Lessons from the Winter Garden

Daikon Fries

In many places, a winter garden is planted from mid-July to early September, so that the harvest is ready before the cold weather arrives. Thankfully, we don't have to worry about that. I've gotten away with planting seedlings into October and November with no penalty, simply because summer doesn't usually arrive until September anyway. 

Case in point - daikon radishes. Now I'm not the biggest fan of radishes. In fact, I'm not a fan of radishes at all, but our new Saturday covid ritual of picking up banh mi sandwiches, loaded with pickled daikon and carrots has made me change my mind (the errand has gotten a bit harder, now that traffic is almost back to its horrendous "normal").

Daikon is easy to grow, the tops and the bottoms are all edible, in this area they can be planted anywhere from August to November, and they last a long time in the ground if you are too lazy to pull them. So a new lesson - grow daikon radishes.

Don't grow cabbage, unless you have plans for kimchi or sauerkraut or something large and important. I grew three, and the one that weighed 6 1/2 lbs. took up a lot of space in the refrigerator. We never did quite finish it all. Pretty little lettuces are probably a much smarter choice.

You can grow some of your spring crops in your winter garden. I planted snow and snap peas in mid-October. We started eating them in late February (usually it's early March, but climate change is real, folks) and we haven't stopped yet. Luckily, our friends and neighbors have been quite generous about helping eat the excess.

They're BACK!

The gourd was hung in backyard in January, 2016 as a nesting site (it looked a lot fresher back then.). And that spring, and every spring since, it has hosted at least one round of Bewick's wren nestlings. Often two. 

Over the past few weeks, we have observed (from a polite distance, of course) a lot of "birdie-action" at the nest site: Chestnut-backed chickadees, Oak titmice and the wrens, all checking out the property. But until very recently, it wasn't clear who would be claiming the gourd this year. 

Bewick's wren, April 1st, 2021

So how did we know for certain that it was to be the wren's home again? Two days ago, one of the wrens was observed chasing away a Fox squirrel from around the gourd! We wish these fierce little ones all the best this nesting season.