cover me up

COVER ME UP
usually around here we get a freeze about this time
sometimes though its been way into december
however
this year its coming early
probably if you are reading this blog in the us
then you are feeling the effects of that first
polar vortex they call it hitting all of us everywhere

it looks like it will be around here for 2 weeks
so
since we mainly heat our house with wood heat
i gathered all my wood in to my woodbox inside
and
loaded up my woodburning stove
we purchase a cord of wood each year
sometimes we need more and sometimes we have
some left over at the end of winter

so this morning i loaded up the wood stove after
running it at a low burn overnight
sturred the coals up real good
and this above is what i am looking at
as i write this blog

yesterday outside since i knew we would be getting
freezes i harvested all of my fall stuff that i could

most of these are pabloma peppers
for some reason they liked the weather this year
and went crazy growing
mixed it with this are
okra green tomatoes bell peppers jalepeno peppers
and banana peppers

fyi i will wash the bell the pablaoma and the jalepeno
peppers off well
put them in labeled ziplock bags
suck out all the air with a straw then seal them up

are you reading this my wife she
properly labeled and DATED

taking them out over the next year as i need
we just finished last years crop last month
i just take out the pepper i want
and
chop it up its so easy since its frozen

then out to the garden where we have a bed of
winter stuff
garlic arugulas kales asian greens broccoli brussel sprouts
the bed is 14 ft long and 4 feet wide

this stuff is cold hardy but a deep freeze can destroy them
so
i take floating row cover
i use the thick version in the winter
it allows light through
and
allows rain to go through
it povides about 8 degrees of frost protection
these plants will like this cozy environment and
seem to just grow faster

on a sunny cold day it feels warm in there
if it gets warm the row cover needs to be opened up

i start with the grey 10 ft electrical pvc
it seems to weather better
i cut off the ends at a sharp angle
then shove the ends down into the ground
some folks just use 18 inch rbar and slip the
pvc over it
i also run a pvc down the middle and tie it up
with zip ties
this seems to hold it all together better when the
heavy winds hit

i then slip the row cover i get at a local nursery
its 12 ft wide and longer than the bed

i them clamp the base of each pvc pipe with
these clamps i get at home depot for a dollar

so now i have a toasty environment for these plants to
grow

i also have this salad garden which has beets carrots
lettuces spinach peas swiss chard cabbage asian greens
cilantro in it

i made hoops like that above and covered it with row cover
fyi that spray bottle on the little windmill is bt spray i use on
my plants that have holes eaten in them
it kills the insects that do that

last weekend the cental texas gardener on klru the austin
pbs station had a section that lasts about 5 minutes
done by the guru organic gardener john dromgoole
on how they do this at the natural gardener
one of the top rated nurseries in the us

if you click here
then go to about the 21:55 minute
you will see an excellent video on how to do this
by the expert

bon appetit

the organicgreen doctor