Late December Garden Chores
Besides harvesting, my only chores in the garden these days are hilling soil over the root crops for freeze protection. I like to wait until frost has knocked down some of the greens, but if I wait too long I risk a sudden cold snap and not enough time to get all the veggies covered.
The barley cover crop is looking like it is finally going to winter kill. Although it may not, a lot depends on our weather. If we get snow cover before a real cold snap, this may be as good as it gets. I’m still happy with the results though. Rye and oats would be taunting me right now with their verdant growth. Thank you… barley for being a snot green, slimey mess.
In my location soil hilling works the best for freeze protection and some vole control. I said some. What hasn’t worked for me is row covers or mulch. Voles love root vegetables, and if they are in a nice dry, warm location (like under row cover or mulch) they really do a number on the roots. So we try to get along, I plant extra and try not to sweat the damage, and I don’t provide hotel accommodations. The dogs and cats hunt them and we all have somewhat of a peaceful existence.
There is always a trade-off. I could plant less, dig everything and commit the vegetables to canning jars, the freezer or to a root cellar but we always have enough, and the work load seems to be spread out over the season in acceptable amounts for us so we continue on this path. I know how lucky I am to live in an area that doesn’t freeze solid during the winter months, so I can dig fresh root vegetables until spring.
Yesterday I spent about an hour covering the mangels, rutabagas and beets. My goal is to get everything covered this week. I split a lot of wood in the winter so doing a different task works different muscles. I’m not as young as I used to be 
Today I worked on the carrots. Now that I’m hilling, I can dispense with the deer netting and just use hog panels to keep out the dogs.
I lifted a weeks worth of carrots, hilled the remainder of the carrot row in this garden and replaced the hog panels.
On to the next garden tomorrow.
Food Renegade
Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op
It’s posts like this that remind me how lucky I am to only have to contend with heavy frost! Mind you, I’m not too keen on the cold wet ‘summer’ that we’re having at the moment!
Mel, I know what you mean!
I’m curious: what are you wanting the barley (cover crop) to do? Why is a slimey mess good, and better than verdant rye or oats? Thanks — I learn so much from your posts.
Raro, a nice green cover crop is good if you get dry spring weather to work them in and have two or three weeks of time to wait for them to decompose. Our springs are notoriously wet and I’ve had rye cover crop at 7 feet tall. A winter killed cover crop does it’s job as a soil cover for pounding rain, and then is mellow and easy to work when the time comes. Because I have animals I don’t need to worry about nitrogen fixing cover crops so that is why I’m using a cereal grain instead of something like clover or other legumes. It’s like growing mulch in place
Thanks for the info – I too was wondering. Your posts make me appreciate my food more and think how easy an urban lifestyle is. Although we live near London, England and have an allotment it is a hobby and I visit the supermarket for much of my veg – although we really enjoy our own produce. Somehow having to plan the trip to the allotment is one step too far often in the winter….
Speaking of voles….I am having a big time problem with moles…you know the little hills that you see everywhere this time of year in lawns?? How does one efficiently get rid of them? I would like to do it humanely, if possible. I can just hear the groans out there now! Who cares about a dumb little mole??
Anyway, I have tried that granular castor oil stuff….doesn’t work!!
Thanks for any suggestions!! PS. I have two dachshunds….you know…badger dogs that love to dig up things like that….seems they’ve lost that ability through the years!
Chris, Ha! I just had this conversation with a friend and my suggestion was to look at those mole hills as a gift. I know I’m crazy
But besides being a sign that you have biologically active soil (that is good)those molehills are like gigantic earthworm castings bringing up mineralized soil that your plants may not have access to otherwise. Dragging your grass would be the best thing to spread out all that free fertilizer.
And the best way I know of to get rid of moles is Weed and Feed or 16-16-16, it will fertilize the grass, kill the worms (moles favorite food) and then the moles for the most part will vacate. I know this works because the city where my husband works takes care of their park that way, and you should see the dead worms that litter the parking area after a big shot of nitrogen fertilizer. The park only has moles where they don’t fertilize the grass.
Those carrots are just too pretty. They look like they taste so good!! I can’t believe how much stuff you still have in your garden. Mine is a barren wasteland. Don’t know when it is really cold like now if we could still plant a cover crop? Also we don’t have a lot of moisture either. To clarify, obviously we can’t plant a cover crop now as in now in January but at the end of our growing season, Septemberish.
Interesting about the worms and the nitrogen. Hmmm. My cousin was trying to get rid of moles as well and found an absolutely hysterical review on Amazon about humanely getting rid of pests like that. The guy said something about 2,000 dollars worth of fruit trees dead and the moles/voles whatever snacking on his organic carrots while his kids ate storeboughten food. It was priceless.
I guess I should of clarified where I had the moles and the fact that I’m an organic gardener and NEVER use weed and feed…somehow using a product that kills stuff then because the soil is so….well…dead, you then have to fertilize the crap out of it, is for me…just wrong. Who-ever thought up weed and feed only had one thing on their minds and that was $$! Anyway, enough ranting about the chemical companies….Grrr!
I have a huge area that used to be lawn and because we were tired of watering, mowing and “organically” fertilizing it….we ripped it out and planted creeping, flowering thyme, which is beautiful and self maintained but that’s where the moles are….lots of them! In their defense…it’s also free aeration But…they need to go in this particular area…I don’t need them to do any of those free things for me!
PS. I would be sad to see a parking lot filled with dead worms! If they only knew how lucky they were to have them!!
Chris, I knew that, but couldn’t resist telling the story. Tax dollars at work… Trapping is about the best way, a few make a lot of damage and if you can get them at the right time, before babies are born, half the battle is won. At least moles don’t have too many babies
Ugh…I was hoping for a less lethal way! I hate killing things…no, I’m not one of those crazy people that wouldn’t kill a fly…I just feel bad when the thing I’m killing is not really harmful, just making things look unsightly…No, I don’t feel the same way about rats or mice if anyone is reading this and rolling their eyes!!