March 1st and the beginning of the year

The weather this year has been so mild that many plants have over-wintered without any help from me. We've been eating Laccinato kale many times a week,cooked and raw in salads. The mustard greens are delicious and a half a dozen plants is just enough for two, I pick the leaves randomly and they grow back fairly quickly. The parsnips were the most interesting thing that I planted last year, partly because I had never grown them before and also because I had no idea how they were doing underground. Last week I emptied out a pot of them and there they were, short and small but definately parsnips. It was a treat to roast and eat them. More are in a raised bed and hopefully they will grow larger as the days warm up. I need to get last year's plants out of the beds to make way for this year's spring and summer plantings. I am excited to have so much over-winter and it is hard for me to remove any living and producing plant. We shall see how ruthless I can be.
Tiny garlic and chives are coming up. A peek of tarragon returning means that the soil is warming up and time to get that compost turned into the beds.
One detail I learned about parsnips is that rich soil makes for hairy parsnips...now I need to create a lean soil area, not sure how to accomplish that!

Winter without cover

December gardening was a pleasure this year, warmish, dry without wind and little rain. I covered the beds with leaves from Liz's garden and what I could get from the birch next door. I also completely covered the beds that I planted with garlic and shallots. Most of the leaves stayed in place and were starting to break down by the time the snow arrived January 18th. And did it arrive, first snow was only a few inches and the little garlic tops were sticking out of the snow. Then more snow to about 8-10 inches covered everything. The Lacinato kale was the only thing showing above the snow, that and the rosemary. I didn't cover my bay tree so we shall see how it fairs. It is on the porch close to the house but not enough to make much of a difference in temperature once it is 27 degrees out.
I hadn't trimmed the lavender and hope that it isn't damaged by having flowers out in the snow.
I still have/had mustard, kale, leeks, beets, parsnips and arugula in the raised beds that are now covered in snow. It will be interesting to see how they are once the storm has blown by. I intended to cover those plants but did not get it done. It would be helpful to have a system set up here so that I don't try to figure it out when the bad weather comes.
Very happy to be able to gather thyme, rosemary and parsley from the snow beds. The bit of freshness and green to our warm food is a very nice thing.
The snow is melting slowly now.....

December gardening...Still!

December 2nd and a very mild 44 degrees outside with a tiny bit of sunshine. It was a great day to get some more garlic planted, 2 rows of the unknown soft necked Chinese garlic that I like and has been keeping so well. I still want to plant an artichoke variety which I have from last years unknown planting.
Pulled up the remaining bean stalks, layered paper and leaves in one bed, that bed also has carrots and parsnips that are tiny, maybe they will grow a bit or maybe they will make it through to spring and grow then...we shall see. No covering on them yet.
Covered the garlic and shallot beds with leaves from my friend Liz'z trees, which she nicely bagged and delivered. Those beds should be warm and drier and protect the bulbs should we have a hard freeze. I think the leaves will all decompose and add to the compost in those beds by spring. Easy gardening.
I still have beets, lacinato kale, collards, chinese cabbage, turnip greens and parsley. There is a bit of tarragon left cut and ready to dry. The chives, garlic chives and tarragon got a little covering of leaves today.
There wasn't much gardening this last month of November, ate the last of the tomatoes which was amazing to me that in November without a hot summer we still had tomatoes to eat, the best of them were the Sun Golds.
And there are December Roses!

October 29th Salad and More

Amazing to have salad from the garden, at least for me. This year I planted lettuce and arugula in late August and now I have salad! I didn't plant as much as I wanted to because so many other plants were still producing but this is enough. I planted Black Seeded Simpson lettuce and is tender and delicious. Replanted both the European and American arugula and both are doing well at the end of October.
I had tucked a few potatoes in corners late this summer as a test and today pulled up some Purple Peruvian and Fingerlings, leaving more to harvest later....well a little bit later. Cold is coming and the rains so I will have to get them up out of the ground probably within the next 3 weeks.
Today I planted more garlic; Music and Metechi and set out a row of French Red Shallots. Last year I planted shallots and forgot where they were and they got covered up with chard and kale. This time they have a row of their own, clearly marked:-) and I am trying some in a pot.
Good day for being in the garden!

October 20th photos

The garden is not ready for bedtime yet. Still alot going on and I have plants that I hope will hold on in a light frost. Not quite ready to use a row cover and I don't have a good system for the covers. Last year I simply laid the cover over the plants when the snow and freezing weather was on its way. This was only modestly effective, arugla, beets, lettuce and chard made it through the snow. Planning for cold weather gardening requires some learning and research.

Mr. Stripey continued

Now I am not sure that my green tomato is a Mr. Stripey. I think it is a Green Zebra tomato mis-labeled. While I was making green tomato chutney from these tomatoes, I kept thinking that the tomatoe was soft and juicy, not like a green tomato at all. Once they were bubbling in the pot and too late to save it occurred to me that a "green" tomato would hold its shape and not melt away like a ripe tomato and that was exactly what was happening. There are a few more on the vine and I will bring them inside and see if they start to turn reddish and if not then I will be fairly sure that this tomato is indeed a Green Zebra. If it is I can add it to the list of tomatoes that did well this summer. Not a large producer but plenty of pretty green tomatoes with a lovely flavor.
Planted some of the brown garlic that has the great stripes on the paper sheath. Don't know what it is other than a hardneck with mild flavor and gorgeous bulbs.
All the hardnecked garlic is still keeping well. I'll start to use them up now before the basement freezes which is where I am storing them still on their stalks.
Cool nights but still above 40 degrees so I am leaving everything in the ground for now. My list of still growing veggies as of October 20th:
Golden and red beets, purple potatoes, mustard, collards, kale of 2 varieties, parsnips, parsley, carrots, chinese cabbage, leeks, lettuce, arugula and the on going tombocini.

Mr. Stripey

I love this tomato! Love the name and how it looks. It tastes great too. But alas most of them will not ripen this year. It is turning cold and damp so I've picked them today, October 19th, and will make chutney out of them. I've not done that before, fried green tomatoes sure enough, but not cooked down with peppers and loads of garlic as the recipe recommends. Since I have loads of garlic and I understand that the hard necks don't last long, it will hopefully be a good recipe for Mr. Stripey.
My golden beets are looking wonderful but they are small, about 2" or so in diameter, will wait and hope that they fill out a bit more. The nights are in the 40's, I think things will continue to grow.
My peas that I set out at the beginning of August will not make a fall crop of peas. For Seattle I guess they should be started in late July.