Winter Heroes

When winter comes and most of the garden is fallow, there are still some heroes that provide fresh vegetables, vitamins and quality meals. These are the members of the crucifer and allium families. The low temperatures here have been in the low twenties and high teens for 4 nights. The rain barrel in the greenhouse has a ¼ “ skim of ice on it. The top 3” of the compost piles are frozen. The wood in the woodpile is stuck together. It is cold!!

The mustard, turnips, arugula and fall planted kale and radishes are still fine. The radishes are not big enough to pull yet and they are growing slow; but they are growing. The greens are tenderer and better tasting. We don’t usually pick them while they are so stressed. We will wait until after a rain perks them up some.

Last nights dinner was spaghetti squash. Fresh green onions from the garden and rosemary and thyme personalized the spaghetti sauce. Rosemary and thyme are winter hardy as are the onions. The only problem with the onions was that extra care was required in pulling them; because the ground was frozen. The spaghetti squash is a winter squash. It was picked in August and has been laying around in the dining room. It would probably keep for several more months. Sadly this is the last one.




David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/

Praise to Arugula

This blog cannot say enough wonderful things about arugula as a salad green. It has other uses as well. My wife got a super deal on turkey meat balls the other night so she made spaghetti and meat balls. We lined the bowls with arugula. The arugula adds a really nice taste to the spaghetti sauce and the arugula tastes great with spaghetti sauce. Sunday morning one of the cooking show hosts was making arugula ravioli. Ana wrote down the recipe. If it is good, I will find it and link to it for you. I will also give you instructions for Ana’s version.

The building of raised beds in the garden is progressing well. 12 beds are completed and either planted or mulched. 4 more have been built and filled with compost. It is raining today so the soil will probably be too wet for the rest of the week to put the dirt in the beds. I did scrounge enough wood to make 3 more beds.

In the greenhouse, the tomatoes have been planted in the indoor raised bed. Two of them died immediately; so I was glad to have a couple of extras. Spaghetti squash has been planted just to test the viability of the seeds. A lot of seeds have been saved from this years spaghetti squash and the excess will be given away if they sprout well. If they don’t sprout well they will be toasted.

David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/

Finally Rain

We had a couple of frog stranglers at the end of the week and the earth is showing her appreciation. The grass is growing really fast. We even picked a tomato finally. The kale just keeps on keepin’ on and the squash is still producing. The watermelons and spaghetti squash are growing. Even a few figs are getting ripe. Chris has been kind enough to bless us with some of his abundance and my wife made some fig preserves.

She did not use Chris’ recipe because it had too much sugar. Ana used a ½ cup of sugar, the juice and some of the zest from a lemon and a stick of cinnamon. No butter. Her preserves were like those that our neighbor Ruby Owens used to make when I was a kid. They were wonderful. My wife thought they weren’t sweet enough so she opened all the jars (except for one that I made off with) and added more sugar. They are just ok now.

The vacant rows in the garden still have not been tilled. That has to happen this weekend. There is enough compost on hand to make a new raised bed. I hope that will happen too. The time is almost here to plant the fall garden.

David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/

A Change is Gonna Come

A Change is Gonna Come

Every year is a learning experience in the garden. Some of the things learned this year that go into planning for next years garden are:

1) The watermelon fence is a great idea. The 2” X 4” wire lets the baby watermelons hang down on the inside. I will put some plastic hardware mesh on the top of the 2” X 4” wire next year.
2) The plastic wire for the cucumber fence is too flimsy for 8’ spans. Next year it will be on 4’ spans. I may even put rails there to support the vines better. There were hot peppers and herbs in the row as well to keep the bugs and other critters away this year. That seemed to help. I will do that again.

Some things I know are a problem. I just don’t know what to do. They will take some research.

1) The tomatoes are braced and tied as high as I can reach; but they still keep growing and fall over. If I make them any higher, I won’t be able to pick them without a ladder.

2) The squash plants wander all over the garden.

3) The spaghetti squash just plain died. There was only 1 squash and it had worms. That is the most delicious squash. Why can’t I grow them?









David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/.