“The novelist Nigel Balchin, was once invited to address a conference on ‘incentives’ in industry. He remarked that ‘Industrial psychologists must stop messing about with tricky and ingenious bonus schemes and find out why a man, after a hard day’s work, went home and enjoyed digging in his garden.”

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Well, it looks like I haven’t posted since June.  I wouldn’t say I’ve been busy exactly.  Just kinda forgot about this place.  I am going start posting more often.  Even so thanks to Jessi we are one of the world’s leading websites for yellow sweet dumpling squash and bean trellis content.

I have been doing a lot of reading about permaculture since this fall and have lots of plans for nut trees, berries and guilds and the like for spring.

I have some thoughts about this past year I plan to write up later.  As you can see from this picture c. October (my garden is in the background) there wasn’t a whole lot growing in the fall.  There was some parsley, broccoli raab – most of which i didnt’t harvest saving it for spring and a huge purple sprouting broccoli which never sprouted any purple broccolis that i mulched and hope will live through the winter.  Thanks to me we also still have 5 or 10 pounds of jerusalem artichoke to eat.  I baked it one night and didn’t care for it much, but its not bad raw.

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As great as it would be to have a nice, long growing season … I wouldn’t have it any other way!

The 2011 Seed and Fruit catalogs are already rolling in, and Chris picked up a stack of gardening books from the book store the other day. Winter is a great season for gardeners. It gives us time to think about previous years, and dream about the new things we want to try in the spring. (Artichokes, perhaps? We read a very interesting article in one of Chris’s books about growing artichokes in cold climates).

One of the things that I’ve been researching is the best – and quickest – way to make our fence green. We put up a functional, but not terribly pretty, chain link fence closing in an entire acre of land. I think we are going to break down and buy 100 second year grape vines (wine, table, and cooking/jelly varieties) to plant along the 180-foot stretch of fence across our front yard in the spring. There is a Vineyard in Lake City, Minnesota that looks like it has quality plants at a pretty good price. According to one of the gardening books that Chris got, “grapes thrive in less than adequate conditions” – so with any luck, in 2012 we will see a small crop and a green fence filling in.

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These are two terrific plants that can handle a hard freeze and 4″ of snow.

These pictures were taken last week, before we had finished clearing out the garden. This morning we woke up to a white yard. I picked the Brussels sprouts last night, and Chris was just outside in the snow picking the collards before they disappeared into the winter. He also picked the greens from his sprouting broccoli, which taste pretty similar to collards. I think we have enough greens to last us until spring!

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Our boy is 9 years old today!

Happy, happy birthday Puck!

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We’ve spent much of the weekend outside, working on cleaning up the yard and garden before it snows. I finally picked all of the carrots and onions, and they are stored for winter. The soil at our old house was mostly clay, so we’ve never had much luck with root crops. Now, we live on the “Anoka County Sand Plain” and the the root crops did well this year. The addition of compost helped a lot. We’re considering getting another load year but haven’t decided yet.

I should have picked the onions a while back, as they died off mid-summer and some were starting to grow shoots again. We go through a lot of onions in our house though, so I’m sure we’ll use those before they go bad. These were just the standard red, yellow, and white sets you pick up at any local garden store. One of the things I’d like to do next year is spend some time finding good varieties of onions that store well.

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Now that it’s November, we’ve actually been gardening.

Actually, Chris dug up his potatoes the other week, and they are stored for the winter in our crawl space under the steps/pantry. There are two bread racks full – hopefully they will stay cool and dark enough to last through the winter.

He grew red, blue, and white varieties. The red don’t store as long, so we’re using them first.

Today we spent most of the day outside cleaning up the garden for the winter. I pulled a lot of onions and carrots out of the ground, and hope to have time over the next few days to post some more photos.

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Sorry about that.

We grew a lot of stuff, took some pictures, posted them on the Internet … and then during prime picking and eating season, our kitchen was completely gutted and remodeled. So the garden kind of fell off the radar. Here’s what we now have to cook in this winter, though:

Definitely worth the 6 weeks without counter tops.

I planted peas at the end of August, and Puck and I snacked on them yesterday. We also have massive collard greens, brussels sprouts, and the cabbages are making new heads after being picked! I’ll work on posting more photos before the snow comes.

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The carrots are ready!

Just in time for my kitchen remodel, too. Fortunately, I should be able leave these in the ground until it freezes and they will keep on growing, and be just fine. I think carrot soup (in a crock pot) would be an easy meal to make without a kitchen – though that requires a food processor and I’m just not sure if I’m up for washing that in the laundry tub.

We have about one full month without a kitchen sink (or countertops). Cooking is going to get very creative now… and I think I’ll be taking some veggies over to my mom’s house to prepare for freezing!

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We grew three varieties this summer – Rosa Blanca (pink), Snowy White, and Black. This weekend, I think I’ll make some pita bread and baba ganouj.

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