Bringing the garden in for the winter
First, I’m behind, posting any more pictures of my garden since who-knows-when. I’ll see if I took any recently, and post them on my “Square Foot Gardening” page if I do.
The temperature is supposed to get down to 32 degrees here tonight. I’m not ready to let the plants die. So even though I’m eager to burn some leaves where I’ll be extending my garden next year, I still have some broccoli plants (and bush beans) that I may want to transplant and bring into the house. They’re covered with a tarp.
My breakfast room is all windows on the west and south walls. So it makes a pretty decent “green house”, even though the winter sun isn’t as good, and I do have a radiator in that room, which tends to dry things out. Well, all I can do is try, and see what survives, and continues to grow food.
So here’s what my “biodiverse breakfast room” is growing at the moment:
- House plants: two small potted Christmas trees that I rescued from the garbage at work, an old cactus, a Christmas cactus, aloe vera, two old wax plants, a begonia with lavender and green leaves, a Forever Kolancoe, and a sweet potato plant that I grew only because it sprouted pretty leaves, coleus.
- Herbs: catnip, dill, lemon balm, parsley, sage, oregano, thyme, basil and cinnamon basil.
- Veggies: bush beans, soy beans, 3 cauliflowers, 7 red cabbages, 5 broccolis, 1 pot of small Chinese cabbage plants, 1 tomato plant, carrots, 4 bell peppers, 1(?) jalapeno pepper, 3(?) cayenne peppers. (One cayenne plant is full of red peppers, and I hope to get new batteries for my digital camera soon enough to take a picture in my red room).
- Flowers: red geraniums, hanging pot of red impatiens, mixed pot of small zinnia plants that hadn’t blossomed yet, red and white petunias and impatiens, nasturtiums.
If the plants live, I’ll be able to know I can extend my growing season. If they die, I may consolidate, to make more living space — a wider walk way to the washing machine & back bedroom, and more space on the breakfast room table, which is 3/4 full of pots. I made sure that it is possible to reach all the plants to water them, even though they’re layers deep.
Still in the yard is my amaranth (along with other things I’ll eventually “sacrifice” to the winter), which I heard should go through a frost or freeze, before harvesting the seeds.