The new year is here! It has been a challenge to get outside this month in between rain storms but luckily we have had some nice days too. Most of my time has been spent on planning, pruning, and other maintenance tasks. Here is what is going on in the garden this month:
Peas
My peas are still doing well! I planted them last fall and they continue to grow and look very healthy. The birds have been pecking at them but luckily the damage is minor since the plants are well established. If the peas were still small seedlings the damage would be much more severe. I am looking forward to fresh peas in the next few months!
My peas are healthy and continue to grow!The birds have been pecking the edges of some of the leaves. Luckily the plants are large enough to withstand this damage.
Garlic
My garlic is still doing well after planting it last fall. Since we have been having mild weather this month, I was able to remove the mulch covering the garlic. The leaves greened up nicely and they are now 5-6 inches tall.
We have two apple trees, a plum tree, and two cherry trees. I have been pruning them over the last month, a little at a time between rain storms 🙂 My trees are 11 years old now and always put on a large amount of growth during the season. This makes pruning a big job. But this is what it takes to keep the trees open, healthy, and productive. I am looking forward to our fruit harvests this summer!
My fruit trees this winter before pruning. My trees usually put on a lot of growth during the season so pruning is a big job!
Strawberries
I cleaned up my strawberry patch earlier this month. It was very crowded from last year’s vigorous summer growth. I removed dead plants, dead leaves, and runners. I also adjusted the spacing on plants that were too close together. I am looking forward to a large harvest of sweet strawberries this spring!
Before pruning my strawberries were a tangled mess.Afterwards they were spaced appropriately with all dead leaves and runner removed. Now the plants will be much healthier and productive!
Flowers
Last weekend I planted some primroses out front. Primroses are very cold hardy which makes them an excellent choice for this time of the year. I love the cheery colors!
Cheery primroses add some color to our front porch.
My daffodil bulbs are also starting to come up in my flower beds. This is a sign that spring is on it’s way!
Our daffodils are starting to emerge. Spring will be here soon!
Final Thoughts
Well, that’s it for January! It is hard to believe that spring will be here in only two short months 🙂 What have you been up to in your garden this month? Let me know in the comments below!
December is here already! It is definitely starting to feel like winter and the weather has been changing a lot this past month. We have had lots of rain and on clear days the temperature routinely gets down to freezing at night. Despite this, I am still working in the garden on the few sunny days we have. Here is what has been going on in the garden this month:
Getting the Garden Ready for Winter
The main thing I have been working on is putting the garden “to bed” for the winter. I covered the garden with a thick layer of leaves from our trees and covered it with a tarp. The tarp helps to hold the leaves in place so they do not blow away. Also, it prevents soil erosion and leeching of nutrients from the heavy rains. The worms will be very happy and hopefully by spring most of the leaves will start to break down into the soil.
We cover our garden with a layer of leaves. They will break down over the winter and add organic matter to the soil.After the leaves are on we covered our garden area with a tarp to hold them in place.Look at all these worms! They will help to break down the leaves over time.
Garlic
I planted our garlic at the beginning of October. We had some very nice weather and it grew about four inches tall by November. Since the weather is colder now it has slowed its growth. I mulched around the garlic shoots with leaves. Since I covered much of my garden with a tarp over the winter, I put some overturned buckets and a crate over my garlic so the tarp (and heavy rainwater) would not be sitting directly on the plants. I will uncover them in the early spring when temperature warm and growth begins.
Since I covered our garden with a tarp over the winter, an overturned crate or bucket will prevent the tarp (and heavy rainwater) from sitting directly on the plants.
Peas
My peas are still doing great! They are about 12-18 tall now and very healthy. Yesterday we had temperatures in the high 20’s and a hard frost. The peas looked fine as soon as the frost melted later in the day. Although peas should be hardy down to about 20 degrees, I will cover them with a blanket if the temperatures get down to the mid-20’s or below because I do not want to chance any damage. I am looking forward to earlier peas in the spring!
Our peas are doing great despite some heavy frosts. I am already looking forward to our peas next spring!
Carrots
Our carrots are one of the few crops still in the ground. We have just a few carrots left this season, which is a real treat. Storing them in the ground has kept them crisp and crunchy. It is nice knowing that I can go outside and dig some fresh carrots whenever I need them!
Blackberries
My blackberries have gone dormant for the winter and have lost some of their leaves. We had some strong winds that blew the canes off of their trellis so I had to go outside and carefully wrap the canes back around the wires.
Several weeks ago I decided to start a few new blackberry plants, so I allowed them to root both in a pot and in a new area in my planting bed. You can read more about propagating blackberries here.
It is very easy to propagate blackberries! Here I started one in a pot for a friend.
Raspberries
Our raspberries have stopped growing for the year and they have lost most of their leaves. I planted them a year and a half ago as an experiment and they took off and did much better than expected! I do not have a permanent trellis for them yet (one of my projects for next year!) so I put them in tomato cages to keep the canes off of the ground. That seems to do the job, although they do not look too pretty. I pruned away some of the excess shoots as I was putting them in the tomato cages so the plants are not overcrowded. The raspberries look very healthy and I am looking forward to a large harvest next summer!
Tomato cages are helping to keep my raspberry canes off of the ground this winter. I plan to make a permanent trellis next year.
Final Thoughts
It has been a slower month around here and nice to finish up some last gardening chores for the year. Have you been doing anything in your garden this December? Let me know in the comments below!
The weather is getting COLD! We had our first freeze here in Oregon at the end of October, which is about a month ahead of schedule. I have been preparing my garden for the winter and finishing up for the year. Here’s what’s happening in the garden this month:
Carrots
Carrots are one of the few crops still in the ground. We have quite a few carrots left this season, which is a real treat. I like to leave them in the ground because it acts like a big refrigerator, keeping them crisp and crunchy to use over the winter. Although the tops are starting to die back, the roots are big and healthy. It is nice knowing that I can go outside and dig some fresh carrots whenever I need them!
Although the tops are starting to die back, my carrots are still in the ground and doing well!Beautiful home grown freshly dug carrots! Purple Haze and Bolero are shown here.Purple Haze carrots are absolutely beautiful! They are crispy and sweet too!
Garlic
I planted our garlic at the beginning of October. We had some very nice weather and it has green shoots that are already a few inches tall! Next year I will plant it a little later to prevent this because the green shoots make the bulbs more susceptible to winter injury. I will continue to mulch around them with leaves to insulate and protect them over the winter.
My garlic is about 4 inches high now. I will mulch around the shoots to protect them over the winter.
Peas
My peas are doing great! They are about a foot tall now and very healthy. The slugs and snails have been bothering them a little so I have been putting some slug bait out to take care of the problem. I will mulch around them as soon as the weather gets colder. I am looking forward to earlier peas next year!
My peas are about a foot high now. Next spring they will have a head start and start producing earlier.
Popcorn
We had so much fun this year growing popcorn! We harvested it last month and then let the cobs dry in the garage for a few weeks before removing the kernels. My kids enjoyed helping with this part!
My kids enjoyed helping to remove the popcorn kernels from the cobs. We got about 4 cups of popcorn this year!
Since the seeds were still not all of the way dry yet, I spread them out on a big pan and set them on top of the cabinets where they would not be disturbed so they could continue to dry. I tested a few kernels every few days until they popped well. Then I transferred them to pint jars for longer term storage.
We got around 4 cups of popcorn kernels from our small 4 x 4 inch raised bed, which does not include the 10 or so ears that we saved for decoration around the house. It was such a fun thing to include in our garden this year!
Getting the Garden Ready for Winter
I have been starting to rake leaves and scatter them over the garden. I also spread some lawn clippings around to enrich the soil for next year. Once all of the leaves have fallen at the end of November I will cover most of the garden (but not where I have things planted) with a large tarp to help hold the leaves in place so the worms can go to work! As much as I love working in the garden, I am looking forward to a few months off!
Are you done with your gardening chores for the year? Let me know how things are going in the comments below. As always, Happy Gardening!
It is hard to believe it is already October! The weather is changing and cooler weather is here. We had a challenging gardening month because wildfires stretched across Oregon and the thick smoke hid the September sun for weeks. Despite this, it has been a very busy month in the garden! Here is what we’ve been up to:
Apples
Our apple trees are doing great! I love having a 5-way grafted tree because apples ripen over a much longer season. While our gravenstein apples are ready in July, our other types are ready now. A few weeks ago I picked a 33 pound box of apples. And there are still plenty more on the tree!
What have we been doing with all these apples? Most of them have been eaten fresh. We also made some apple crisp, which is my absolute favorite fall dessert! You can check out the recipehere.
Lots of apples for apple crisp!
Beans
I cannot remember bean plants ever being as productive as ours have been this year. The variety I planted was Hickok from Territorial Seed. After setting a large crop in July, we got a second large crop a month later. In mid September we still had flowers and small beans on our plants!
I finally had to pull the bean plants after the weather started getting cooler at night. We have been enjoying lots of garlic roasted green beans! Yum!
We picked beans up through the middle of September. It was a great year!
Beets
I did not plant many beets this year. After our radishes were done in June I poked a few seeds in here and there. I was surprised that they got as big as they did! I will have to plant more next year.
We got some beautiful beets this year! I will be sure to plant more next year.
Blackberries
The canes for our marion berries are growing long! I wound them around the trellis so they were not dragging on the ground. This also prevents them from sprouting new plants. The blackberries seem healthy and strong so think we will have a pretty good harvest next year!
I wound the blackberries around the trellis so they do not drag on the ground. I think we will have a great harvest next year!
Marigold Flowers
I finally took our marigolds out last week. I saved the seeds and you can read more about that here. Marigolds produce SO MANY SEEDS and I will have plenty to plant next year!
It is easy to save marigold seeds for next year!
Peas
I planted peas a few weeks ago and the seedlings are about 4 inches tall now. I usually start my peas in the fall and overwinter them for a bigger and earlier crop. You can learn more about overwintering pea plants here.
I usually plant peas in the fall and overwinter them for an earlier spring harvest.
Sweet Peas
Shortly after I planted my peas, I also planted my sweet pea flowers. After I saw “volunteer” sweet peas coming up already I knew the seeds would sprout easily. I planted a row along the bottom of my trellis so they can get established before winter comes. I am looking forward to early flowers in the spring!
Each year we grow something we have never tried before, and the kids chose popcorn to grow this year! We planted the popcorn after the weather warmed in June. However I did not realize that popcorn takes 110-120 days to mature, which is significantly longer than regular sweet corn. It FINALLY got ripe and the end of September.
The popcorn is finally ready. It is SO pretty!!!
Ideally we would have let the popcorn dry in the garden but we had to pick it and bring it indoors since the weather has been so wet. The ears were so beautiful! We pulled the husks back and displayed some of the prettiest ears around the house.
We peeled the rest of the corn and put it in a box in the garage to dry out. We put one ear in the food dehydrator to speed up the process. It was very difficult to get the moisture content just right but finally we got it to pop! So fun!
We peeled the rest of the popcorn and put it in a box in the garage to dry out. It is so pretty to see the variety of different colors!
Pumpkins
We finally picked our pumpkins for the year! One weighed in at 15 pounds and the other was 25 pounds. We did not get as many pumpkins as we do some years. This may be because they were planted in a little more shade. The kids are already looking forward later in the month when they will get to carve them!
Sunflowers
I had to take some of my sunflowers out of the front yard so I made these cute DIY sunflower bird feeders. The birds found them right away and the seeds are almost gone already. It has been a lot of fun to watch the birds out our back window!
The birds love these sunflower bird feeders!
Tomatoes
I took out my tomato plants a few weeks ago. The weather has been getting cooler and the tomatoes started ripening much slower. Before I pulled my plants I picked off all of the green fruit to ripen inside. You can read more about ripening green tomatoes here.
Only nine months to go until fresh tomatoes again next year! I am already thinking of what varieties I want to plant 🙂
Our tomato plants grew huge this year! It’s no wonder we got so many tomatoes! We picked the last of our green tomatoes to ripen inside.
Final Thoughts
It has been a busy month around here but a lot of fun to harvest everything. What have you been up to in your garden? Let me know in the comments below!
Hope you are able to enjoy this beautiful fall weather! Happy Gardening!
September is here and the mornings are getting cooler. Fall is right around the corner! Although the garden is slowing down for the year we are still getting plenty of fresh vegetables. Here is what has been happening this past month:
Apples
Our second apple tree has many apples that are getting ripe. We picked a box full and got over 20 pounds of apples! We have been eating them fresh as well as making apple pie and apple crisp. Yum!
Cucumbers
I finally pulled up our cucumber plants. They were not as productive as some years and I think they did not get enough water. Look at this funny cucumber we got today:
A double cucumber!
Green Beans
Our green beans are still doing very well. Although production has slowed down we are still getting enough for 1-2 meals per week. There are lots of blooms and small beans still on the plant so we will get at least a few more weeks of picking before they are done for the year.
Our green beans are still hanging in there. It has been a great bean season!
Onions
We pulled all of our onion plants a few weeks ago and got over 25 pounds! After cutting off the stems we put them in a big box in our garage. We use onions in everything and it is so nice to have them fresh from our garden!
Lots of onions! We use them in everything though so they won’t last long 🙂
Peppers
Our sweet bell peppers are FINALLY getting ripe. We could have picked them when they were green but we love allowing them to get fully ripe and sweet! I planted one orange bell pepper this year and it has outperformed my red peppers by a mile. It is amazing how productive this plant is! See how many beautiful ripe peppers it has?
So many peppers! We got over 20 peppers from one plant!
This variety is called Orange Blaze, and it is an AAS winner. It produced over 20 peppers on one plant. It will be going in my garden next year for sure!
Popcorn
Our popcorn is still ripening. We had some hot days and the plants did not like it. There are 2-4 ears of popcorn on each stalk but they still need a few weeks before they will be ready to pick. Hopefully they will be ready before the cold weather sets in!
Our popcorn plants are over 11 feet high. Hopefully they ripen before the weather gets too cold!
Pumpkins
Our pumpkins are now fully orange and I am just letting them sit in the garden to finish ripening. One pumpkin plant is still flowering and trying to produce a pumpkin, so I will not take out the plants quite yet. The kids are looking forward to carving their pumpkins this year!
Our pumpkins are getting big!
Sweet Pea Flowers
I took our sweet peas out last week. I saved the seeds and you can read more about that here. In a week or two I will plant the seeds and overwinter them so we will have earlier blooms in the spring.
We have plenty of sweet pea seeds for next year!
Tomatoes
Our tomato plants are still doing great! We are still getting several pints of cherry tomatoes each week. I have been freezing the extras to use in soups during the winter months. You can read more about that here.
It has been a great year so far but I will probably have to take out most of my plants soon with the weather getting cooler. What have you been up to in your garden? Let me know in the comments below!
Hope you are able to enjoy the last few weeks of summer! Happy Gardening!
