cabbage Archives : Page 2 of 2 : Cast Iron Garden

February 27, 2021February 27, 2021

Seeds and apple tree on a drizzling morning

Paula came over and we planted many things, as well as doing some trimming and raking.

The semi-dwarf Arkansas Black Apple arrived.

We planted it and pruned it to ensure it will have lower main branches for ease of picking fruit. The hose there burst in the freeze (I didn’t drain it) so we’re using the break to water it.

We trimmed up the garlic (this picture), as well as *Salvia* *greggii* and mealy blue sage.

The potato experiment results say don’t plant potatoes when there’s about to be a major freeze. There was a lot of rot and slime.

We put the leftover seed potatoes in that I had saved from two weeks ago.

Four varieties of cabbage for Paula’s fermentation needs and Wes’ occasional soup needs. As soon as they sprout, the best seedlings will get covered with a jar to protect from bunnies. They seem to be tasty for bunnies. We also planted assorted other cool weather things (greens and carrots).

Better than nothing, Briar says, but why don’t we do something fun instead?

February 21, 2021February 21, 2021

Kohlrabi and cabbage in dinner

The chef served a pork and tofu soup this evening with rice.

The soup contained (in no particular order) carrots, garlic, shiitake mushrooms, the round chunky mushrooms whose name I can’t remember, sweet baby bell peppers, Sichuan chile peppers, pork back strap (from Paula), tofu, soy, dashi, kohlrabi slices, cabbage, and kimchi (from Paula too).

Between the chopsticks you can see the green shred of cabbage and the kohlrabi slice. We’d never had kohlrabi before. It sort of just blended in with everything.

February 20, 2021February 20, 2021

More survival reports

I went out to get the kohlrabi and cabbage for Wes and uncovered some more areas.

The tops of most onions seem frost damaged. Not sure about their bases. We’ll see if they grow back this week or if I need to go get more.

Adjacent snow covered onions seem similar.

The chard is definitely frozen. Will be interesting to see if it comes back from its base or if I need to reseed it. Tucked under it is a ragged little cabbage.

I cut the kohlrabi at the base. Most of the leaves are in good shape, too.

The cabbage (left) and kohlrabi (right), harvested and set on the snow.

The Dutch corn salad greens are as hardy yet tiny as ever. I think from reading recently they don’t get much bigger, so I guess you’d need to plant a lot more than I do?

At the edge of the front nook, these strawberries and mealy blue sage were

Another towel and tub protected area. Strawberries look good and so does the oregano in the upper right corner (at the edge of the snow).

I think the sad little standing cypress has survived!! I put a bit of mulch around it after my last visit to it (when it looked very sad). The other front nook one and both backyard ones are still covered by snow.

By the time I got done outside Wes had trimmed up both the kohlrabi and the cabbage for use this evening.

February 13, 2021February 13, 2021

Snow and melting even at 18°F in the sun

The kale looks kinda wilted even under its glass cover.

Garlic has pretty snow and melted refrozen ce

Standing cypress seedlings look pretty wilty in the front yard but I have not checked the backyard ones yet. Lettuce, cilantro, and cabbages I’m unsure how they look (sort of like the sugar snap peas, they could go either way once it warms up).

February 11, 2021February 11, 2021

A new glaze of ice today

There are some very slippery invisible spots on the roads and sidewalks! Briar and I had to walk very cautiously.

“what did you do to the ground,” asks dog.

February 5, 2021February 6, 2021

Spring planting! It’s going to freeze next week!

Paula and I were going to plant things tomorrow, but it’s looking quite chilly. It’s just gorgeous out right now. So we spent a half an hour or so and got two kinds of onions (yellow granex and white granex) from sets in the beds, two kinds of potatoes in containers (experimenting with burlap sacks, potting soil bag, and cardboard boxes to make hilling them easier to get more potatoes), and seeds of French breakfast radish, green wave mustard, and Oregon sugar pod II pea. The peas we already have a few little vines of but I figured another round wouldn’t hurt to replace some since they blanch and freeze well if we get a lot.