Waiting for the freeze up and snow. We've actually had a very mild October/November, so far not even a hard enough killing frost to phase things like beets/chard or celery. I'm going to pull and pick the last few things tomorrow, daikons, celery, cabbages. Nothing much happens here for four months. March can't ever come soon enough for me.

You guys are so lucky. It's a bit mild now, but we've had temps. down to -10 degrees F that took out pretty much everything. I think the spinach I left to overwinter in the low tunnels may have survived but I haven't bothered to check.

I got the steel fence posts put in around the raspberries last Friday while it was snowing, then put the fence up and turned out the sheep in the garden on Sat. and the ground was frozen. Yesterday I noticed that the garden is almost clean. They still have some work to do in the asparagus, and I will have to pick up the black plastic I put under the melons this year now that the vines have been removed.

I'll have to have a visit with them later about the importance of cleaning up the asparagus patch and that I expect them to eat the corn stalks down to the ground. Generally they are pretty good workers and don't need much direction or supervision. They also have until March to get the job done, so there really is no hurry to it.

Finishing up my mulch hay today. It's left over from when I finished the vegetable garden last week. The veg area is 1/2 cover crop (oats) and the other half is under hay. Old, moldy hay. Some of it has cardboard under it, just to see the differences in all these techniques. I'll use my extra hay in the herb garden. I need to do some work in my aspargus area. Mostly pulling out the bermuda grass that sneaks in constantly. Could set up a small trellis system for my grape, though that can be done anytime this winter. Otherwise I think it will be time for cooking with my stored veg, and planning up next year's gardens! New fruit trees? Try some long beans? Maybe some sheep...

My garden is all put to bed. 8 hoop houses over as many beds, all with winter greens except one with overwintering onions, 11 beds mulched, 7 beds unmulched, 5 will need digging in the spring, one has garlic and another carrots and parsnips. Perhaps the mildest Fall of the last 15 years, it is 58F right now, only one freeze to 26F so far. The root cellar is also full, with cardoon cabbage and rutabaga, all under a pile of leaves outside.

Super mild here as well, which has allowed me to get well along on a big garden project that I have been planning for years and finally started a couple weeks ago.

My home garden slopes uphill toward the north, more-or-less, enough that it causes drought in summer. I brought in a small bobcat and stockpiled the topsoil and made a level cut in the subsoil where the slope is greatest. Building a retaining wall and incorporating a greenhouse into it as well. Long overdue, as I have never had a good seed-starting situation. This will be a passive solar greenhouse built into the hill and I believe it will allow me to start seeds by early february without artificial heat of any kind. Two big built in grow beds will provide winter greens in january/february also.

A view from week or so ago, it's a lot farther along now:

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Nice to see all of your photos. We jsut bought a new digital camera and I'm waiting for a block of instruction from hubby on how to use it all. I've never posted a picture before anywhere. I can hardly wait! It has been pleasantly warm here. One more day of 80 degrees and then it is going to plummet into the 60's for a daytime high. I enjoyed it while it lasted. I dug up most of the Amaryllis bulbs I planted a few years ago and I hope they will do better in pots. I never could get them to flower in the ground. We have Festival strawberries growing well in windowboxes, brussels sprouts and collards in the ground. I need to get some lettuce growing from seeds and maybe some kale. Our chickens love fresh collards and kale hand fed to them. They are spoiled rotten, but it sure makes for tasty eggs!

pnbrown -- nice planting of bamboo. Wbat kind? From the photo, it looks like either Phyllostachys aurea or P. aureosulcata. But, I don't see a single "S" shape cane, so I'm guessing of the 2, P. aurea would be the most likely candidate. Of course, it could be something else entirely.

Do you strip the emerging lower shoots from the canes to get that bare-halfway-up look, or does it just naturally grow that way for you? I've always wanted mine to do that, but they never do -- if I want that look, I have to take the time to strip each emerging cane by hand when they are partially developed but still soft. I guess its because mine are in relatively narrow beds, about 6 feet wide, so the ample light encourages the canes to branch all the way to the ground.

Busy harvesting away. Winter gardening in my 6 high tunnels. I have been transplanting some late lettuce, Kale, Tatsoi and green onions over the last few weeks. I have one bed of lettuce ready to be tore out. Debating on letting it sit or til it up and direct seed some more salad mix. Need to move the movable tunnels over the winter carrots and finish the last rails for the last movable tunnel growing spot.

Lots of clean up to do. If the days I can work and the days the wind doesn't blow would be the same, I it would all be burned off. Living out in the country does have some advantages. I can burn off the weeds and try to get rid of the weed seeds, seems to help.

Jay

I too noticed the bamboo right away. I have phyllostachys nuda, it does not get taller than 8 ft in Michigan. It has spread though, I probably have 200 canes by now, and dies to the ground most but not all winters, and always comes back. The shoots are very good but small and tough to peel.

I must profess considerable ignorance when it comes to bamboo.

The stuff I have is something a hireling of a neighbor planted for a privacy screen (on my property) and has over the years spread like mad, including taking over half my garden since I didn't realize how the rhizomes chase light. Invasive is an understatement. The machine almost could not break through the root mass in the top soil, just unbelievably dense. In heavy soil I don't think it would have been able to do it (the very sudden variation in the glacial till underneath was interesting also, hard-packed gravel giving way to almost stone-free sand in a distance of a few feet).

The bamboo is attractive and does do a great job of year-round privacy. It is really going to be great to have a big chunk of my productive ground back, though, and flat to boot.

Getting ready for the glass frame of the roof now:

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It is almost certainly phyllostachys, and the shoots will be choice. Try some in early May, lightly steamed with olive oil and vinegar. That wall, BTW, will stop it from propagating.

I sure hope so, it's a big part of the reason for building it!

No problem with cyanide in the shoots? I heard that can be an issue.

pnbrown -- the newest photo you posted proves the identity of your bamboo grove beyond the shadow of a doubt.

Check out the center culm in the group of 3 towards the left of the photo, directly above the pitchfork and in front of the piece of your future coldframe. The "S Curve" or zig-zag -- well, "Z Curve" might be more accurate -- in the culm is a classic characteristic of this species, and is extremely rare in other hardy bamboos.

Regarding cyanide in bamboo shoots -- there are traces of cyanide containing compounds in most species of hardy bamboo shoots, with the exception of so called "Sweet Shoot Bamboo" Phyllostachys dulcis. But, the compound, called taxiphyllin, is extremely heat-unstable, and breaks down almost entirely with the routine amount of cooking needed to make the shoot edible in the first place. I par boil for about 15 minutes, as it removes not only cyanide but any traces of bitterness as well as tenderizing any fibers.

Finally, I just wanted to say, great job there on the garden upgrades. Looks like it's going to be wonderful when you get it finished.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cool picture showing the Z Curve thing

pnbrown, your wall is really nice, and I can't wait to see your finished greenhouse. I also want to build a passive solar "something" to grow lettuces and more tender greens all winter. Most of mine do ok in low tunnels but with the wackiness of weather we are experiencing, I'd like to be prepared for anything!!

Thanks for the verification on the bamboo, Dennis. I would estimate the average size here at about 30' and 1.5" diameter. My location is more z7 than z6.5.

Grl, I have had good success with early spring cold frames. You might also try building a hot-bed in january if you have access to fresh manure. I used to build one every year by making a box out of hay bales, fill it with manure and put six inches of soil on top and a cold frame. Works great, for sure, but I got tired of doing it every year.

This project has turned out to be massive, I have worked on it more than half of my time for weeks, and as a professional builder my time is fairly productive. One gets a new respect for what people achieved before earth-movers when one moves a great deal of material with a shovel and wheelbarrow. It also becomes clear why 8-foot deep basements were a rarity!

Cozy, that is a big greenhouse. It looks empty, seems like you could have a lot going on in there until at least january?

Glib, are you able to carry lettuce through winter with hoops over the beds?

here is my bunker/greenhouse as of this afternoon. Almost ready for the glass that is coming next week. Already some plants in the back bed as you can see.

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Yes, lettuce planted in september will not mature in time here, but will not die either, giving you a fast start in the spring. Single layer hoop house. Romaine types are the hardiest, but Territorial has or used to have a winter selection.

I do strawbale cold frame. I would't put manure in there, simply for us, that would make it way to warm. I'm at least a zone 8 now, and just a few could spurts during the winter, really. Right now I use low tunnels with the heaviest remay floating inside of them over the crops (on the coldest times). However I want a passive greenhouse to grow in. I love the idea of the manure, and we are planning a unique worm composting system wall feature in the greenhouse..because in our climate it can either be too cold or too warm for worms. The same system on another wall could be used for composting horse manure from the local police stables. Super stinky though! :)

That's interesting glib, I never intentionally overwinter beds of lettuce but sounds like I ought to try with the wintering types of head lettuce.

Girl, I think a passive greenhouse will be useful quite certainly in a z8. My florida location is a cold z9 and if I spent more of the winter there I would build one there. For one thing I would house papaya, banana, and pineapple there for their first wintering so as to get them through to fruiting. Also to start the peppers and tomatoes, etc in early january. In a z8 I would think one could fall-sow tomatoes in the greenhouse and have ripe fruit by march.

I can tell that pnbrown is a true gardener at heart -- he's got plants IN the greenhouse before he has the glazing ON the greenhouse.

Right!

The weather has been amazingly mild but we are bound to get a heavy frost real soon, so plants in the bunker even without glazing will fare a lot better than elsewhere.

Sheesh, 12-14 hr days at work and like 6 hrs of daylight ( leave in the dark, get home in the dark) has all but put me in hibernation mode when home:(

I knew that all was not idle and that things were being done!

jrslick just wears me out contemplating doing as he does.

glib always has something in progress.

girlgroupgirl - knew that she was busy ;)

sunnibel7 - I knew was not just drooling over the seed catalogs ;)

zackey is always busy but has to get the camera in action!

But pnbrown, Stepping it up! That's fun ... and work! I'm seeing 12" blocks, looks like a well used/maintained Jackson wheelbarrow, rough sawn lumber ... yeah boy! That's good stuff. Would like to see the progress/completion! I've stewed on a greenhouse with 4 ft underground ... might get frisky one day yet.

I have starts in another greenhouse but still dangling on the fence as to try and grow something ( I'm late again) or get a big jump on Spring ( I can start onions next month) ... I have transplanted 3' tall 'mater plants afore.

I have grown 'maters in them during the winter but my my last effort was ended by a 4 degree night ... seems that I am not set up for that nor do I think that I wish to offset the difference.

Ooo, I want that greenhouse! Come down here and build us one!! :)

Cozy, seed-catalog drooling starts NEXT month, of course! And the onions and maybe a cardoon or two, and maybe one of the fussier chilis. Last year I got so "desperate" that I was starting sprouts for salads just to have edibles growing in January. As soon as Christmas is gone by suddenly it all just stretches like that last hour of school before summer begins and I CAN'T WAIT ANYMORE!!!!

pn How nice You will love it. I sure wish that I had the energy left to try building a substancial struture like yours. I have a unheated (8x8 foot 250 watt heat lamp for frost) Plastic covered hoop and think the world of it. Of course it is froze up now but it does extend my growing season by two mounths and what a great place on a sunny winter day for a cup of coffee! I did harvest up to the middle of Nov. witch for this area is well past frost. I winter sowed last year on Feb. 15 and the seeds were sprouting by March 15. That's about a mounth before the earliest sowing of salad crops up here

Curt

Thanks for the comments. The glass is coming wed, pretty exciting.