Looking back on the garden in 2008, here are my top ten experiences:
#10- Having fresh tomatoes to eat and giveaway for about 4 months straight (next year, maybe 5.5 months).
#9-All of the lettuce I cared to eat in the fall.
#8- Raised a number of vegetables I never tried before–Swiss chard, winter squash, broccoli
#7- Built a hoop house that has stood through winds, rain, ice, snow and more (though could use some repair)
#6- experiements with cover crops were successful
#5- Fall greens were successful- turnips, kale, swiss chard, spinach, etc. were overflowing
#4- Garlic and onions for the spring are looking like they are supposed to as the winter approaches
#3- Squash and beans from the freezer still taste good
#2- Considering fewer squash plants in 2009
#1- Planning for 2009 is in full swing
November was one of the coldest months on record in Western North Carolina. It was certainly not a month for gardening, at least of the bountiful kind.
I am pleased to say that we are still harvesting out of the back yard. We ate some wonderful kale on Saturday night, we still have lettuce under cover, and there turnips that have been nipped by the cold but are still edible. Much of the garden is dormant and pushing up some kind of cover crop, and the onions and garlic are planted for next spring.
Even with the shortest days of the year coming strong, it is a grand time of year for the gardener, really. In the past couple of weeks I have received my 2009 catalogs in the mail. It is the time of year when those who sow in the spring can take a little leisure and glance over the possibilities for the new year.
In my teens, when i was running a small greenhouse in South Alabama, it was this time of year when I was planning for my spring plants. I poured over the seed catalogs looking for the varieties that everybody would be wanting. I calculated costs for seed, growing medium, pots and flats and labor and tried to estimate what kind of income i could make that spring. It was my every evening adventure after dinner and homework were done.
I look back at those couple of years and how amazing it was to make over $1000 dollars from an 8′x12′ greenhouse in a couple of seasons. I sold all of my leftover materials in my senior year for another $200 dollars. That enterprise was born in the pages of seed catalogs. It was a milestone for me.
It is 30 years later, and I still gain the same kind of pleasure from leafing through those colorful pages. I can imagine what the garden will look like in mid-April; I can see the kitchen table full of fresh vegetables in May; I can see the beauty of a yard full of bulbs and flowers.
These scenes have their beginnings in a living room with the glow of a fireplace and an open seed catalog.
See this article at The Garden Slug
