Fall's My Favorite, But Winter's Here!

Two days ago, I finally admitted that winter is here. It's time to stop scurrying like a squirrel in autumn and settle down for winter. So, here I am, typing with one hand because of the cat on my lap, getting back to the blog. Watch for more to come!

December Ozark Gardening Calendar

Kitchen garden
Begin planning seed orders.
Clean up empty parts of vegetable garden.

Cold Frame
Watch Christmas sales for 7-watt Christmas lights for heating cold frames.
Harvest late crops from cold frame. Ventilate cold frame on warm days.

Cottage garden
Mulch perennials as ground begins to freeze.

Orchards
Continue harvesting pecans. Dry in shallow boxes for two weeks before storing in shells for up to six months. Freeze shelled pecans.

November Ozark Gardening Calendar

Cottage Garden:
Cut back daylilies.
Mound dirt around base of roses. Mulch if desired when soil mound freezes.
Cut back perennials to 3-4 inches.
Cut back mums wehn they finish blooming.
Plant spring bulbs before ground freezes.

Cold frame:
Continue harvest of lettuce, spinach, & mustard.

Orchards:
Rake & compost leaves.
Harvest pecans & walnuts. Finish drying in flats.

Why I Haven't Been Writing...

Lots, lots, lots of weeding plus theplacejournal.blogspot.com

New on the Bookshelf

My obsession with home canning books has surfaced again. I recently brought home the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. I once, in my foolish youth -- about five years ago -- I thought a friend was crazy when she told me she enjoyed simply reading cookbooks. Now, I read canning books for fun! And this is a fantastic one. If you have room for only one canning book on your shelves, I think this might be the one.

I've only made it through about the first quarter of the book, and I've already learned two bits that made the purchase worthwhile, not even considering all the fabulous recipes. First, glass measuring cups of more than one cup tend to be less accurate than single-cup measures. Second, you can make a temporary rack to turn a stock pot into a canner by tying together several canning rings into a circle. Cool, huh?

October Ozarks Gardening Calendar

Average first frost for Fayetteville, Arkansas, is October 17.

Cottage Garden:
Cut back perennials to 3 to 4 inches.
Plant early spring bulbs & lilies.

Wood lot:
Plant evergreens.
When leaves fall: plant deciduous trees & shrubs. Take hardwood cuttings.

October 1
Begin purchasing straw for spring mulching.
Kitchen Garden:
Plant garlic, cabbage, cauliflower, & English peas.
Pinch off ends, lateral shoots, & side shoots of cucumber vines.
Cold Frame:
Continue planting lettuce all month.
Cottage Garden:
Prune hydrangeas lightly & fertilize with 13/13/13.
Orchard:
Begin checking Fuji apples for ripeness.

October 15
Kitchen Garden:
Plant lettuce and gradually cover with leaves.
Dig sweet potatoes.
Harvest tomatoes and peppers when nighttime temperature dips below 55F.
Water fall-planted crops.
Cut the September-planted spinach down to 1" and leave uncovered until ready to harvest in March.

After first cold snap
Kitchen garden:
Plant spinach, Alaskan peas, black seeded Simpson lettuce, & lettuce. Dress with compost. After the ground freezes, cover with a thick layer of straw. When the weather moderates, pull off the straw and replace it later in the day.
Harvest winter squash.

Before first hard freeze
Orchard:
Harvest apples.

October 18
Cottage Garden:
Fertilize peonies with bone meal.
Begin planting tulips and other spring bulbs.
Pull annuals when plants stop blooming or are killed by frost.

October 30
Kitchen garden:
Cover the garden beds with a thick layer of leaves or straw, then cover with 6ml plastic.

Kitchen Garden Update

The Kitchen Garden is so beautiful that it makes me want to cry. When I first discussed it with Love, I envisioned beds made from the old fence we were tearing down, a couple of inches above the paths. I should have known better: Love doesn't do sloppy work. The beds are simply beautiful: made from western cedar, they rise six inches above the paths. Everything is square and true and perfectly proportioned. These beds will last for decades.

A huge pile of topsoil waits to go into the beds, and Love has compost on order. He's decided, after talking to the folks out at Chicken Holler, to go with a 2:1 mix, 2 parts topsoil to 1 part compost. We've started filling the beds in the evening, one at a time. First we break up the soil at the bottom of the box and then top it off with topsoil. Everybody helps: even the cats climb in at loosen the soil for us.

The whole thing will be surrounded by a chain link fence. I'll be planting English peas on that late this winter, followed by other vertical crops. I can hardly wait!

Tarts for the Sweet

Skye found this recipe in one of my collection of canning books, Sunset Home Canning. (Hey, it's an addiction -- I simply cannot pass one up!) Aren't they pretty? She made them all by herself. Actually, I picked up store-bought pie crust for her to use. We were getting ready for her Suzuki Book II party, making two dishes for a potluck picnic, and cooking for a friend with sick family, and I just didn't have time to teach her to make pie crust. She was fearlessly ready to make it from her Granny's recipe, but I suggested she take a short cut this one time and promised to teach her how to make pie crust soon. She used two favors of jam from our pantry: blueberry and raspberry. Have I mentioned that I have discovered the joys of homemade raspberry jam? I'm currently hoarding a second round of raspberries in the freezer for another batch of jam.

I Wanna Go.....

Last week brought our monthly issue of Rural Arkansas, the magazine of our rural electric coop, to our mailbox. One of this month's articles features Heirloom Seed Shop in Norfork, Arkansas. Who's up for a road trip, maybe next spring break, just in time for spring planting? I'd really like to see those 50 types of tomato seeds and talk to the volunteers who run the shop about heirloom seeds and organic gardening. Maybe a side trip to the Ozark Folk Center would be just the ticket....