Winter Carrots

Planting extra carrots in May or June (in western New York State) will leave enough to cover with mulch late in the fall for fresh carrots all winter long.  Thick leaf mulch 12-14" deep extending out 12" on all sides will keep them from freezing in even the coldest winters here.  The first time a frost is forecast, 2" of mulch is placed over the exposed ends of the carrots, leaving the greens exposed to continue to grow. Then in 1 to 2 months when the forecast dips down to around 25-28 degrees F, it's time to apply the thick layer of mulch.  (Mark the ends of the rows well, and any time the winter temperature rises to 32 degrees F or more, pull back the mulch and dig up fresh, crisp sweet carrots!) When applying the heavy mulch layer in the fall, the carrot greens needn't be removed, just dump the mulch right on top of them if you like.  On the other hand, taking most of them off doesn't hurt them either: For those with a juicer, the carrot greens may be juiced along with your other favorite greens such as kale, spinach, beet or collards to name a few.  Take care to leave a few stems per carrot for the years we get an extended fall season.  

 Another way to have fresh greens longer in fall and spring: plant a more winter hardy variety of spinach the first week in August and place a cold frame over it before the first frost, leaving it there all winter.  In the spring the plants begin producing fresh leaves very early.  By the time these plants begin to go to seed, your early spring planting of spinach should be well on its way.  If you plan ahead and plant parsley in May or June in that same area the cold frame will be, you will be rewarded with late and early parsley as well.

 Please note:1- Be sure to check the temperature inside the cold frame on sunny fall and spring                                    days.  If it gets too hot it may need to be propped up a bit to cool down the plants.

                    2- There is a slight chance of small animals  sneaking under the mulch and eating                                     your carrots from the top down, but in 20+ years this has happened here only once. 

Have a joyous and blessed day!

New veggie garden layout

The sections of the veggie garden were originally about 4- 4 1/2' squares. After 15-20 years of struggling to reach the center of those to weed and plant, an opportunity presented itself to start ftom scratch. The old black raspberry patch had stopped producing, so in the fall of 2013 the area was tilled up and the garlic was planted there, leaving the entire veggie garden open to till up in the spring of 2014.  First the majority of the weeds left from the rather hectic fall were removed and put in the compost pile. This step was not really needed, but wanted to reduce the chance of weeds the tiller might miss. Before tilling was also a good time to add composted material if available. (Till the soil down 10-12" if possible).  Next came raking it out evenly, stringing line, setting boards in place, (boards 12" wide or more if possible), put down regular thin corrugated cardboard, (or 10 layers black and white newspaper) and cover with a 3-4" layer of grass clippings. If there aren't enough of those available, old straw stays in place fairly well too, or partially decomposed leaves from the previous fall as a last resort. (They tend to blow over seedlings trying to grow. Placing the leaves where the tomato plants will be is a good spot). The new sections are roughly 3 1/2' x 8', which has worked out very nicely. Even though the garden was not ready for planting until the very end if June, it still came along quite well!

Next time there will be photos showing the new tomato cages that are really working out well. 

Have a joyous and blessed day!