November 27, 2022

Garden Notes: November 2022

Rainfall 

  • 5th-6th: 0.25"
  • 10th-11th: 1.8" (Nicole)
  • 15th: 0.7"
  • 25th: 0.05"
  • 27th: 0.75"
  • 30th: 2.3"
  • Total: 5.85 inches

Temperature
  • range of nighttime lows: 28-66°F (-2-19°C)
  • range of daytime high: 44-80°F (7-26.6°C)

Weather Notes:

  • It's flannel bed sheet weather!
  • My garden work schedule has changed, now, to doing indoor work in the morning and outdoor work in the afternoon. 

Harvesting and eating

Even though October's frost killed off the summer garden, the cherry tomatoes and pole beans growing on the porch trellis survived. I reckon that's because they are somewhat protected by the eaves of the front porch. They extended our summer harvest for about three more weeks and were very welcome!

summer garden remnants on the front porch trellis

cherry tomatoes, fresh pole beans, and some dry for seed

Of the fall garden, we're getting daikons and greens to go with the last of those cherry tomatoes. 

November salad: cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, and greens
(kale, collards, chickweed, dandelion, turnip, and daikon)

Chopped fresh greens make a nice addition to my frozen leftovers soup.

Before our mid-November freeze I still got a few red raspberries every couple of days.

I added them to the others in the freezer. Sometime this winter I'll make raspberry jelly. After the hard freeze, I cut back the canes for better production next year.

The other thing I harvested was buckwheat.

Mostly seed, but leaves and stems too.

It grew as part of a cover crop mix Dan planted for soil building. Most of it will be for seed, but I'll see about processing some too, for groats and flour.

I'm still working on last summer's wheat.

Winnowing wheat with a box fan.

Last year we got the wheat done in July, but this year July was flooded with figs, pears, and tomatoes, so I didn't have time then. Dan got most of the threshing done, so I'm winnowing as we need flour.

Chicken winnowing clean-up crew

Of the green slicing tomatoes I picked before the frost, we ate the last one right before Thanksgiving.

There's nothing like homegrown tomatoes

Growing

Wheat patch

Garden bed with lettuce, kale, and garlic. The
cattle panel is to keep critters from digging!

Garden bed of daikons. 

African keyhole garden with various young greens.

Planting

It's really too late to plant, but I poked a bunch of fava beans into the garden swale berm and sprinkled the bare spots in the hugelkultur with turnip seeds. Likely, they'll be an early spring crop.

Parting Shot

Our blueberry bush in late autumn color.

I reckon that's it for my November 2022 garden notes. How about you? 

13 comments:

Rosalea said...

Green and growing things...beautiful Leigh...and coloured things as well! Up here, outdoor gardening is done, even the kale has keeled over... Presently doing serious research on building a cold frame for our climate. This fall the temps have been as low as -6C and last night did not go below freezing, at +2C, I could easily have been growing, or at least harvesting greens from under glass.

Leigh said...

Rosalea, whether or not they remain green and growing depends on what kind of winter we get! It could go either way.

The cold frame idea sounds excellent. Are you familiar with Eliot Coleman's books? He does year-around gardening in Maine. His books have lots of good ideas and are well worth a look.

Rosalea said...

Yes. I am half way through 'Four Season Harvest' and another of his is on order at the library, and one by Niki Jabbour, who gardens in Nova Scotia.
There is a 4X4 window up in the barn loft from a previous owner, and a pile of milled, curing white cedar in there as well. We like to use what we have... I have two possible sites, one more sheltered than the other, and will be watching how the light hits them throughout the winter.

Leigh said...

I do hope you'll blog about it. My challenges are different, but this is still a fascinating topic to me. It has the hope of a garden during our coldest winters.

Toirdhealbheach Beucail said...

Leigh, we are still at a point where the sweet potato vines have not started to die off yet, so that harvest is still in front of us (but soon, I suspect). After that, we watch until February or so (and hope for more rain).

Leigh said...

TB, so no frost yet? Lucky you! I was hoping we'd have a late frost as well, but Mother Nature doesn't take requests! I hope your sweet potato harvest is plentiful.

daisy g said...

Wow! You still have tomatoes! My cold weather crops are growing oh-so-slowly, but it is nice to see some color out in the garden. Wishing you continued harvest through the season.

Leigh said...

Daisy, well, not any more. We finally ate the last one about a week ago.

My winter crops have been very slow to grow too. But we've had a nice streak of mild temps and sun, so I'm hopeful for a growth spurt. We'll see!

Anonymous said...

Well we have something in common cattle panels to keep critters from digging.
Especially my tabby who unless the raised beds are covered with cattle panels she seems to think it’s fair game but I think we finally made peace with that.

How do I fair? Pretty well I still have radishes and a huge mineral feeder tub for cattle filled with salad clippings. And I clip away couple of times a week and they make a lovely salad with the radishes.

I took a leap of faith and threw some potatoes into the raised beds in November and I’ll be darned if some of them aren’t coming up .
We’ll see what happens I figured what the heck. Worst thing that can happen is they don’t come up and they just get to sit in there and compost away until the spring or they’ll come up and I’ll have spring potatoes lol.

The really good news is we have a raw milk dairy about an hour away from me I can go every 4 to 6 weeks and pick up what I need to do what I need do since nobody’s in milk at my house. Price is quite a bit less expensive than buying it at the local natural food store and always fun to go out and see a well run dairy doing the right things. Especially if somebody’s just popped out a new calf but can be oohed and awed over.

The one thing caught my eye too in your post was how similar our temperatures are almost spot on even though we’re not getting into the 80s at this point as you probably aren’t either we’re still topping out sometimes in the low 60s and going down into the hard freeze and light frosty area in the morning. I think our lowest temperature so far since November 1 has been about 29°. And we are enjoying the wood stove. And I’ll be darned if we didn’t have 3 1/2 inches of rain in November also.
Crazy how that works out isn’t it?
Goatldi

Leigh said...

Goatldi, those cats can be a real nuisance in the garden! The cattle panels help with them and skunks too, who like to dig up and eat many things I don't want them too!

That's fantastic news about finding a raw milk dairy! Buying things off the farm is usually the best way to get good prices.

Interesting about your temps and mine. You're correct that we haven't had many days in the 80s, that was one day at the very beginning of the month. Lately, it's been really pleasant weather, which I'm thankful for. Lovely for working outside.

Glad all is going well! Your salads sound pretty good. :)

Mama Pea said...

Isn't it strange that you had a killing frost in October when we, up here near the Canadian border, didn't have one until into November this year! Gardening is certainly not a precise science, that's for sure. But seems to me that we're all adapting and doing purdy darn good! ;o)

Kate said...

Your Garden Notes are some of my favorite posts!

Leigh said...

Mama Pea, indeed! And you're right, it's all about adapting! Never a dull moment for us gardeners!

Thanks Kate!