Design

Beds in the Pearson Community Garden There's an interesting community garden in our neighborhood in the mountains.  It's the Pearson Community Garden, supported by the Bountiful Cities Project , a local non-profit organization. I've posted photos from this garden before; it's been fascinating to see what they're doing and how the garden changes.  I volunteered several times last summer on their regular Wednesday workday, and enjoyed talking with the much younger fellow volunteers, who were keen about learning how to grow vegetables. But this year, I'm totally impressed (and encouraged) by the success that they've had with simple row covers in protecting winter greens.  This was a hard winter for us in the Carolinas (in the Southeastern U.S.)  We had unusually COLD temperatures (for example, in Asheville, NC, lows were in the teens (F°) for weeks on end, and there was MUCH more snow than usual.) Check out these greens!  These were protected by simple hoops co...

Winter has been snowy and cold here in the Southern US. Way beyond usual.  Normally, I'd be out mulching and harvesting kale. But the frigid cold and ice has kept the kale frozen and wan.  It's not exactly ready to harvest. And it's hard to even think about revisioning a home landscape or winter vegetable gardening (or any of the other programs I'd thought up for late January at the Garden where I work). But I've got personal plans for low tunnels and quick hoops, etc. for next year.  And our (now) unheated teaching greenhouse at the Garden is an experimental cold house. And, I just ordered organic 'seed' potatoes from Wood Prairie Farm , perennial leeks from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange , and am trying not to order anything more before I survey my seed supply. I could order onions from Dixondale Farms , however. I just received their catalog in the mail.  Onions aren't something I'd normally grow from seed, so it's rewarding to order short-...

In a mild winter climate, there's not much excuse for retreating indoors at the first sign of gloom.  OK, I'm as susceptible as the next normal Southern U.S. gardener to whine when we have long dark rainy days for more than two days in a row.  Hmm, are we wimpy, or what? But what our long seasons mean is that we can grow winter vegetables (some with a bit of protection) quite well, and that we can have winter interest in our gardens from berries, bark, seed heads, dried foliage, etc. that continue our gardening season through the winter and beyond. I was reminded of this today by an excellent article by Piet Oudolf in Fine Gardening 's regular e-mail.  In the long winter days in the Netherlands, he relies on many of our North American natives for winter interest in perennial borders.  He includes plants whose fruits, seedheads, or berries are interesting to look at throughout winter.  Totally wonderful.