Winter, what happened?

Winter has come and gone, and Spring arrived on the 20th.. so what happened?  The answer is 'not much'.

Seeds were planted a couple of weeks too late at the end of Autumn, and between hungry squirrels, cold snaps, and just not enough time to build up robust plants - I ended up busy with house projects (like working out hot to heat a huge house when the old inadequate furnace gave up the ghost) and in the end, although it doesn't get freezing cold in South Georgia, it got to the point where I decided it was more fun to close shop for the Winter and move on to woodworking and DIY projects that were piling up.

Yep, that's a fine patch of weeds up there ain't it?

 Things WERE learned though - apart from 'don't plant too late in Autumn'. Brussels Sprouts don't mind the cold, nor Kale.  This Kale was planted last summer and transplanted to the back of the bed.  The sprouts I'm not sure about - 2 of the plants (in the middle) have some little nubs on them, but the outer ones were stumped. Since this photo they've grown even bigger - so don't crowd your sprouts - leave a square in between and work out something that can grow up between them, and preferably up OVER them.
A good friend gave me book on companion planting for Xmas, so I'll be reading up on what I can do with a vacant square - because sprouts should be on the menu.

If you want something to grow over the winter - Turnips seem to be up there too. These weren't even planted! I'd grown Turnip greens next to an old pepper plant in the Spring of last year, and come late Autumn lookie what I find! Turnips sprouting up all in there.
I'm going to pull them soon and make way for eggplant and peppers again.  I had good luck and very high yields last year with those, so much so that I ended up loosing produce 'on the vine' because I couldn't find time to pick them all.. happy problems!

Other winter problems - cold/hot/cold/hot and sun doesn't do cheap plastic any good. My old racks literally collapsed over the winter.
Mind you these were cheapie 'WalMart Specials' and meant for indoor use. I've used them for the last 5 years, so they did their job and can go off to the graveyard happy.  I do have something sturdier to replace them, so it's all good.

I'll be using my tactic of sprouting replaceables like lettuce and others in pots and moving to the garden as they are ready. It's a good system that's served me well - although the pots could do with a good recycling of soil.

The herb garden was looking a little ratty (well rattier before I cleaned out the leaves and such). Sage, Thyme, and Chives lasted the winter out - Basil, as expected, dried and died - but this was planned to. This was taken before I pulled the plants and crushed the seed pods, giving me ample seed for this years Basil.  Those 9 plants from a pinch of seeds gives back more than you originally buy..  This years replant will use 4 plants per square and only 2 squares - I *STILL* have dried Basil in the kitchen from last Autumn. I'm going to try some new herb drying methods this year, so we'll see how they turn out.  I have one Garlic plant there - but that's ok as I don't really cultivate Garlic at all - I plant it as a pest deterrent and only use the greens in cooking, where they make an excellent substitute for 'proper garlic'.

My Nemesis.. fire ants.  When I moved in here the backyard was one huge fire ant colony - the grass was thinned and rubbish and these little bastards were everywhere. I eradicated them and revived the lawn.. it's green, but needs more grass - but like roaches, so long as you have neighbours, you'll have these guys moving in.  What I used the last 2 years isn't as responsive as what it once was - I'm putting it down to both age and the little beggars getting used to it... These guys I've chased all over the yard and have now narrowed it down to just 2 small mounds.. I've stocked up on 3 different types of baits to get them out before the weather gets hot.

With heating problems over the winter solved by only heating the required areas of the house (living room, bedrooms, office - kitchen and laundry heat themselves to an extent), Vermicomposting slowed right down. The temps dropped inside pretty low, but not low enough in the tubs to do in my worms.  I moved one tower under the stairs next to the water heater, but that only had room for one with the current arrangement - keeping it within the 60-80 degree 'sweet spot' - this let me compare the effects of temps directly between 2 bins.  As expected the one kept just 10 degrees warmer did quite well - whereas the other slowed to a snails pace.
At the end of winter I had around 50 lbs of castings and not much to do with them at the time. I've since done a BIG amendment of soil in the gardens, and let the bins have a 'vacation' - as in not emptying them and letting the worms work through all the lower levels.  If this plays the way I hope it will, I'll start the Spring season with several trays empty and a good concentration of worms working on 'the tray at hand' rather than spread throughout the system.  This may cause a slight population decrease, but that's what this experiment is about.

Oh never full compost bin, how I love you! This is post Autumn/Winter cleanup. With all the leaves from the frikken magnolia tree swept up, and all the Xmas paper broken down - this baby is STILL only 3/4 full.  it just keeps breaking down and feeding that lawn!  This year I plan to sheath the lower half in plywood and put in a door so I can shovel and sort out some of that near year-old goodness and spend less on potting soil and the like. I think I'll put in a new sandbox for the kiddies while I'm at it.  This also took the brunt of the vermicomposting slow down  - so like my own private landfill it's been chugging away on paper waste over the Winter as well. Even if I have to wait another year to get something out of his, it's still doing a bang up job of keeping stuff out of the trash can.


So, with some small amount of time on my hands it's time to get things in the ground for Spring. These pictures were taken Pre-Solstice, and I've gone through and weeded the beds, even planted few early starters, but it's still good and busy times ahead. I have plans for Spring/Summer and it's all going to start now.  My garden supplies for the year have been bought, we'll catchup with the 'State of the Yard',  go through the construction of a new garden bed, HOPEFULLY start our dedicated squash bed, and start the prelims for April potatoes!

Lets get it started!