Tag: garden

homesteading

Of Rabbits and Carrots

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I pulled up the rest of the carrots that were in the backyard over the weekend. They seem to have survived nicely, despite being snowed on and frozen. The greens were a little bedraggled, but the carrots themselves are short and reasonably fat, and cleaned up to a brilliant orange. The only thing left out there now is the kale, some of which is destined for a kale and yam something later this week. Quiche? Or with orzo and black beans? If I can get a similar number of carrots successfully germinated next summer, it’s possible we will be able …

homesteading, Seasons

Spring, she is a Comin’

 

It’s been raining and gray, but there are buds starting to swell on the clematis and the cherry tree, and Cliff Mass says winter will be over in a month. The sarcococca the front yard is blooming, the hellebore might be thinking about it, and the rhubarb is trying again to put up a stalk after the last two have been snowed on and frozen. Gotta love the stubbornness of plants. So it seemed like a good time to sort through the seed box, throw out things “packed for 2007” and count what I have from last year (an unopened …

homesteading

The Great Carrot Experiment

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Last year, I chipped frozen carrots out of the p-patch. This year, I decided not to bother. The ideal way to store carrots is in a root cellar, which I don’t and can’t have (probably a good thing, really), although I do blanch and freeze a few quarts of carrots during the summer. But what if, as our soil isn’t frozen solid all winter, I just left the carrots in the garden until we needed them? Wouldn’t that be sort of like having them in a root cellar, minus the baskets full of sand? I am pleased to announce that …

homesteading, Seasons
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I’ve given up waiting for the first light frost I thought I was waiting for and put the plot in the p-patch to bed for the winter. One last weeding, tucking in the garlic and asparagus under a mulch of maple leaves, raking in a sowing of cover-crop seeds (thanks to Celeste!). Maybe I misread the how-to sheet that came with my garlic, but I thought I needed to wait for a light frost before putting the garlic in; now I’m wondering if I misremembered, putting in the garlic three weeks late. The cover-crop labeling certainly seemed to think we …