Is it winter yet?
Snow-covered black-eyed Susans —>
December 6. It’s not technically winter according to the calendar, but Wisconsin weather begs to differ. There’s a lot less to do in the garden these days, but I still find plenty of tasks to put on my list. Here’s what I’m up to this week.
Bulbs
Ahem, I must admit something to you: I still have spring flowering bulbs to plant. Yes, during the first week of December. It is technically quite late for that here in zone 5, but what do I have to lose? I ordered over 300 bulbs from American Meadows and have planted most of them in the front yard, but I haven’t gotten around to digging in those designated for the back yard yet. The ground isn’t frozen, so I have some hope. I’ll report back in April! There’s no such thing as perfection in gardening.
The “prairie”
My little backyard micro-prairie is serving its wintertime purpose: providing some interesting texture for snow to fall on, shelter for wildlife, and food for the birds who hang around here in the cold months. While I plan to leave most of it up until spring cleanup (for those reasons I just listed), I do want to trim down some of the taller flowers that are obstructing our view of the red osier dogwood toward the back corner of the yard. Its red branches really show off during this time of year when everything tends toward gray and brown for a while. Last year, I heavily pruned the dogwood as it had become quite rangy and this year it came back with a delightfully bushy vengeance. I just wanna see those twigs!
The “potager”
Yes, I aspirationally call my two raised beds “the potager.” It’s like dressing for the job you want, not the job you have, right? I can hardly believe that I’m still able to harvest and grow cool-season veg into December, but we had an uncharacteristically late first frost this year. The landscape fabric over my super hoops is keeping them warm enough so far. We’ve had night time temperatures down to as low as 10 degrees Fahrenheit and yet the lettuce, spinach, and various brassicas soldier on.
I’m beginning to see seedlings emerge from the set of seeds I sowed in November after pulling out the spent first batch of arugula and mesclun baby greens mix. They have taken much longer to germinate than the same seeds did in September. My hypothesis is that it’s due to lower soil temperature. Every type of seed has its ideal temperature zone for germination and arugula’s, for example, is 60 degrees. Although arugula will germinate down to a soil temperature of about 40 degrees, it’s going to take longer for those sweet little seedlings to appear. Now that they have, they’re also likely to grow more slowly due to shorter daylight hours as we approach the winter solstice. The batch of radish seeds I sowed around the same time are also growing much more slowly than the first round, but I’m starting to see some true leaves appear. I have no real expectations of this winter vegetable garden, so every success is a joyful surprise!
