Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Fall/Winter Gardening: Making Progress

Well, today I was at the garden and I planted a row each of wild rocket, watermelon radishes, and all seasons carrots. I sowed thickly, to ensure at least something comes up.

At the house, I harvested and removed all but one of the tomato plants planted out front. The exception has at least five very large green tomatoes on it, and since the plant still looks relatively fresh and lively, I'll leave it to attempt to ripen the fruit. All the remains now is for me to harvest and remove the tomatoes that are living in the containers right now.

Those containers I have plans for.

I have cut back the herbs for winter as well. The common culinary sage has been allowed to go hog wild for nearly two years, so I've cut it back and down. Hopefully it'll be encouraged to put up fresh growth next year. The purple sage has done similar, despite being the younger plant; I gave it the same treatment. Now though, I have a huge wad of sage that I don't know what to do with. I gave some to the neighbors (along with rosemary and thyme), and I have a full container of it dried on the kitchen shelf, and a airing cupboard with tons of it hanging inside as well. Oh well.

The thyme plant has actually taken root in the little pot of soil my MIL set out with it, so I now have a baby thyme plant growing in a pot. It'll live in my mini greenhouse until spring.

The marjoram and oregano both have been cut back to their "mother" plant; they apparently set out long shoots to flower with.

The only thing I haven't removed yet is the spent purple coneflower. I need to research what it's seeds look like, so I can save some for next year.

Tomorrow I will attempt to scrape back and relocate the wood chips in that space, peel back the weed cloth, and start turning the dirt over. I plan on seeding a section of chives to the herb garden, and a small border of German chamomile, and a number of other things, which I'm still trying to work out in my head.

It's also probably a good idea to give the compost a turn as well.

So, I'm making progress at least. That's encouraging. :)

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