The Maplewild Project My Little Garden Project

Even though winter is weeks away, it is coming early to Maplewild. Just after noon today the snow is flying. This will be a good test for my “winter crops”

It has been getting colder outside, time to sit down, light the fire and thumb through the seed catalogs. This morning the rain outside looked funny and it wasn’t really rain. It wasn’t snow either and it wasn’t hail. Call it what you will, things were turning white.

Champion Collard Greens Turn White

They tell me collard greens like cold weather, so I guess they’re happy. Same is true for the Siberian Kale. These plants seem to thrive in this weather.

Siberian Kale On Ice

I have a lot of bare ground due to the land clearing. Some weeds have started to take hold, but for the most part, all is barren. Two weeks ago I picked up some winter rye seed to cover up the exposed ground. It amazes me how tough that stuff is. Wind, rain and frost have been the norm lately and the seed grows like there is noting wrong. I even have a patch of clay soil (not a large area) and the grass is growing in that, no problem. There really is something magical about seeds.

Winter Rye Sprouts at 2 weeks
Although it looks like the roots are not digging into the soil, they really are. I just threw the seeds on the ground, some of it rather compacted, and they grow like nobody’s business.

Even though it is still fall, I would call this winter gardening. It has already been well below freezing, the killing frost has caused its damage. I am surprised that my garden still shows signs of life. I had planted some turnips and have forgotten all about them. They should be pretty dead by now, but I was wrong. I looked at them today and they are huge! And they are not dead, the greens are alive and well.

Abandoned Purple Top Turnips
Other signs of life include my collard greens. They have been frozen, windblown and rained on, and they look good.

Champion Collard Greens
Other healthy specimens are the kale plants. They look more vibrant now than they did a month ago.

Siberian Kale
This is also the time of year for cleanup. I have a lot of leftover work from the land clearing phase of this project. I have some forest slash to burn off very soon. There have been too many high winds lately to do any burning, but I hope for a break soon. This is one of the burn piles.

Forest Slash Prior to Disposal