Craving fresh food in winter (Best ways to satisfy?)

[FarmerChick]

LOL just the classic easy cold frame
being a hay farmer, I use old hay bales for insulation.
works wonders


so simple and such a good way to keep the greens coming. I love a leaf lettuce mixture in the dead of winter. Can't do without it!

 

[Cassandra]

I just printed out that list of when stuff is supposed to be planted. There is a lot of stuff listed for next month! That surprises me that we are supposed to plant things like carrots, lettuce, onions, and Irish potatoes in January! (for the spring season, I mean.)

I have to get started a lot earlier than I thought!

Cassandra

 

[FarmerChick]

LOL you are creating yourself more work...LOL
I know the feeling of planting early. We jump the gun and chance alot of produce for early early spring...to sell at the market.

glad you will be filling up the garden yearly and chowing down on fresh stuff!!!

 

[me&thegals]

Cassandra--I think just 8 straw bales. We made a row 3 bales long, then enclosed with 2 more bales, windows over the top. Plus, next spring the bales will be right there, ready for me to use them for mulching around plants!

 

[enjoy the ride]

Around here with straw being $7-8 a bale that could get expensive- lucky you to have hay and straw at such good prices.

 

[2dream]

Cassandra - I live a little further south than you do by about 100 miles but I still have leaf lettuce growing on my front porch. I plant leaf lettuce in the long narrow planters and hang on my front porch rails. When it is suppose to be colder than normal I just pick them up and set them against the wall and cover. I have brought the planters inside 1 time this year. I just trim off the outer leaves when we want a salad and it just keeps on producing. If I need to plant more seeds I just wait for a few warm days and set them outside in the sun. Also the little cherry tomatos will grow this time of year too. I put mine in a hanging pot hanging off my front porch and it gets moved when the lettuce does. Only when its suppose to be cold or chance of frost. I usually keep these things growing pretty much year round. Right now however, I am without. Because I have been so sick and no one else takes care of that end of it they are looking pretty bad and my tomato plant died. I may try to start a new one just to see if it will work.
There are packs of seed for all kinds of leaf lettuce, some of it is even things that once they leaf out you will realize they are weeds that probably grow wild in your yard. That in its self has been an education for me. Now I can walk out in my yard and cut some things that I am short on.
Sorry this is so long. I am rambling this morning.

 

[Cassandra]

Cassandra - I live a little further south than you do by about 100 miles but I still have leaf lettuce growing on my front porch. I plant leaf lettuce in the long narrow planters and hang on my front porch rails. When it is suppose to be colder than normal I just pick them up and set them against the wall and cover. .

Mornin', 2D. I am in Summit which is about 80 mi south of you (if you are in Brandon.) I know I am sometimes unnecessarily vague about exactly where I live as if I'm a likely target for something.

If I have time today, I'm going to go to the feed & seed store. Last time I was there getting chicken feed, I saw they have all these jars of different kinds of seeds. I may get some if I can find anything that looks delicious.

I have tried growing cherry tomatoes from seeds a bunch of times, but it never works! They always get a few inches tall, then stop growing. They will stay a few inches tall for a long time, then when they don't grow for about a month, I stop taking care of them and they die. (Duh!) LOL Let's just say I haven't developed my technique yet.

Right now, I have one garden bed that's not being used for anything, except a lonely bush of flat leaf parsley. I could easily make a tent over that with a few sticks and some plastic.

2D, thanks for the ideas. And feel free to ramble away. It's dark and rainy out and expected to turn cold. Gonna be a long day.

Cassandra

 

[punkin]

LOL just the classic easy cold frame
being a hay farmer, I use old hay bales for insulation.
works wonders


so simple and such a good way to keep the greens coming. I love a leaf lettuce mixture in the dead of winter. Can't do without it!

Why didn't I think of hay bales? duh! I can get some for nothing, I hope. (Friends owe us favors )

One question: Do they last all season?

Now, I just need to score some old windows or a door...

 

[me&thegals]

Around here with straw being $7-8 a bale that could get expensive- lucky you to have hay and straw at such good prices.

I am so lucky! My farmer husband makes my gardening WAY cheaper and easier than if I was doing it all alone. So, free straw from the farm...

 

[FarmerChick]

using hay bales instead of straw bales has some downfall.

hay bales are wimpier. they will last a season, but will fall apart alot faster than straw bales.

I don't put my hay bales out in my garden and such. Hay seeds and weeds, etc....all the stuff in that hay will germinate come spring. Yup, and all those years of trying to get weed free in the garden, you will be introducing back weed and hay seed.

Along my barn, facing the south, I line up hay bales to make a trough....all along the barn. the dark barn boards pull heat to help it....then I grow inside the hay area and put the windows and doors over it.....but my hay bales are on a patch of grass kinda, not out in my gardens. Cause where ever you spread hay, something will germinate from it.

Straw is the cut shafts and therefore are seed free....big difference in controlling what might grow out of the bale.

make sense..LOL...I think I said it all right..LOL


but yea free hay --go for it.