Waiting for winter now in the garden

I have no idea where summer went, at the time I thought the hot days would never end.  Now on the other side, I long for a little more sun these days.  All in all the garden did great, loving the heat, growing fast and providing  much needed food for our pantry.  The only downside of one particular heat wave was low pollination on some of my cucurbits.  While not too big a deal on the cukes and summer squash, our Sweet Meat missed a week of pollination and therefore a week of setting fruit at a critical time, so our winter squash haul is less than previous years. 

I miss this view…

But this view is pretty good too – a garden full of food for the long winter months ahead.  Our climate is moderate enough to allow me to store our root crops in the row where they grew.  Now I am playing the waiting game for a frost severe enough to kill the tops backs on the plants.  I mulch with soil to protect from freezing, but until the tops die back a little, that task is almost impossible.

It’s hard to tell just what is in that jungle except the dogs, so here are a few close-ups of what is still in the gardens, and that we hope lasts until spring.

Rutabagas.

Parsnips for Della mostly and us too.

Carrots with deer netting over the row.

Beets that are also relished by the deer.

Daikon.

Kohlrabi.

Celeriac.

Celery.

Italian Parsley.

The last of the cauliflower.

Lots and lots of savoy cabbage.

Some plain cabbage.

January King winter cabbage.

Lots and lots of Kale. 

Even more Kale.  We eat a few brassicas through the summer, but our moderate, damp climate allows them to excel during the fall, winter and spring.  Kale in the summer is normally not at it’s best.  This is also one of our most economical, and cold hardy winter chicken greens too, anything too rough for the house is relished by the chickens.  And we relish those kale fed eggs

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