(Almost) Snow Day.

I grew up in Texas. On average it snowed every seven years. That means before I went off to college I had seen snow 2 times in my life. Once, when I was about 2 it snowed and we made a snowman. I only know this from pictures. When I was in Junior High it snowed and school was even canceled. It only took a couple inches to shut everything down. In high school we had a big ice storm, but not really any snow, per se. I went to college in Santa Fe for a couple years, where snow was a regular thing. You would get a few inches and it would stick around for a week and then melt off. But it happened pretty regularly through the winter; we were in the mountains after all, so the city was prepared with salted roads and snowploughs.

Portland is just about as bad as Texas when it comes to snow. I think it snows once a year here. That seems to be my experience, but the city just isn't equipped to deal with it. A couple inches and everything shuts down. A few years ago there was upwards of a foot and a half on the ground for a week and a half. I missed most of it, as I was in Texas for Christmas.




The forecast last night was for 2-4" and the city was preparing for a shut down. I had my fingers crossed for a snow day from work. I work pretty far out, and there is no way to get there without crossing a range of hills up to 1000'. I was hoping for a day of leisurely drinking my coffee with Mike. Taking the dog for a long walk in a carpet of white and then maybe a walk up to get pizza and a beer in the afternoon. Definitely no driving, and definitely no driving the giant van.




It looked promising when I woke up, but it was not to be. Work was on. Though the giant van slid a bit in slush and ice getting out of my neighborhood, once I was on major roads it was fine. It sure is pretty out there though.




With a lifetime of limited snow I still get really excited about it. I've never lived anywhere where the snow really piled up. A couple inches is magic to me.

I snapped a few shots on my way out the door this morning. Our winter snow for the year. Next week, back to rain.

Final harvest.

Even now, in the final days of the year, we still have fresh produce coming from the front yard. Harvested today:

1 bunch kale

6 carrots

1 bunch arugula

The Aftermath.

I took a peek at the garden on my way out the door in the morning to see how the plants fared over the freezing patch we had last week. Well....the kale bounced back like a champ, arugula is holding on and there are still carrots in the ground but that's about it. Chard is dead, lettuce is close to it, cabbage is wilted, broccoli and cauliflower were eaten down to the nub again...it's a sad little winter garden.

Winter is upon us.

I woke up this morning to a frosty landscape. Kale covered in ice crystals.

Frosty leaves covering the winter garden.

First Frost.

It's getting cold! There is a call for snow in the valley on Monday! Yikes! And my garden is sitting out there exposed. I don't have any sort of cold frame or cloche; I am woefully unprepared. I'm not too concerned about it though. Frankly, the winter garden is pretty sad anyway and I'm seeing this as a good not-so-scientific experiment to see just how long I can grow things here without protection. I think the kale and cabbage should be OK and they are the two crops that are actually growing well and I would be concerned about losing. In fact, kale is supposed to sweeten after going through a frost.

I'm hoping in the next couple weeks to make a real plan for next year's garden expansion and maybe even get myself a some cover built by next spring for early crops.

Green Tomatoes.

Well, the plum tree is now bare of leaves and the 10-day weather forecast also calls for 9 days of rain. I think that means it's finally over. I pulled up the tomato and remaining pepper plants today. I harvested all the tomatoes that were left (and one lone bell pepper). Most of them were green.

These guys all show signs of ripening inside.

These guys are all immature and should be used green. Recently Homesick Texan posted a recipe for pickled green tomatoes that look kind of delicious. I do love pickles. There is always fried green tomatoes too. I've actually never had them before. Maybe now is the time.

Now that I have pulled up the tomatoes and harvested the rest of the fall radishes it's just the winter veggies left in the garden (By the way, I have three sandwich bags of radishes and I don't know what to do with them. I was hooked on that radish pasta last Spring, but Mike is off grains right now. Any ideas?).

As I said before, the winter crops aren't doing so well. What we do have that is promising to get us through the winter is:

Kale: Three plants are doing really well. They got a head start before whatever little bug or worm came that is eating the rest of my starts.

Red Cabbage: There are a few starts that keep getting bigger and are showing promise of making it. Cross your fingers.

Onions: We still have oodles of green onions out there ready to pick at a moment's notice.

Carrots: There are still a couple rows of carrots ready to eat right now. They are supposed to keep in the ground just fine, so we can use them as we will throughout the winter.

Broccoli: Maybe, just maybe I have one broccoli that will make it. It's a few inches tall and hasn't been eaten yet. But with only one to rely on, I'm not holding my breath.

Swiss Chard: We still have three rows of chard that are growing and holding well.

Arugula: I impulse bought arugula and I have two rows going. I'm glad I did because most of my spinach didn't sprout, and the ones that did aren't growing. Did you know in the UK they call arugula rocket? Cute.

Winter planning.

I've been a bit absent from the blogosphere this week. I'm going to blame it on having a cat with an abscess on its face (currently just a tube sticking out of its face), a dog with diarrhea and a boyfriend with an ear infection. It's been a wild ride for a few days with a lot of bodily fluids on my carpet. Ick.

Anyway...it's that time! That's right – it's time to plan the winter garden! Already! I haven't even gotten my first tomato and I'm already thinking about what food I'm going to eat in December. It's certainly a change of pace in thinking from trying to decide what I'm going to eat tomorrow from the grocery store.

In planning the winter garden I have realized that my garden isn't big enough. I need more space. I can squeeze in broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, carrots, lettuce (through Nov.), kale, garlic, onions and shallots for the winter, but I really wanted to grow some collard greens and I just don't have the room available in time.

I am trying to coordinate the departure of spring and summer veggies to line up with the addition of winter veggies. The only completely open space I have right now is where the kale and spinach were this spring. I'm trading those out for overwintering broccoli and cauliflower. The cauliflower and broccoli from spring should be cleared out in the next two weeks or so and those are getting replaced by kale and spinach. The chard will be replaced by the last round of fall lettuce, but that won't be for a while. The carrots are holding their own and I'm hoping to get a few more seeds in before this month is out, otherwise what we have out there now is all we get. The current lettuce bed is becoming storage onions; it will be free for use in the next few weeks as well. And, lastly, the cucumber/pepper/bean area will be dedicated to garlic and shallots, but those don't go in until late September.

My goal is to get a job and therefore have the expendable income and peace of mind to spend a little money and flatten out the side yard with a retaining wall, some fill dirt, some garden dirt and some compost and get that done before winter. Then the rain can pack it down and we can add some more dirt in spring and use the side yard for next year's awesomely-amazing-gigantic-summer garden. There will be space for melons, squash, corn and hopefully a dedicated asparagus bed.