Putting the Garden to Bed

The garden got the better of me this year. I always start out optimistic and start way too many seeds and then pack them into every square inch of the garden. In blissful denial about how many weeds could creep in after the first good rain, I slack on putting down any mulch or weed barrier fabric, thinking I'll have time to get it down in time. Spoiler: I never do.

This year the tomatoes grew into a veritable jungle. I pruned them back a bit, but eventually, they got out of hand as well. Soon the mulched paths between the raised beds looked like a scene out of Jumanji. You know, the one where the vines shoot out of the walls and try to shoot Robin Williams with venom while dragging him into the jungle. Yeah, pretty much like that.

I threw in the towel and waited for a hard freeze to clean things up a bit so I could see what carnage remained. It'll make a pain of a cleanup in the spring, but I've still got a few months to stall. I threw a bunch of scratch grains in the garden and turned our roving gang of chickens loose to clean what veggies and bugs they could find while knocking back some of the smaller weeds.

A few weeks ago, the fridge looked bare, and I was getting desperate, so I bundled up to head for the garden to see what bounty might remain. I had spotted some scarlet kale the chickens couldn't reach, so I knew I'd at least have something leafy to show for my effort. Wandering around, I spotted a decent patch of carrots poking through the soil. I dug those up thinking they might have frozen but nope, still perfect! After freezing my fingers digging for carrots (the garden trowel had been lost to the jungle earlier in the summer), I moved to the kale. A few feet down the row, I found 15 forgotten leeks. They had a bit of freeze damage but were still salvageable.

Hands full, I tossed everything in a bucket for more efficient carrying.

The kale was the best treasure of the winter garden. Kale gets a bad rap, probably by folks who've had one-too-many kale smoothies or chips. They haven't gotten it fresh from the garden after some freezing nights. Kale (among other frost-hardy veggies) becomes incredibly sweet after being subjected to cold temperatures.

My favorite variety is scarlet kale. In winter, it becomes an incredibly dark, almost eggplant purple. It seems to be less attractive to aphids and cabbage worms, so I consider it basically maintenance-free. I took two kale plants along with my bucket of veggies and headed for the house with a quick detour to the chicken coop for a few eggs. Between my harvest and the generous box of potatoes gifted by our neighbors over the hill, we had a hearty potato leek soup with some bonus veggies thrown in. And it was delicious enough to get me eyeballing the seed catalogs that have started filling the mailbox. We'll see if I keep my resolution of not buying more seeds for 2022.