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| December in the Garden December 16, 2007 13:51:54 It has been a long time since I have posted anything on the site. I spent the last 6 weeks first working on a barn for the horses trying to get it more suitable for 2 horses to stand around and eat or loaf when the weather is bad. Also spent the remainder of that time finishing a room in the house that was built several years ago to use as our home office. Happy to say I am now typing this from that now nearly finished room. So, December was going along OK when last Sunday we had a bad ice storm. We live in the country and our power was off Sunday morning when we got up. We were without power for 4 days. With no electricity there is no pumping water so I hauled water out from town in buckets with lids to water the horses, do dishes, and perform other sundry water requiring tasks. We purchased drinking water. I also caught quite a few buckets of water off of the back roof when the ice started melting and used them for horse water also. Here is a picture of a bed of collard greens that are now nearly buried by ice. 
And an ice covered broccoli plant. 
Heat was not a problem because we use a wood stove for primary heat and have two gas space heaters so we were warm and in the dark. It is amazing how quiet it is without any electricity. I read by candlelight several times which is not very easy and is an eye strain for sure.
We fianally got power back and now last night, which was the following Saturday we received about 6 inches of snow while there was still alot of ice on the trees and everything else. So far so good with our electricity. The same broccoli plant now covered with snow. Probably the deer will be in here nibbling on this and the collard greens before long. 
Well I already have made some plans for the garden for next year. I hopefully will be able to expand it a little. I would like more room to work with cover crops and green manure crops while not having to give up growing area. Probably fewer tomatoes next year. We were inititally swamped with tomatoes until it got really hot and dry in August. A lot of tomatoes went to waste. Also, I hope to have in place this winter sometime some means of collecting a significant amount of rainwater to store for watering during the summer. I am not sure what it will be or if I will really be able to construct something that will hold a significant amount of water or really what a significant amount of water would be. I suppose I should actually be thinking I should just try to collect as much water as possible. For a while it looked like I might be able to do some fertilizing this late fall but that probably will not happen til late winter or early spring now. I should be able to collect a considerable amount of horse manure over the winter since they are spending more time in the new barn, or rather, refurbished barn. The only hard part about that is I do not have an easy way to get the load from the barn to the garden so that will have to be addressed. The fence around the garden complicates things. That reminds me, there is a rabbit living in the raspberries right next to the garden. I see him/it all the time now that the leafy cover is gone. I am going to have to do something about it before the tender spring shoots start growing. Well there is plenty to think about and to do before the ground is worked next year and seeds laid in to sprout. Comment on this article |