After having quite a chilly and abnormal winter this year, this past week has been downright lovely. I haven't posted much about the garden over the winter...or really anything because I don't like going out in the cold. So basically, I throw a few seeds out there and check back right before spring gets here. It didn't help that I became pregnant right about planting time for fall gardening and I get very sick in my first trimester so I'm pretty lucky I got anything but weeds out of the fall garden.
Got a decent crop of carrots. Not as many as I usually do since I didn't do a very good job planting them under the mulch and then thinning, but what did come up, grew exceptionally well, much better than years past, minimal tops and all root. Very sweet and crisp. Good for freezing and canning but doesn't keep too long in the fridge, it goes rubbery.
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| Danvers 126 variety |
I just pulled up my turnips too. We've been eating on them here and there over the winter, but I'm the only one that likes turnips/turnip greens, and one person can only eat so much. The ones I left be got pretty large.
These were just the largest ones, between softball and double softball size. I also have a good armful of regular sized turnips and leaves I will probably blanch and freeze. All but the one DS is holding (while he munches on raw collard leaves) turned out very firm and good flesh. The largest one got pithy and spongy in the center, so it's going to the worms as compost. Also notice the yellow blooming broccoli behind DS. I like to always let some broccoli go to flower because the bees LOVE them. I wait until I'm ready to plant for spring to take them out. Gotta make sure the bees know where to come that way I don't have pollination issues.
With the turnips, a friend suggested I pickle them, and being pregnant and not sick anymore, I want to eat lots of pickles so I obliged. I also planted beets this year, but they did very poorly. I only got a handful of very tiny beets. Just enough to color the turnip brine. Every time I try beets they just don't do the best, but I'll keep trying because I do love beets.
I canned 4 pints of carrots and 6 pints of turnips (only the largest turnips, still have lots more greens to put in the freezer). I still have a decent portion of kale and a healthy bit of collard greens to put away in the freezer.
Since I'm doing no till gardening now, I will just spread a good dose of organic fertilizer on top of my beds (I am using this stuff, I had good results with it on my lawn last year and it says you can use it in the garden also), lay down newspaper 3-4 papers thick and cover with 2 inches of mulch. When it comes to planting time, I will punch down through the newspaper, add rabbit manure and cottonseed meal and plant in the soil. This should work really good for controlling weeds this year. Over the winter the weeds weren't bad either, only in the corn bed because I didn't mulch very heavily last spring.
Here's to a new season of gardening and many more posts!
