Planting In January?

For this time of the season it keeps seeming to be quite warm for the times. I have not planted thinking, 'What's the point'. Now I feel like I have been missing out on planting some cold crops. So this weekend, I finally did plant some seeds. Carrots to be exact. I know it could easily freeze over in February and this could have all been a waist, but the thought behind this was, if they survive I should have enough time to take out this crop when i need to plant my summer crops, peppers for example. If they don't survive, well it was left over seeds that I wouldn't be able to use this season any ways.

So we will see. I am wanting to try broccoli also, but I will probably try starts inside.

Late Year Gardening

I realized that I could have easily grown quite a lot of good veges this fall/winter. It really did not get very cold, expect for random days. I believe I could have gotten away with more broccoli and spinach. Probably even some collard greens or other leafy greens. I would say that now later on past the wet fall days, there is very little rain, so maybe keeping some watering options available and some more fertilizer to get it growing faster.

Fall Gardening in the sun.

I am really enjoying this fall. It is the middle of December and it is still sunny out and mid 60's and some say a chance of hitting 70 this weekend. I really think that some of the summer veg's could easily continue till the end of the year with protection, but with slow growth. I really have enjoyed the little I have grown this fall. Enough Lettuce that we eat almost daily going on now for 2 or 3 months, and I haven't done much to tend to it. Some of it is a bit bitter, but I'm thinking some fertilizer through out its growth could help with that.

Some of the other things I'm growing, but are much slower are Broccoli and spinach. I just kind of took a few Broccoli starts and planted them. I would say To grow a lot more of these, especially as the cost in the grocery stories are up about $2.50 for a not so big head of broccoli.

The Spinach is a lot slower than lettuce, but it also shrinks when cooked. So even though this kind of food is relatively cheap in the frozen foods, I could see them being worth while just because of the little tending it needs.

First Frost and bitter lettuce.

Well I was wrong about a descent frost on my last blog, but this past weekend on Nov 11, we had our first real frost. In fact my volunteered tomatoes did not survive. I did get a chance to cover my lettuce garden with plastic over the nights and seems to have done well, expect for the basil that was in there didn't make it either. but so far there has only been one frost and infact this week is in the mid 70's, so November has crazy weather.

But with the crazy weather there hasn't been much rain. There has been dew in the mornings which I think has kept the lettuce from doing great. With that said, why is my lettuce bitter? The simple answer is I Don't Know. There could be a few reasons.

1) Inconsistent watering: Like I said I have not been watering my beds for fall, they are to survive on their own. But inconsistent watering will stress the lettuce and it will become bitter.

2) Heat: Even though the temps have stayed low since the lettuce has been growing well, it is still in full sun, which as we all know in S.C. is quite hot, even in the fall. So growing in the shade would be a better option.

3) Nutrition: Growth has been slow much slower than it is suppose to be, but like I said I'm letting them fend for them selves. I could have kept on a nitrogen / fish emulsion fertilizing system to perhaps keep them growing in a quicker manner.

4) Variety: The kind of lettuce can effect where it is grown. I have a couple different varieties and can notice a large difference, being the spotted lettuce is much less bitter than the variety pack I have.

First Frost

It's the end of October, and it really hadn't been that cold, that is until this weekend. It will be a high of the low 60's and a frost is possible. My lettuce garden has really been doing well, and I'm not having to water, since it actually rains here in the fall, unlike the summer.

So I will need to prepare for a frost. Lettuce as I understand can with stand a light frost. Plants that can with stand hard frost is spinach, broccoli, Collards, kale, Onions, etc. I do have broccoli and spinach in another bed, so luckily I won't have to worry about them.

I'm planning on getting some thick plastic and some pvc pipe and see if I can build little green house.

DIY HOOP HOUSE

End of A Summer Garden: learning from mistakes.

What did I learn this summer.. I learned it's HOT and a lot of my plants did not like it. I hardly had any tomatoes. By the time they bloomed, it got to the HOT stage. So either plant them early or plant MANY of them, preferably where shade will exist in the early afternoon.

I also know, Peppers are my friends. They did awesome. The only thing I couldn't do is find enough ways to eat them. I did find out the frying them up with some onions are delicious, also grilling them and taking off the skin, cutting them, and mixing them with a bit of olive oil and garlic. NOTE: find different peppers, not just bell peppers, and plant jalapenos, they are great for poppers. I could probably fill a whole bed with peppers. Guaranteed to grow here in the midlands. Also easy to freeze.

I had a huge problems with squash. I didn't add fertilizer soon enough and by the time they where grown, they got eaten by squash and vine bugs.. booo! Perhaps try only zucchinis.

Green beans grow, but are just to cheap to just buy, so use that space for something else.

What I for see the next years garden being: Plant fewer types of plant, and much more of the same.. What I mean by that is pick 4 or 5 types of plant instead of 10 or 12. Then grow more than I think I will be able to eat. Because in this heat, plants can still produce fruit, but perhaps not an abundance, so multiple plants means more chances. Also, perhaps build beds closer to my east facing back of the house to give those plants some shade in that 100 degree weather, because in the sun, its more like 120.

A watering system is great, but I did notice that when it actually rained, I saw growth, not so much with the watering system. Perhaps add another barrel and water in multiple areas for plans to grow out.


Good luck, and start early. It starts getting hot in May, but REALLY HOT in Middle of June, and stays that way till August 15th, where there is a greater chance for the heat not to reach 100.

September Planting...

August is way too Hot. I waited till labor day to mix some compost in my beds that I cleaned out all the plant from that just weren't making it though all the winds we had. I ended up just planting seeds of Lettuce and spinach. I did try to grow some indoors with grow package, but I didn't have a light. I have changed that, and although I won't be using it this year, it should be perfect for the early spring. Remember to plant seeds in doors about 6 weeks before they are suppose to be planted out doors.