February 2025 Garden

Weather was variable this month. Temperatures started at -6F to 20F at beginning of month. Towards the end temperatures varied between 10F to 50F. We had some snow but you had to hurry up and play in the snow before it rained the next day. Lot of ice and puddles since ground was pretty frozen. 

Spinach, mache, claytonia, and cilantro came up in cold frame. Cilantro didn't like it when temperatures dropped below freezing in cold frame but other greens were ok. Actually harvested some spinach and mache. Next year definitely should plant spinache and mache in cold frame in late August/ early September. 

Soil temperature started out at about 20F and only about 1" thawed but by end of month was thawed to about 4 inches or so.

Microgreens growing well in house. Our favorites are radish, peas, and walking onion. Dwarf tomatoes flowered and started getting tomatoes. Harvested some butternut squash from basement.

Walking onions coming up in open garden. Planted extra seeds harvested last year out into open garden beds. Didn't bother cleaning them. Mustard, Kale, Arugula, Mache, Swiss Chard, Beets, Romaine, and Tatsoi.

January 2025 Garden

 Not much action this month. 

Daylight was about 9hours. However it was a pretty cloudy month with only a little bit of sun. Temperatures ranged from about -15F to about 51F. Very little snow, but it did rain. Cold frame temperatures ranged from -14 to 72F. I had row cover + plastic on cold frame cover and it is surrounded by bricks, plus another row cover on top of the plants inside.

Bok choi, spinach, beet greens, swiss chard, kale, mache, and common arugula might have been ok if it stayed around 20F. It's kind of a pain to open and close the coldframe cover every day. I hope my rosemary in the coldframe and the lavender in the east garden that I wrapped in towels survived the below zero weather. It will be interesting to see if the artichoke that I buried in leaves in the west garden survives these cold temperatures. It never produced fruit because our season was too short. I love the way the leaves on the artichokes look.

Sage, thyme, chamomile, and a sedum type perennial seem to tolerate the cold quite well in open garden. Chives are totally dead.

Ends of lettuce grow in water. Planted microgreens. Like peas and radishes best. I do not really care for sunflowers and cantelope. Sunflowers have a different aromatic flavor. Cantelope tends to be bitter. Walking onion does quite well and can harvest multiple times from it like we can from peas. Dwarf tomatoes grew very slowly in storebought potting mix that contains a lot of wood chips. I think last years 50/50 blend of city yard compost and perlite worked better. 

September 2023 Garden

Weather: September daytime temperatures started at 70-90F and ended at 60-70F. Night time temperatures started at 60-70F then ended at 40-50F. So warm weather crops like beans, cucumbers, ground cherries, tomatoes, basil, and marigolds in open garden got frosted.

Planted 9/16/23 and most came up by 9/21/23: Mustard market mix, bok choy, giant winter spinach, arugula (astro, esmee, common ), romaine lettuce (freckles, rouge d'hiver, parris island, jericho, winter density) easter egg II radish, swiss chard, corn salad green full heart, avona.

Lot of flowers, Alyssum, basil, marigolds, poppies, tall pink sedums...

Harvest: lots of greens, cooked and froze buckets of Kale, mustard, and swiss chard. Pretty many roots. Some beans. Sunflowers pretty much done. Tried drying flower heads in garage but still too humid this month. Pretty many raspberries and tomatoes. A few tomatillos and ground cherries. Some peppers. Some cilantro. Lots of cukes. Foraged crabapples.

Moved rhubarb from southwest corner to west patio fence. Moved black raspberries from west side of southwest corner to southside. Planted blueberries bushes in front garden next to northeast stoop.

Birds really like the sunflower heads. Saw bluejays, cardinals, woodpeckers, sparrows....

Everything is growing well. Ruby Orache grew very tall. Although cucumbers got frosted this month. Moved basil and fenugreek into patio coldframe.