Winter approaches in the northeastern United States. Farmer’s markets are on hiatus until late spring. Hardwood leaves have been raked to the curbside for taxpayer funded collection. Our daylight hours are quite few. Election Day was yesterday. Windy is the weather’s default state, even while the sun shines as brightly as it ever could.
You might think gardeners would be breathing a sigh of relief that the growing season is finally over.
You’d be wrong!
Winter approaches! The shorter days are blustery one after the other! And there is a TON of work to be done before it becomes too frigid to be outside, and before the ground freezes solid for its long winter sleep.
The good news for me is that my garden is tiny – just the right size for a little old lady to tend all by herself. Of course, I am a tad behind on the to do list of fall tasks that I had made. I won’t be getting that half yard of soil until spring, or the half yard of mulch. I won’t have cut down the yews along the back fence to make way for more composting facilities. I never even ordered the bulbs I’d hoped to get in this fall.
Let's get into what I got right this year. It's been quite a good one!
This was my fifth year trying to learn how to grow my own food, and the first year that I can report some true successes, some important goals achieved.
With the exception of tropical fruits, I grew the majority of the fruit and veggies that I have been eating since June.
Miraculously, I still have stuff coming in my garden! Golden beets, onions, carrots, kale and arugula are going strong in my little makeshift hoop house. Seven rutabagas are plumping up. I'll have plenty of brussels sprouts for Thanksgiving. Fall raspberries were planted this spring and I get a nice handful of the largest, juiciest and sweetest raspberries I have ever tasted for my yogurt every morning. I’ve covered those loosely with a garden fabric in hopes of keeping those babies ripening until Thanksgiving. And a couple of window sills of ripening tomatoes adorn my sunny kitchen windows.
One thing I love about gardening is that I must make do with the veggies that I have in my back yard. Most of my cooking is improvisation, and now that I have to right away bring in most anything that can be harvested, my recipes have become more inventive.
Got lots of chervil and a few beets? Put handfuls of chervil into a beet salad.
I have lots of plans for next year. The biggest one is to utilize the space behind my garage for a flock of chickens and long term composting. I miss my feathered friends, their eggs, and the fertilizer they provide for a garden. I think six bantams would be happy back there, and I am dreaming up the perfect chicken coop and run for their abode. I just need to find someone to build the thing!
Some of you might remember that I'd given a couple pots of petunias a radical trimming in early September, in hopes they would give a glorious show one more time before winter. I'd say it worked beautifully! The white petunias are still looking good on my front porch, two months later.
The Biggest Success of my 2023 gardening efforts
Saving the best for last!
For the first time, I managed to preserve and store a whole lot of food stuffs, so that I am eating my home-produced food even still, and will be for a few more months. My larder is full. A mess maybe, because I had no idea I would need so much space, but full.
Here’s what I managed to can this year:
Bread and Butter Pickles 9 pint and a half jars, 4 pints
Sour Dill Pickles 3 quarts
Sweet Dill Pickles 2 quarts, 1 pint
Pears 2 quarts, 5 pints
Sweet Pickled Beets 5 pints
Apple Sauce 4 pints
Jalapeno Peppers 1 pint
Stewed Tomatoes 11 pints
Corn and Peach Relish 11 half pints
Runny Raspberry Jelly 6 half pints
Watermelon Rind Pickles 2 half pints
For a grand total of 41½ quarts! I’m impressed! I remember hating pickling cucumbers, and now I can see why – MORE THAN HALF OF THE FOOD I CANNED THIS YEAR WAS CUCUMBERS! You might remember that my cucumber set up was very bad, a result of a novice gardener’s over thinking. Hey, it happens. I can now clearly see that I can cut those plants down to only two, from this year’s four. This will free up space for that winter squash I couldn’t fit in anywhere, maybe one of those candy whatchamacallits that is all the rage this year.
I also have quite a bit of food in storage:
cabbage 1 head
potatoes 12 pounds
onions and shallots 8 pounds
I dehydrated a few things such as tomatoes, dandelion root, shiitakes, and garlic.
Oregano, parsley, thyme and chervil have been harvested and are in my fridge. My freezer is too full to open and close easily, stuffed with frozen ratatouille, basil, strawberries, raspberries and meats.
I had a number of complete failures this year. Of peppers, eggplant, okra, pole beans, peaches, daikon and lettuce I had almost none. Can you imagine how much food I would have produced this year had all those crops succeeded? TWICE AS MUCH.
It’s been a very good year in a tiny garden for this tai chi practicing, bad ass, little old lady. If I can do this, anyone can. What’s your excuse?
And just because I love my dog Hazel, gaze upon her wondrousness in the calendula patch:
This is my entry to the Hive Garden community's monthly garden journal contest for November. Check out the other posts! And make one of your own!
Congratulation for that milestone ❤️ Oh such a beautiful vibes on your porch especially the flowers 😊
I love my porch!!! It's very peaceful there, and is a great place for my houseplants to get a few months of fresh air. Thanks for noticing the vibes!
Yeah I would like to sitting there all days!
You can make herbal drinks from your herbs such as mint tea or, ginger tea with honey ❤️
Planting peppermint is on next spring's to do list, and you've reminded me of the Melissa that came up on its own this year. Yummy stuff for tea.
@tipi curate
Thank you!!
I'm very impressed with how much food you've preserved. I've managed some jam, apple sauce and apple cider vinegar. Now I'm onto olives, I want to salt some.
That garden is a great size for one and great that you were still getting such a lovely harvest.
Love the mix of veg on your hool house, you've been very productive xxxxx
Oh my goodness, if only I could grow olives!
It has been an excellent year in the garden for me. Next year will be even better.
Your little garden produced a nice bounty of food.
It sure did! And I got the best exercise there is! I feel healthier having grown my own food and spending so much time outside spreading love.
I prefer outside as long as it is not cold. Growing our own food is so rewarding.
You sure do make a lot of magic happen in that little patch of land!
The dishes you make are so beautiful and delicious looking and I love how you have more plans ahead for next year!
I'm super impressed with how much you produced and stored, great job my friend!
Love it!
From one person doing marvelous things to another!!!
Extraordinary success. I have about half that yard, and didn't grow a tenth of your production. I'd be jelly, but frankly I fed half a herd of deer pretty well instead of me, so I don't feel a complete loser.
Well done. What is chervil?
Thanks!
haha. The first two years I fed a lot of deer too. Then I got a fence. Never garden without one!
Chervil is a very tender and lacey herb, kinda between anise and parsley in flavor. Very useful! I love it in salads of almost any kind. It goes well with seafood. Lovely stuff.
Indeed, there is a special pride for those of us who like gardening and harvesting it. The yard of the house was turned into a small garden, which was extraordinary. You will also use another yard for raising livestock and the livestock waste will be used as compost. that's a very brilliant idea. good work.
Thank you!
If those leaves aren't gone, you might consider using them as mulch.
They will make good organic matter to stir in with the dirt to help retain water.
I say that because here there are only pine needles, and I sure would like some leaves to mulch.
If you just pile them up where you have room for them to sit, they will mostly be there when you get ready for next year's plantings.
I was making piles of leaves where I was before this and the soil was coming back from having been stripped every year.
It would flood when I started, but now the soil soaks in the water and doesn't pond up like before.
Stomping them when you can will help them break down faster.
OK! Thanks for the info. I'll pile them up somewhere, maybe on some of the beds or in a bin for compost. I have the town take the leaves in front of my house, and try to use those in the back yard somewhere. It'd be cool to set up some way to keep the leaves in the front yard too, now that you mention how good they are for amending soil. Next year!
That’s truly impressive from your small garden! You are not alone having a long fall list. I made mine this week and I doubt much besides the absolute essentials will get done before it’s too cold or snows.
The essentials, yes. And if an essential doesn't get done, the world won't stop turning, spring will still come. There will just be more to do then! Thanks for all you've taught me.
You harvested a lot of good food out of a tiny garden! My garden was much bigger...and nearly unmanageable. We used to have chickens, and I miss them. If we had running water at the coop it would be a lot easier, but that's not an option. So my husband had to carry buckets of water out there, not a problem except in the winter, when it was a BIG problem. I haven't figured out an alternative location, and the coop is big and permanent,anyway, so I don't suppose we will start over with chickens.
I remember having to carry water out to my last coop in the winter - pain in the neck! And to shovel so that I could get there at all. I should probably give those tasks some more thought before I get chickens. Hm. Thanks for the reminder.
Could you move them closer to the house into temporary housing for the winter months?
That's an idea to consider!
I love this section, it seems very peaceful.
Originally, I thought I would make that a private garden to sit in. But as it turns out, I hardly ever go there. Thank you for seeing its potential.
You're welcome, have a nice day ahead.
How did I miss this? I'm feeling so behind. I need two of me!
Who's the little old lady in your garden? It's not YOU, surely, you vibrant young thang. It's freaking awesome that you grew enough veggies for your plate. I'm with you - you just made stuff up based on what you have! There's so much creative satisfaction in that, isn't there?
Love, @riverflows
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It sure looks like you got this gardening thing down. Every year we learn a little more and hopefully, that knowledge will mean more veggies in the future.
I can only imagine what you could grow if you had more space to apply your gardening skills. The list of everything you produced this year is very impressive, especially the beets. 😁😋
lol. I love beets almost as much as you do. The greens, though, they are the yummiest part.
I'm dedicated to producing as much as I possibly can from my tiny yard (in part to show that nearly anyone can produce food for themselves and others), while also having room to throw a frisbee around with my dog. It's coming along nicely! But it's a good thing I have wide open spaces on Owasco lake, or I would go mad here. I have no idea how people live cooped up in urban apartments.
Well, for a "wannabe farmer" you seem to be doing great job!
How about using those hardwood leaves for mulch?
I've put some of them into compost, and the rest will cover a bed I'm transplanting Jerusalem artichokes to today. It's funny how people noticed all those leaves!