BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Gardening Shutting Down the Garden for the Season

Spinach works well in the cold.

True, and also kale, chard, collard greens and I think mustard greens.

I am guessing roots like beets, turnips and parsnips are also doable. I don't actually know how to eat those.

There is also winter wheat as an option. They can be used for the wheat berries or tilled into the soil for spring (acting as a cover crop).

Hi Friends..... Merry Christmas.... And a very Prosperous New Year Too all of you..... I have a question... One of my Client would like to install a zen garden in his Backyard, so if any one of you have any special and unique idea to share with me please let me know.... As snow is falling down in the whole UK now, he wanted me to install the Garden now and will make it live in the next season.... All ideas would be appreciated. [url=http://www.bamboolandscaping.co.uk/]Garden Designer London[/url]

After all those rainstorms we are having such lovely, gentle weather right now. My plants are responding as if it's springtime. I need to go out and do some herb pruning soon, i think.

Nice day!!! Going to water my winter garden today.

Watered the garden and did some yard work...and noticed the mosquitoes are breeding again! I think i need to cover my open water sources. :-O

My garden was covered for the winter today, thanks to the first big snowfall of the season, about 8-10 inches. I spent the afternoon shovelling out the driveway, little by little. Luckily I didn't have to go anywhere today!
From now on the only living things in the yard will be the many birds busily filling up at the feeders.
Meanwhile, I satisfy my green thumb by tending the 40 or so house plants until spring comes again.

Claybird, what kind of houseplants to do lean towards?

Thank you for asking, Jill. My favorite houseplants are ones that I've had for a long time, they are like beloved pets. There is the oleander that is a 40 year old clone of one my FIL grew from a cutting he took when on a trip to Arizona in the late 1940's, it blooms every summer. A 45 year old tangerine tree that my son grew from seeds when he was a little guy. It blooms every few years and has borne fruit. A Surinam cherry that I grew from a seed I collected from a hedge in Florida in 1979. A podocarpus that my eldest daughter gave me when she was in college. (class of 1975) Some are rescue plants; 2 beautiful Boston ferns that grew from a nearly dead nubbin that was on sale for the cost of the pot about 10 years ago, a peace lily that seemed to be dying when a local church threw it away and I snatched it out of the trash, it is now big and healthy and full of blooms. Some were gifts from friends who know I love plants. They all go outside in May and are brought back in before the frost hits in late September. Obviously the old ones are big, and have to be pruned to get them to fit indoors again. Every window in my house is full of plants, so I don't have any drapes or curtains to block the light. The only plants I can't seem to grow are African violets. Too bad, they are so pretty but I always manage to kill them off.

Same here, Jilly....

In Arizona, I just planted this season a few weeks' ago... my kale, spinach, garlic chives, broccoli raab, carrots, peas, etc. are just coming up.

yum!