New Year's Harvest

Last summer, I hemmed and hawed over whether to invest in a winter CSA share.  I was determined to light my coop and plant for fall and be (almost) self-sufficient.  Drowning in tomatoes in September, I decided there would be no lighting of the coop.  I didn't have time to figure it out.

I didn't have much time for planting either.  I half-heartedly threw potatoes in every available empty container - a bushel basket, some terra cotta pots, large plastic nursery pots, and a mound fashioned out of stakes and leftover chicken coop.

My potatoes this fall.

I threw out some lettuce and carrot seeds and invested in a couple six packs of veggies - broccoli, swiss chard, lettuce and bok choy.  I ignored the lettuce and it bolted.   The broccoli still has not "headed".  Will it?  I have no idea.  I clearly put the chard in to late as it has never really grown and 2 of the 6 seedlings have disappeared thanks to some pest or another.  But the carrots, the bok choy and the potatoes?

Oh yeah baby!  My not so hard work paid off as I hauled in this New Year's harvest (plus some additional mandarins).

And check out this last carrot that I pulled up?  Remember when I confessed that I could not grow carrots?  All that is in the past.  This supersized sucker makes me legit!  I'm a real gardener now!

Happiest New Year from me and my first time ever late December harvest!

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Winter Garden Walk

I haven't posted in a while due, in large part, to holiday craziness.  Today, though, I was forced to clean out the chicken coop.  I mean the girls really put down their clawed feet!  My time in the winter garden outside calmed, restored and rejuvenated.  Take a walk with  me and, for a moment, forget wrapping, baking, shopping and holiday'ing in general.

Satsuma Mandarin Tree

Navel Orange Tree

Native Grape on the Chicken Coop

Gravenstein Apple Tree

Bok Choy

Happy winter!

* I'm linking to the Homestead Barn Hop with this post.

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