January (and December) in the news

Winter?  What Winter?  We had our first [and so far only] 'freeze' the first week of January.  It got down to 30 degrees for an hour or so.  It has been hot.  And very, very dry.  The heat tolerant lettuce has bolted in December and January.  The best lettuce?  Anuenue and Pablo Batvia. 

Tomatoes?  OMG - the tomatoes.  We are so, so very lucky in the tomato department.  Our favorites thus far for fresh out eating are Cherokee Purple and Green Zebra.  Surprisingly, Anna Russian is setting good size hearts right now.  Oh, and Anna Russian is a big sprawling plant.  Just sayin'  The cherries are doing good.  The mix of red, yellow and black/purple is really nice.  Mixed colors and mixed flavors.  The Lime Green Salad tomatoes do well in 3.5 gallon pots but the taste is bleh.  Until roasted that is.  Then they are the smash.

The best of the surprises though must belong to Dwarf Champion.  A Dwarf growing tom that just kind of fits in around other plants in the garden.  I suspect it could sneak into a flower/perennial bed with ease.  And just loaded with slicing size toms.  Pretty tasty.  We like them, but we are comparing mostly to store bought Big Uglies.  The Mountain Magic is a very vigorous healthy loaded plant.  The plant itself is not too big.  Fits nicely into the garden.  The toms are slightly larger than cherry, with a tougher skin.  Can you say no bug issues?  The skin doesn't bother me so much as I'm using them mostly to chop and freeze.

The tomatoes growing under the bonsai'd bush?  Has to be one of my more better ideas.  Will keep this going for future growing seasons.  I'm growing Green Zebra and Mountain Magic under the bush.  The Green Zebra actually disappears a bit more into the bush.  I love how the silvery blue of the broccoli picks up the variegated white/green of the shrub leaves. 

The shrub is a variegated Chinese Privet that must be 10 years or more.  This is the view you see from the street, or pulling into our driveway.

From the back side, in the garden, you can see how well the Green Zebra blends in.  Helps when you are hiding the tomatoes from the thieving little pluckers.  Thankfully, those Meyer Lemon stealing fiends have left the neighborhood.  Maybe next season I'll get to make Lemon Bars.

 Cabbage, Broccoli and Lettuce mixed in with hot peppers, eggplant and callaloo.  Just crazy.

I'm fairly pleased with how it looks from the street.  Next fall, I would like to do a better job of grouping the silvery upright growth of the broccoli and cauliflower.  The Broccoli Rapini, while we like to eat it very much, may just be a bit to much for this front garden bed.  Plus, it seems to not care for so much sun.  A good candidate to move!

A Summer squash set fruit in January.  And grows.  I'm floored.  Oh, and notice it is right next to a Cowhorn hot pepper.  The cowhorn peppers are becoming some of my favorite drying and seasoning peppers.  A bit of heat, but not too much.

Eggplant and more eggplant.  Still blooming and fruit sitting.  I harvested almost all the eggplant when the freeze was forecast.  OMG - the eggplant.  On after the fact review, the eggplants can survive a light freeze better than tomatoes.  Actually held up pretty darn good.

Redbor Kale.  Might tasty and mighty pretty.  Hubs asked me to start and grow more!

A cat's eye view of the garden.  The neighborhood cats have always like to hang out on top the garden heater during the chilly months.  Lately, I've been finding the cats napping in the path in the garden.   I don't see them getting into the garden, just hanging out along the paths.

So long as the cats will help keep the dang blasted squirrels out of our tomatoes, then I'm happy.

And the fall project that just keeps right on going. 

Pop-in-law will be here next week and he will help me put the guttering up for part one of the rain water to garden project.

Thankfully we didn't have hard freezes, as I am still working on the hoop tunnels.  I finally broke down and ordered the 5 way connector needed for the center.  At this rate, I'll be ready to cover it with screen to get a crop of cucumbers!

All in all, this fall/winter has been just what a beginning edible gardener needs.  Lots of stuff growing and doing well.  Confidence building.  Encouragement.  Determination to do better next spring, next fall.