon tree that has been potted up to a state of hugeness when one lives in a tiny, sunless house???? Advice welcome!

Looks like we bottomed out at 38 degrees last night - not sure what that means for this suburban lot, but i generally get a bit more frost than some and a bit less than others.... boy that's a profound statement. Anyway, we did drape some sheets over one of my massive tomatoes and just crossed our fingers for the rest of the produce.  Upon morning inspection, all appear fine and dandy. Frost hasn't touched us yet, but November 28 marks Austin's average first frost, so get ready for it. Floating row cover, light bulbs, sheets, mulch, pre-frost watering: all can help extend the life of your fall crop. If frost rears its ugly head sooner than expected, you can also pick a lot of the produce and hope that it ripens in the house. I've found even the greenest of tomatoes will eventually ripen, especially if cozied up to a ripening banana in a sunny window. I'm holding out for another batch of ripe tomatoes on the vine, so i'll keep pushing my luck. Knowing my luck, it will freeze while we're out of town on Thanksgiving and i'll come home to a bush covered in mush. (Let's hope not).

I'll taste my pickled green tomatoes early next week and report on the success or weirdness, and i'd love to try a fried green tomato recipe with the rest of the tomatoes i've harvested green.

Call for recipes! Please submit your favorite fried green tomato recipe for me to try by email or in the comment form below. I'll publish the one i end up using and send you a little 'thank you gift' in the mail.

Survival and Bragging Rights!

Monday afternoon. Mid forties. Tent city has been deconstructed.

Only main casualties are the peas and one rubbery broccoli plant.

Supposed to be mid 30s tonight, but i'm trusting the plant babies

to deal with that temp. 18 degrees has been left behind and scoffed at!

 

Some scalding on leaves is a common symptom. Hopefully these

immature broccolis and kales will bounce back with warmer weather

and forecasted rains. I might even be nice to them and

add some compost or fertilizer.

  

 

The lettuces are surprisingly perky and ready to be thinned

and consumed for a salad dinner tomorrow. Kales are getting bigger.

 

I can't believe the fava beans made it.

Their friends in the backyard are totally smoosh.

 

A little limp, but this one had been harvested once anyway.

 

Yum! This radish was cold and delicious, which isn't always the case.

I wonder if the cold temps reduced its bitterness some.

 

A success and a relief. I can't believe the garden coped as well as it did, though i'm not looking forward to the electric bill after 4 nights of using a heat lamp. I'm happy my plant friends made it, and i'm planning a quiche for dinner this evening with some broccoli and onions from the garden. I did a little weeding, as well and fed that to the chickens who of late have been displeased with the lack of greens in their yard. Their yolks are showing the lack as well: not nearly as dark orange. For their peace of mind and better egg nutrition i plan on building a small mini tractor to place in the front yard and hopefully not get knocked over by the stupid black dog that always gets out in my neighborhood. I don't want to think of the repercussions of that, but i know the girls would like being on green grass again. In a month of so i'll scrape at the back yard some and scatter some poultry foraging seed blend that will hopefully grow and nourish them once again.

Locals: How did your garden fare these cold temps? Do you think we're in the clear or will we be hit with some more winter? ( i hope not, i'm tired of slinging tarps, despite my lust for a real winter again - i'd prefer to be better prepared next time)

Gearing up for Low Twenties!

Here in Austin Tx it is customary to garden through the Winter. It is often our best season.
Until the Winter i try to perennialize jalapeno plants and plant my broccoli and lettuce a little late.
My Texas gardening books say things like "garlic will be happy in the winter, unless we get one of those cold as heck winters that happened in the early nineties." Uh huh.  It's 2010 and I have sad garlic.

I've given up on the poblanos. Mostly given up on the jalapeno: no more light assistance but still covered in some layers of freeze cloth: you never know. Most the veggies seem to spring back somewhat once the morning light FINAally hits them, at 11 am. I would live on the low point of the street with my house blocking am light during winter hours. And it's only been a start. This week/weekend is calling for temps in the low twenties that could feel like the TEENS with the wind. This is some of the coldest weather we've had in Austin for 15 years.

I'm not giving in though: i fight the frost! Tent City has been resurrected. Christmas lights border the edges and the heat lamp has been stolen from The Ladies' coop and inserted under the sheets to hopefully provide yummy warmth to the broccoli, kale, and mesclun greens through the coolest of nights (and hopefully not a brush fire.) What about The Ladies though: they're not used to cold-as-heck weather either. I plan on wrapping their coop with a tarp today to seal out the wind. Hopefully they'll get by with their down covered bodies adn no heat lamp.  I'm also strolling through the various raised beds I've been ignoring and piling up old leaves (thank you, leaf filled back yard) to cover some of the green garlic tips - we'll see if that helps AT all or if the leaves all blow off and i'm left with no harvest from a rather spendy garlic crop.

So wish me luck. I want to eat those broccolis, not watch them feed the compost.

Do you garden down here in the south? Are you trying to save your Winter plantings or letting them frost like "normal" gardens do in the Winter?

Let it Snow!

We'll see about that. But after further deliberation I've decided to try and cover all the veggie babies - or at least all that i have the sheets to cover with.

Welcome to Tent City:

There is a lamp in this one to keep the peppers warm, but hopefully not burst aflame.

Cold Nights are Coming!

I use the term "cold" loosely - but the peppers and other tender plants certainly think low thirties/ high twenties is not their cup of tea.

So today i spent a bit of time pruning, piddling, and setting up bizarre structures over which i drape freeze cloth/ sheets/ random chunks of plastic sheeting.... depending on how cold it really gets.

I am NOT by any means doing a super great job of it - i am approaching my winter garden with a "we'll see what survives and what doesn't" mentality. It would be great if the eggplants came back next spring or stuck around all winter, but i won't mind if they freeze to death. Same goes for the bell peppers. The hot peppers, on the other hand, are destined for perennialness and have been covered... poorly. Ha, so we'll see how it all goes. I figure: may the best plant survive to thrive another season, all weaklings may recede.

Pretty garden with all sorts of volunteer marigolds, ridiculously growing back after being hacked to the ground eggplants, and pretty baby lettuces.

Lettuces, marigolds and kales, oh my!

Elephant garlic is getting BIG. Mulched with pecan shells from hours of pecan shelling.

Pulled the basil, planted more kale things, garlic is growing bigger and bigger.