Anything Growing now?

[superfleurs]

I just thought it might be fun to hear from various people in different parts of the world as to what (if any) vegetables are growing and harvestable, in their gardens at this moment.

I am harvesting leeks, parsley, swiss chard, and chinese mustard. I'm into soups. I have some broccoli plants growing, but no flowers, so I'm not sure what is going to happen with these. Not much, but it IS winter, after all.

[cynthia_h]

Happy Solstice, everyone!

Last night, at my house, I "harvested" some parsley and cut some onion tops (= green onions) to add to a late-season Roma tomato sauce for pasta. Parsley, onion tops, and the very last orange/red and red Romas were collected by the light of a flashlight.

Today at MIL's house in Palo Alto (Sunset Zone 15), I removed the once-frozen tomato vines from the Square Foot Garden DH and I created there in June. I smoothed over the soil and planted kale (Red Russian) seeds, rapini (broccoli raab) seeds, and fava beans.

I don't know whether I'll actually get any food from these seeds, but I just couldn't STAND thinking about all that really nice growing medium for the next month...and no competition for the bird- or squirrel-distributed weed seeds.

Can't say that I've ever planted on the Winter Solstice before...but it felt like a seasonally supportive thing to do! And I definitely did NOT want weeds to have the SFG to themselves during the rainy season.

And all the tomato vines (four or five 5-gallon buckets' worth of squashed vines out of less than 16 square feet ) went into the Biostack composter I set up last June at MIL's house. Talk about low-maintenance compost: I throw things into it once a month, when I visit. I add water once a month, when I visit. I'll probably turn it, or at least aerate it, in March to see whether I have any results. I'll be truly surprised if I do, because the proto-compost is very low in browns. It's almost entirely yard waste, but no leaves (MIL has a magnolia tree) have been added to it so far as I know.

But again, Happy Solstice and happy gardening (or garden planning...)!

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[superfleurs]

Wow, lucky you, being able to harvest tomatoes this late! Then again, year round gardening means more weeding.