Planting The Winter Food Plot

The Goldenrod is beginning to bloom.

The yellowing of the Goldenrod, and the blooms of what I call the early autumn bloomers, are always a pleasant and welcome sight. Their appearance means that the brutal lower coast summer season is behind us and that we are on the cusp of our long cooler season.

The daytime temperatures can still be plenty hot. We are still quite a ways yet from needing to pull out the thermals and hoodies. Mosquito dope is still needed.

The Cusp of Autumn, in this part of the world, means it is time to plant the winter garden … with a focus on vegetables that prefer cooler weather. It is a rare thing to have cold enough winter temperatures that will kill these.

One exception is broccoli. It doesn't take much frost to ruin broccoli when it is about ready to harvest. We've had that happen a few times. Another is cabbage. Freezing temperatures will ruin a crop of headed out cabbage. The heads freeze and split. The heads of ruined broccoli and cabbage can be removed to allow secondary heads to grow. I've done that but, since moving away from traditional rows and preferring raised beds and intensive methods in small spaces, I find it more practical and more productive to just pull the winter burned plants and start over with something else.

Building raised beds can be a bit labor intensive. 

Moving to the method was a leap for this traditional row gardener accustomed to disturbing the peace of nature while stirring the dirt with a tilling machine. The results of the leap and labor, where food production and manageability are concerned, are all on the positive side of the chart.

There is, like in anything else, a learning curve involved. Part of the curve is the reality that small well tended spaces will produce a lot of good food … food that is of much higher quality than anything bought at the stores and markets … food that costs only pennies to grow instead of multiple dollars to buy.

Kitchen gardens were once a norm. Growing one's own food was once a norm. This norm is gone and will likely, for most people, never be returned to. Abandoning this norm is, as I see it anyway, part of the sad disconnection from nature that characterizes this modern culture. We are forced by modern circumstances to live unnatural lives and we suffer a lot of assorted consequences on account of being disconnected from nature.

My son-in-law and daughter (our benevolent landlords at The Cabin On Huckleberry Hill) built this raised bed. There is a lot of horse manure beneath that layer of chipped mulch. The plan is to build a number of raised beds in this area, enough to provide for a lot of our fresh picked food needs.

The collard and kale plants that I planted Monday show just a bit of transplant shock. They'll do just fine.

It is work. It is hard to call it work. Call it pleasant work. A few sprinkles from the rain on its way. The rumbling of thunder. Some of it close. The not-too-distant sound of iron wheels on the track and train horns blowing at the RR Crossing. The sounds of acorns falling from the oaks. The sound of an occasional bird chirp that I'm not familiar with.

The little Satsuma tree was a gift from a friend on the occasion of my 62^nd birthday. Satsumas are a fairly cold hardy citrus that resembles Tangerines.

I raked back the mulch to expose the soil beneath, scratched it a little with the 4-pronged cultivator, sowed seed, scratched them in, and gave the planted areas a good watering.

In a few days the turnips will start sprouting and showing some green. It can take a week or two for the beets to begin emerging. The carrots can take up to three weeks to start showing up.

Turnips?

I buy two types … Japanese and Purple Top ... mix them in the pack, and sow them together. The Japanese greens are milder than the Purple Top and don't produce the nice roots. The blend makes for a nice pot of turnip greens and the Purple Top's give us a some nice roots.

Lettuce?

Gray Matter Episode. I forgot to get lettuce seed. I usually get a couple types and mix them as well.

Mental note: Get lettuce seed and don't forget the Arugula!