The Modern Victory Garden

Winter decided to arrive this week.   On Monday we had a storm system roll through the region that brought our first freeze and significant snowfall.   That in and of itself is not too terribly interesting or unusual for this time of year, but following immediately on the heels of the snow, were high winds, followed by a severe arctic freeze.     Record setting cold for our region in fact.   It was this one, two, three punch that made this such an interesting week.   We were fortunate and did not lose power during the storms (unlike about 40,000 other folks in our region) but we had quite a bit of debris blow down from the winds and the temps got down to 15 degrees,  which is much lower than our typical low temps for the area.   On Tuesday morning the snow had stopped and the winds were dieing down, but the cold air was just getting settled in.            

I already was scheduled to take Wednesday off from work to prepare for Thanksgiving, but I ended up not going to work on Tuesday either because the office closed for the day.   Both Tuesday and Wednesday ended up being extremely cold and blustery and were good days to just stay home and keep the wood stove burning warmly.    By Thanksgiving Day the weather started moderating and by today (Friday) we were back to our usual wet and mild winter weather.    First order of business on Friday morning was to check on the garden and see what the damage was from the multi day cold spell.    I was totally (and pleasantly) surprised to find that the only thing I lost in the freeze was the celery!   The greens in the greenhouse looked sickly during the worst of the deep freeze, but were all looking okay by Friday morning.   The swiss chard was particularly rejuvenated.                                

The corn salad (mache) lived up to its hardy reputation and looked beautiful and ready for another small harvest soon.                                   

In the garden the young over wintering spinach (growing under a grow tunnel cover) looks amazingly healthy and appears none the worse for wear.   I am glad I did not procrastinate in getting the spinach patch covered this year.   I delayed last year and lost my entire winter crop to an early surprise freeze (much like this one but not nearly as severe!).                             

The cold snap did spell the end of the extended fall harvest of raspberries we have been enjoying.   I took advantage of the improved weather today and pruned the raspberry canes – removing the dead canes and topping off the canes that were new growth this year that produced the fall harvest.   They will produce the summer harvest next year on the lower portion of the cane.      

It does not look like much right now, but thinning and pruning out the patch provides greater air circulation and sun exposure so it is prepared to take off again early next spring. In late February I will weed, scratch in a little organic fertilizer, and then mulch the raspberry patch with some compost.     

It seems we started winter this week and it did so with a rather grand entry.   The garden and plants in the greenhouse were adequately protected and composed of hardy varieties such that they weathered through it okay, with the exception of the celery of course.   It is quite dead unfortunately.    Luckily I had a good supply of sliced celery in the freezer, which was used to prepare the sage and celery stuffing for the turkey on Thanksgiving in place of a fresh harvest as originally planned.                    

So winter has arrived and I am now in my countdown mode… not for Christmas… but for the first signs of spring.                             

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener