I finally cleared all the vine out from the summer greenhouse garden and need to decide what I'm planting in the grow bags. Definitely doing radishes and beets, but what else? Maybe swiss chard?
I have the sprouts growing on the left and a variety of lettuce and cherry tomatoes in the hydroponics grower. I will probably get a few more of these setups to get a nice indoor routine. I also have some mushrooms growing, and they should produce quite a lot of food.
Here in SC we have a mild winter on the coast I usually grow several varieties of lettuce in raised beds. I cut 2x4 into thin strips and made hoops if there is a chance of frost I cover with plastic. Was able to get most planted before my knee replacement this past Tuesday. Have planted cauliflower does real well don't think I'll get any in this year my leg looks like an over stuffed sausage.
I feel for you! One of my best friends got a knee replacement a few Months back and has really struggled to get back on his feet. He says in the end it will be well worth it though. Just a long row to hoe to get there.
I always have a few lettuces coming in pots in addition to swiss chard, bok choy, greens, leeks, spinach, onions, garlic, oregano, thyme, rosemary, and other cabbagy kind of things. We still have a few winter squash that I have hope for harvesting, but most of them are done for. Tomatoes will keep growing until we get a firm overnight freeze, but I'm happy to make green tomato relish with whatever refuses to ripen at the end. I never have good luck with fall peas, and I'm happy for any advice on that because husband loves snap peas. I will put up the cut and come again guide soon.
I do need to move my herbs into the greenhouse for winter and the herb garden takes a beating from the frost. My peas that I thought died from neglect are making a resurgence as of late, perhaps because the trough they are planted in got some water.
I highly recommend these folks for all your bulk seed requirements, especially microgreens. If you do the math for seed prices by the pack locally compared to bulk, it's obvious. True Leaf Market Seed Company | Buy Non-GMO, Heirloom, Organic Seeds I buy the basic salad mix by the pound, and the spicy salad mix in 4 oz. packages.
Triple freezer bagged in the deep freeze, or double bagged with aluminum foil and the original packaging -overkill. I've had seeds from 10 years ago left in a tupperware bin in the dry storage just germinate this year when I decided "screw it, gonna try anyway". Some seeds will have a higher germination but others are wasted very quickly. I am going to purchase a small economy freezer for the basement and use it just for seeds, yeast, kefir, coconut and MCT oil. I've been taking on too many projects in recent months, from microgreen cultivation to mushroom farming indoors and others to get around to the seed vault freezer, but it's at the top of my to-do list.
My three-year-old beet seeds germinated. Stored in the paper seed packs in a sandwich zip-loc bag in the garage. The peas are making a reappearance, but I still need to get into the greenhouse and work on the old grow bags that had the summer plants in them. Something I should do today.
Well, I'm going to try some indoor gardening. Being a renter, I can't really set up any sort of greenhouse, and the short winter days at this latitude would make for some really long growing times, without additional/supplemental lighting. Being on the 2nd floor of a 2 story house, I've got two staircases, each with a window at the top. Figured I'd try putting some Brussels sprouts in one window (that will get good southern sun. The other window is on the west side of the house, so I'll supplement that one with some LED lighting, to over-winter some pepper plants that have been growing outside this summer. Figure if I can keep them happy over the winter, I'll have a head start, next year! Other than that, I'm hoping to get some tomatoes to flourish indoors, over the winter. Additional lighting required, but it should be warm enough inside, to hopefully fool them into producing.
Just interested in how these winter garden plans have worked out? My greenhouse is not very conducive to growing, I’ve found. The thin plastic offers no insulation and with the sun being so low in the sky it it pretty much shaded all day. Electric rates just went up so we are trying to conserve by not heating or lighting the greenhouse.
I hope your winter garden is flourishing. When I lived in the PNW, I had success with brassicas. Lacinto, Russian Red, and Curly Kale did really well and came back several times a year. Also rainbow chard, broccoli, mustard greens, cauliflower, and beets did well. My cabbages grew, but weren't very happy. My herb garden also didn't mind the cold: peppermint(of course), spearmint, rosemary, oregano survived the cold snap.
