Winter Woes

I am not a lover of Winter. Outside the Charamon Garden, it is forty shades of brown. It is not a pretty time of year in West Texas. We had a good color display in Abilene this autumn but those beautiful leaves were soon on the ground.

Usually my garden is a green oasis in the midst of the brown. But the current freeze has been so hard I covered everything I could with floating row covers attempting to minimize damage (not working too well as my last inspection confirmed). So the beds with Carrots, Lettuce, Swiss Chard, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Kale and Collards are out of sight. The garlic and cover crops offer the only green with their wild winter grass, Austrian Winter Peas and Hairy Vetch. It has been so dry (well over 50 days now) that the places that don’t get water from the well are parched and dead.

I had hoped to supply greens for the folks brave enough to come to the market on Saturdays but the cold has brought everything to a halt. I usually go out for my morning coffee and break the ice in the birdbath for the thirsty avians but this morning it was frozen solid. This global warming is killing me!

It is even too cold to pull weeds. Some hardy souls may venture out to tidy things up but I figure it can wait until my fingers won’t turn blue. So, I stay in the study and write blogs like this.

Gardening in West Texas is a challenge. Eight years ago I began improving our sandy/clay/alkaline soil and it is really looking good and growing most vegetables well. Our water is not ideal as it is full of gypsum and sodium but it sustains things until the next good rain. The weather is unpredictable with a sunny warm day on Monday and bitter cold on Tuesday. We have gentle warm breezes one day and fierce and unrelenting winds the next. Now, now, stop crying…I knew what I was getting into! I don’t think I would know how to garden where it rains regularly upon fertile loam and the seasons are predictable.

In the meantime, eat your veggies. Nonnie and Pop said so!

Garden Report for December 2008

Winter has arrived in West Texas. So far, it is a dry one with no rain for more than 50 days! I am thankful to have a good well even if the water is a bit silty and hard. The vegetables don’t seem to mind.

We are still going strong with lots of Swiss Chard (Silverbeet), Kale, Collards, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Carrots and Lettuce coming right along. We also have begun harvesting Sunchokes (Jerusalem Artichokes). We have cover crops of Austrian Winter Peas and Hairy Vetch growing well.

Charamon Garden has made its first venture into the market selling our greens and the last of the Eggplants.  We appeared at the market for three Saturdays but now, with the onset of cold weather, production has slowed to the point where there is not enough surplus to sell.

The market is something that has to be planned for…so…I will do better planning as spring approaches.