Closed for Winter

I finally gave into the cold weather and cleaned up my fall garden today. With single digit temperatures and snow coming soon, I decided to hang up the gardening gloves and take a break. I harvested the last of the collard greens, radishes, cabbage leaves, and mustard greens. All the other vegetables did not mature enough to eat so I'll just let it sit for the winter and maybe fertilize the dirt.

Next year, I'll be more prepared for the frost and snow since I already have all the materials needed to build a nice cold frame. According to the Farmer's almanac, the average last frost date is early April and first frost date is late October. Hopefully, I can get the cold frame built between now and April so I can get an early start on spring planting.

So for the next couple of months, I will work on creating a planting calendar specifically for this area so I can get the most out of the next season.

See you in the spring!

Winter Update

It's been really cold the past two weeks so I have been trying to protect the garden from the frost and freezy wind. However, the plastic cover keeps blowing off. It's been so cold, I've only been out a couple of times to check on the garden. The last time I went out, some of the Brussell sprouts and collard greens had not survived the frost. I had to pull them out.

The seeds I planted will probably not mature enough to survive the frozen ground coming in January so next year I will have to start earlier!

I've been researching a better method to protect the plants and came across a couple of ways. The best one I found was a hoop cold frame built by the people who run this website called http://www.gardenfork.tv/ They have some videos on Youtube.com that were pretty helpful.
http://www.youtube.com/user/erochow#p/search/1/v6bWeYCV53A

I will probably modify the method a little bit to fit my garden for this year.

• Use rebar staked into the ground to give the PVC pipes extra support for the frame.
• For a 4' wide garden, use at least 6-10 ft PVC pipes.

Lesson Learned: Don't plant the fall garden in the 8'X8'. Use the 4'X8', it's easier to cover during the frosty nights. Do a thorough clean up before the weather gets too cold.

Enough for now.