Happy Thanksgiving!

Holiday season is upon us so I wanted to wish everyone to have a Great Thanksgiving and remind that it's not material things that matter most - it's your friends and family that keep you happy. Today I'm thankful for my husband and my sister, my 3 adorable furbabies Midnight, Lipstic and Shadow, my friends and of course all those who come visit me on the blog.  Even though I haven't been posting much lately about the garden, it's still growing and we're still picking and I hope to do occasional posts until spring time. In the meanwhile, here are some shots of what is still growing around here, starting with some greens in hydroponic -  salads, bok choy and tatsoi. They are all different sizes because we keep picking and replanting continuously.

In the garden we have carrots, salads, brussels sprouts, chard and kale still growing.

Inside the house one of my lemons finally has a baby lemon! and a pot with 3 bell peppers is trying to survive the winter - hopefully it will last so I can have earlier peppers next spring.

Break in harvests

No more harvest post for a while. Last snow storm damaged my main hoophouse and before we were able to fix it cold air killed off all my peppers and beans. I still have some salads and carrots growing, some kale and swiss chard that are also being picked but for now I won't post any  pictures of these harvests. The smaller hoop house in the old garden is still standing and transplants of broccoli, cauliflower and cabbages are doing pretty well but not producing yet. We're also using hydroponic greens for salads and sandwiches but I keep forgetting to record these pickings. I'm really starting to miss warmer season where I had all those cucumbers and tomatoes at my fingers. This week I will start two cherry tomato seedlings to see if I can get them to grow inside during winter. So far there is a long pot wit 3 bell peppers in the kitchen so we'll see how that will work out.

First snow storm

Mother Nature is definitely not happy with us this year - we got snow a lot sooner than our usual December or January. But it does look pretty and white covering my back yard.

 Unfortunately it also covered my front yard with my new garden  and collapsed the hoop house on two beds. I haven't been outside yet to see if anything under neath survived. We're expecting warmer temperatures in next two days so will fix it during weekend. Greens might be ok but I'm afraid my experiment with peppers is done.

Harvest Nov 5

Not much going on in the garden these days. The hoop house that was damaged in the small garden was repaired, and the one in the new garden also in place now. There are few peppers growing but I didn't need them this week so did not pick any. Today's harvest is greens - swiss chard, kale and parsley. A handful of beans that I used for my side dish was picked as well but not weighted.

Next few days will be in low 20's so not sure how my hoop house will protect them - will find out the hard way after hard freeze is over. I also planted a bed of garlic that is about 2" tall now so had to pile mulched leafs on top of it to protect it. Hope it will be ok as it has to make it through winter.

Sandy's aftermath

Sandy whirled through the southern portion of NJ so we were lucky - damage was minimal. Few branches knocked out, power was out from 8pm to just past Noon but we had generator so no big deal. Arbor got blown out but once the rain stops and wind calms down my hubby will fix it. Two of the new hoop houses were damaged so he'll repair them, but the first one on the long bed is still standing. Overall we really lucked out and it could have been much worse like for those who are near the coast.



End of October harvest

Garden is still chugging along and producing bits here and there. Most of it is under the hoop house covers so they get enough heat to keep growing. Pickings today were herbs, kale, chard, peppers and brussels sprouts. Surprise was my handful of bean bushes that were growing and last week they were blooming - they gave me quite a bit of beans! enough for a good side dish for two of us this weekend.

Edit: added parsley and sorrel that was picked from the small garden.

We have a storm moving in on us - Sandy currently Cat 1 hurricane. Last year we got pummeled by Irine - another storm that left us without power for a week, washed out roads and severe flooding. I really hope that Sandy will be nicer to us this time around, but we're not taking chances - food and water stocked, emergency generator is ready and we should be ok even if again we get stranded by destroyed roads. I hope the garden makes it through and the 3 hoop houses that we just put in place will remain there with all winter crops in tact. Good luck to everyone else on the east coast who will be affected!

Harvest Oct 21

No pictures today because I didn't get to the store to get fresh batteries for camera, but we did pick kale and swiss chard this week. It came out just under the pound total.

Not much going on in the garden - everything I planted for fall is growing VERY slow so not even sure if we'll have anything to pick before snow. I will set up additional hoophouse over two beds in the old garden and one more small over L shape in the new garden. Just need to get over the willies that been keeping me in bed lately and get some energy to get something done before winter.