A true and very recent event:
Me: So I just have to get all these bulbs in the ground before the ground freezes, right?
S: Yup.
Me: When does that usually happen here?
S: Mid December
Me: Great! So I have some time. I'll do it as soon as I get back next week.
HA!
Unseasonably frigid weather, down to the low 20's every single day for a few days, and by the time I got home, the entire yard was frozen solid down four inches. I pried the last of my daikon and shallots out of the ground, frozen, and made pickles. I believe I will give up on the still tiny carrots and beets out there.
I had experimented with garden fabric over hoops on one small bed of fall crops: rutabaga, carrots, mustard greens and napa cabbage. I'm happy to report that the ground in that contraption is still nice and soft, and everything in it still alive, although the mustard looks a bit wimpy. I'll give the carrots and rutabaga another week or two. Just in case, and because it is not frost hardy, I had harvested all the napa cabbage and stuffed a big bag of it in the fridge for kimchee when I got back.
We're supposed to get temperatures in the 40's this coming week, and I hope I can get the bulbs, garlic and shallots in the ground then.
What a load of BS that the planet will run out of food if we don't reduce the population. I'm pretty sure that, as I learn more and more about growing my own food, my tiny garden can produce a great deal of food. Add to that all the food that can be readily harvested in the wild, in the town parks, or in vacant lots full of weeds, and we can see that there is an abundance of food all around us. It is extremely important that we stop believing what TPTB tell us! They do not have our best interests in mind!
I’m still hoping to plant out my tulip bulbs, but the rainy weather is not very inviting to go outside 🙈
As for the population, you are right that if we change our habits we can sustain the growth for a bit longer, but with exponential growth we will eventually run out of space. Not in our lives, but we will.
If we can change our food growing habits and local gardners and backyare growers can be supported to do just that, then we have a chance. The thing is we are just as susceptible to our crops being utterly decimated by insects, heat, cold, whatever - so we must rely on communities to sustain us going forward. And when those communities are fractured, then we have a problem.
I think what you call rutabaga we call swede? My favourite!
I've not gotten around to soil testing and with the temps in the teens and 20'sF at night, I'm hoping the well mulched gardens haven't frozen yet. My helper will be taking the samples on Friday, if it's not frozen.
I've harvested everything I'm going to with the exception of parsnips. They need to have some freezes to get sweeter. But if I leave them in the ground all winter, the critters will eat them all. So I'm hoping I can dig them in December...
Mulch! I am so behind the ball on this gardening thing. I always love your info too, very helpful! Question - the exposed carrots and beets are still quite alive, but small. Will they grow anymore? The ones under the fabric cover are doing nicely, almost big enough.
Once the soil drops below 50F there’s not much biology to support plants. Having said that, if I leave tiny oxalis plants in the ground over winter, I come out to good size plants in spring. It also depends on whether they get enough light.
I have never left things in the ground after November unless it’s parsnips because the critters will eat them or the ground will freeze down 1 - 2’. The parsnips I dig in December if I can before the ground freezes. They need to freeze to become sweeter.
Great info! Thanks!
What about Jerusalem artichokes? Do you grow those?
Yes, they grow wherever the voles leave the tubers in the garden.
At least you got pickles!