Is it cold enough?!
Recently we have had to endure really cold temperatures both in the day and at night. This morning was 14 degrees at 7 am when I went out to feed the barn animals and with the wind chill (10 mph) pushed it down to 7°degrees F. I had to wear 3 layers on both my bottoms and top, lined gloves, plus a fleecy headband covered by a wool hat. I looked like a bear with all that on! So I fed in their stalls so they didn’t have to endure the cold wind. I couldn’t wait to get back to the house. It’s been in the teens at night all week. But this coming week, the temperatures will rise into the mid 40’s in the day and nighttime temps will be in the 20’s. Ahh, almost balmy!
But what about the garden? What garden?! Mine has been shut down since we got that first hard freeze in late October. A hard freeze is defined as 28°F or lower. Crops pulled and compost was added on top of the beds. Everything is turned off drip wise and all drip timers are in the house with their batteries removed. To water the perennial veggies/fruits in winter, I have to hook up a hose and then drain the hose after I’m done so the water drains out and doesn’t freeze in the hose. Nothing worse than a frozen hose. I once had to drag the hose in and throw it in the bathtub in hot water to melt the water in it. I learned a hard lesson there. Now I always drain the hoses. A bit of a pain in the ass but watering is needed if we don’t get any snow. Luckily I didn’t have to water this past week as we got 4 inches here. I water around 1x every 3 weeks in winter unless it snows, and then I’m off the hook. This also goes for established fruit trees in winter or even your perennial bushes.
So what can we do in winter as gardeners?
-Research out new varieties of veggies online that I might try out next season
-Order seeds
-Research problems I had in the garden.
-Order your catalogs or go online.
-Check your supplies and get more if needed.
-Look for specials at our local nurseries and online.
–Search for topics on this site–all topics are on the far right side, just scroll down to view under ‘GARDEN TOPICS’. Lot’s of info here on this site for our area.
giantveggiegardener 
I agree with you about ordering seed. I’ve got three horse trough that I [lant my tomatoes in. Every one has bottom rot. Ideaas?
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I think you mean Early Blight that starts on the bottom with the leaves getting yellow spots and then the leaves die and works it’s way up? If so, you should replace about a foot of your soil with new soil. OR you can spray with copper fungicide next year as a preventative before you see it and also when you see it. Early blight spores live in our soil if you’ve been gardening for a while. It comes in the monsoon season when it is more humid and wet. I had it last year too. I didn’t spray because I was always so behind (because I Had Covid for 3 weeks and that put me behind in my chores but I will be spraying next year!
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No, it’s not blight with my tomatoes. It’s that the bottom of the fruit is brown and scaly. Like I said before, I put plenty of calcium and fortified amendments in the troughs every. Year. I’m at the point of planting other veg in the troughs. Thanks
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Well … I have to say life is ‘warmer’ after moving south to Los Ranchos. I have built a hoop house, containing four 4X8 raised beds (with drip) and a yesterday I put on new 6-mil covering.Yeah, I am late getting seeds started, but it is progress anyway. I enjoy getting your posts … keep ’em coming! Bob Markham
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Jannine, I had never scrolled down before: wh
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Pruning! That is what we can not keep up with at this time of year. The brevity of autumn and winter does not help. Because winter is mild, we can start pruning as soon as defoliated starts. (In the old orchards, pruning started prior to the yellowing of foliage.) Is your pruning delayed because the weather is so much cooler?
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