Tag Archives: collard greens

The Thankful Garden

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Rutabaga

I’m amazed at all the things still going strong in the Dirt to Dinner garden at this time of year. In the Midwest, where I grew up, all I had in my garden in late November was frost.

If you’d like to see all the ingredients we have available this year for a Thanksgiving feast, I made a VoiceThread to share them with you.

If you just want the short-list of what is growing, it goes something like this: Ancho peppers, artichokes, arugula, asparagus, basil, beans, beets, broccoli, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, chard, chives, chicory, collards, ginger, gourds, Hungarian peppers, kale, Komatsu, luffa, mustard, onions, parsley, parsnips, potatoes, radishes, rutabagas, tomatoes, turnips, sage, shelling peas, snap peas, snow peas, spinach, strawberries and a lone watermelon.

What Wintered Over from 2008 into 2009

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kaleRussian Red Kale did well in a not very sunny spot in the raised beds through rain, cold, hail, frost and crazy dogs running through the beds.  It stores well and is great in soups.

Utah something Celery did wonderfully well.  I picked it from the outside in and used it all winter long.  It wasn’t bothered by anything and has wonderful spring-like color in the garden in a low sun area.

White onions have been growing since Fall.  The tops aren’t pretty since the frost, but they are growing some new green stems that seem more sturdy.  Who knows?  Maybe the tops always die down when the weather gets severe?  We’ll have to see how they do next year.  It’s also time to get more onions in so they are well established as the day lengthens.

Beets would not come up for love or money this Fall.  I planted them several times and got nothing but weeds.  Will try these with the Spring crew and see how that goes.  Maybe in Jiffy pots so they can sprout inside and then go into the garden???

Several varieties of carrots did well all Fall and Winter long.  They are tough to get started.  I have small patches of them trying to get going so we have more for Spring.  I could have easily used twice what we planted, maybe more.  But they were fun to have. I especially liked the ball type variety but the seed packet is now lost.

Collards were not as hardy as the kale, but they made it through and we like the taste better than the kale.  Could have used more of these guys, espcially since the chard did not make it through the winter well.  It was bug riddled and yellowing by October.

The artichokes you couldn’t kill with a shovel.  They are already back and looking great.  I suspect they would grow in cement mix if you let them.

Peas had a very tough winter.  The second they sprouted something came and ate all their leaves off over and over.  We started some right after the new year and they seem to be doing better so far.  I’ll protect this batch as seedlings better and see how we do.  I might have to go back to buying starts for these guys.