Barefoot Kitchen Witch - In the Garden

February Thaw in the Winter Garden

It’s an amazing 45 degrees outside right now – in the shade – so Bill and Alex dug through the melting snow so that they could peek inside one of the winter gardens and see how everything has fared during these weekly burials under ever more snow for the past month or more.

After the digging was done, I headed outside at Bill’s urging to see just how warm it was inside the garden.

Almost barefoot.

We’re going to have to get new plastic for next winter – this stuff has had it.  Lots of holes.

Below is a weird picture I took – I must have been bent over sideways like an upside-down capital L or something because I don’t know how else my whole leg could be way over there on that side of the frame.  But anyway, near my dainty foot is the corner of one of the two raised beds.

I had to sort of crawl into the garden, and when I did, look what I found!

An Alex!  He was just hanging out in there, enjoying the balmy temperatures – Bill estimates it was in the fifties inside, maybe even low sixties.

I brought Alex a snack, which he declined.  “My hands are all dirty.”  He’s remarkably tidy, though you’d never know it to look at his hair.

Anyway, in this garden you can see some GREEN stuff – tatsoi and, somewhere in there, spinach.

The oregano is doing well…

And (below) a tiny little cilantro plant over to the right.  Brave little cilantro!

Apparently Bill and Alex used bits of snow to water the plants.  It will melt in the warmth.

Over here we’ve got mint (the black planters) and rosemary.

And then Alex directed me back to the left so I could see a dead earwig (on the purplish leaf slightly right of center, below).

I had to get back inside to check on the pound cake in the oven, but Alex decided to stay a little longer.

“If I was a plant, I’d like to live in here!”

Winter Garden - Still Green Under There

These were taken on Saturday.  Bill went out to pick some things to go along with our dinner, and I came out to take pictures.

Really quick pictures.  It's cold outside.  Cold under the plastic, too, but not as cold as outside it, and not at all windy. 

Things aren't growing quickly any more, but they're there, and they're green, and that's all we've asked for this year.

Next year we're going to set the winter gardens back farther in our yard.  We won't physically move these raised beds - we'll be putting in some more.  The current beds are a bit too close to the house - great for us when we want to run out and pick something, but the house blocks some of the winter sunlight, so if we set them up farther back next year, they'll get more sun, more warmth, and we'll get more produce.

Still, we can't complain.  Fresh produce from our back yard in December?  In New England?  Thank you very much!

A Peek at the Winter Garden

Salad, anyone?

Preparing the Winter Garden

I’m a leeeeeeeeetle bit late posting this, but we’re having a bit of a warm spell so I’ll just pretend it doesn’t matter.  Did that make sense?

No matter.  Here’s what we’ve done…