Lettuce + Chicory

 I want to share what we are eating in Palm Rae Potager this week. My goal this year was to continue past Thanksgiving with salad greens. I use intensive plantings which means, I can harvest numerous times. This bed of bronze arrow has been going since the middle of the summer. I use fish + seaweed fertilizer after I remove the lettuce down to the base. I leave about 1-3 inches at the bottom and fertilize again. It always returns with this beautiful color. It is particularly tasty and not bitter even in the late summer.

I always have to include the color red in my salad. I have tried a variety of red lettuce types, and this is my favorite! Lolla Rossa is turning a pretty red color in our frosty nights. This one takes a bit longer to fill in than the Bronze arrow, but it is well worth the wait!

This is a patch I started late summer. We will be using this patch in the next few weeks. I have bronze red oak type and Little Gem which is a beautiful color

I started this chicory in late summer, and I'm using the Red and Green Chicory as a loose leaf in my fall/winter salad mix. They are uncommonly pretty with the red and mottled leaves.

Red and Green Chicory from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

Well, winter is approaching, and I feel like this statue. Thinking about what I will be growing next spring. I also want to start my  microgreens inside. I will keep that for another post.

weather this week

35-41 degree days consistent

22-25 degree nights consistent

 .....and greens are holding up without cover at night :-)

Lemon Thyme

The other day I noticed my lemon thyme still fresh and blooming under fall leaves. I decided to include it in chicken soup. It was fantastic! I picked this herb, for it had variegated leaves and lemon aroma. I do not use thyme as much in my daily cooking, but I plan on in the future.

Lemon Thyme Tea....delicious!

Fall Grasses for Thanksgiving outdoor and indoors

Palm Rae Potager is filled with a variety of grasses. Early spring we cut down our grasses and mulch them in our garden beds. They fill in beautifully and make sensational boundaries and privacy throughout our city lot.

What I love most about grasses is they produce movement within the landscape. They provide year round interest throughout the potager. During the summer, they make beautiful room dividers within the landscape, providing privacy or backdrops to flower,herb and vegetable beds.

                           While we clear out our garden in the fall, we collect many dried flowers to arrange in winter vases since we do not have fresh cut flowers from our potager until spring.

These are  Endless Summer Blushing Bride Hydrangea dried flowers. I love the subtle shades of color.

 The grasses fluff out after they are indoors for a few days. I think the texture the grasses provide make a pleasing contrast.

Limelight Hydrangea is a delightful bush for the garden. You can trim the branches down to the ground, and they will bloom every summer. They also provide beautiful flowers for your home year round.

November Final Blooms





Simple white mums...

 A container of parsley is still providing color and food for a fall salad.

Beautiful Fall Day

The grasses are all turning a golden color, plumes shooting skyward, and a bird resting on a tiger eye sumac bush that once was a tree.

purple vegetables running through a  fall garden....

I covered all my fall vegetable raised beds and containers last night. It is now the time of year where I have to keep my vegetable beds covered every night since it is usually below freezing.

Lemon Basil

I grow a variety of basil, but this summer I decided to try a lemon Basil. It has a terrific lemon smell which can be used for tea and cooking. I decided to swap out my usual Genovese basil this summer for a few experimental pesto recipes. I tried a variety of nuts and basil to see how they tasted. I had several people try my new Lemon Basil Pesto,and it was a favorite with some people. It is getting mighty cold here in zone 5, consistent 20 degree nights and average 40 degree days. I decided to try and freeze my lemon basil pesto in containers. My goal is to have my potager provide food all year and I do harvest and store somethings for winter.

Golden Snow Peas

My snow peas have been producing the past month. We have enjoyed them in stir fry and salads. I'm a bit concerned with the 20 degree nights. As I cleared the garden this weekend, I noticed the usual 20 degree nights may cause my snow peas to stop producing. If it warms up to 40 degrees during the day, my snow peas seem to be holding on since I do not cover my snow peas. The snow peas have grown taller than my 6 foot trellis.

They have these beautiful purple blossoms that turn into a lovely lemon colored snow pea

I took out my tomato, basil and pepper plants a few weeks ago. I let all the flowers fill in as the weather got colder. Yesterday I collected seed from my flowers I wanted to grow next year and cleared out my Northern garden. My calendula flowers were still blooming in this cold weather, but I used them for my compost. It was hard to do, but it had to be cleared for next spring plantings.

Aster

One of the last blooming flowers in Palm Rae Potager 2011

Mustard Baby Greens in November Salads

 

I grew a variety of mustard this summer. I use them as baby greens in my salads, which means they do not grow as high in my close plantings. I have been cutting greens from this container for the past month. They grow back making lovely lacy additions or provide splashes of red color to any salad or recipe.

Adding red mustard greens + kale +  chives + eggs= a wonderful morning brunch wrap

onion + garlic chives are still holding up under the leaves in the courtyard

In my haste, this past summer sowing, I find this pretty, lacy mustard tucked in a bed of Lollo Rosso Lettuce.

Potager Fresh November Salad

Fresh bronze arrow lettuce, mustard, kale, purple carrots, golden snow peas, parsley and Swiss chard

I wanted to share my salad I picked today, after those vegetables were under snow. They taste terrific today, but it is extremely cold outside. It dipped down to 25 degrees last night. It was 37 degrees when I picked this salad. I was worried my greens would not survive the snow fall on Wednesday. I will cover them today before dusk. I'm finding that many of the vegetables are surviving just fine in Palm Rae Potager zone 5 area this November. I noticed my Purple of Sicily Cauliflower is forming a head! I enjoyed some this past spring, so I'm looking forward to fall cauliflower. I love my purple vegetables!

This is the foundation of my salad before I add nuts, cheese, homemade croutons....yum!

I wrapped all my green tomato's in paper and left some on my table. They are turning red/yellow/orange. They are not as flavorful as during the summer, but I love having them in my fall salad.

Blanket of Wet Snow

Welcome to Winter in Palm Rae Potager

As I drove home today from Iowa, it was snowing and raining. It was pretty! I noticed the people that had landscaped their properties with pollinating plants, grasses and vegetables were just beautiful! Places for the animals to hide when the cold weather arrives. Here, are some pictures of Palm Rae Potager after a rainy November snow!

French Marigolds still have their fall color...



Tall Aster Golden color draped over the snow....



Tall Grasses falling over....I just thought they looked beautiful across the landscape today.....



My winter Kale will survive after this snow....



snow did cover the grass a bit on the ground, it was heavy and very wet!

red roses look lovely against the wet snow




no more privacy in potager

 

I worked on my Berry plants this weekend, thank goodness!



I love the Large Marigolds and how they are still holding their color.

We are getting wet and it is time to go inside

Mr. Mugwort Agrees.....

Food Shortage why we need to grow food in our backyard!

When I was diagnosed with cancer in 2000, I found food growing a necessity if I wanted fresh, clean, organic food. It was too expensive in the store to buy organic vegetables, and it was shipped from out west! How silly when all I needed was to remove part of my lawn and produce MORE of my own food. We always had a small kitchen garden which was planted in spring, but now I needed to grow year round!

Tete Noire Winter Cabbage in Palm Rae Potager

This past week I read two exceptionally well written articles about why we need to grow food!  Most of us that grew up in the 60's and 70's remember our parents having vegetable gardens, in our yards. My parents remember their parents with victory gardens. This is not a new idea. In fact, in college they cleared the area near our apartments, so we were able to produce food! We all had a 10 x 10 lot for each apartment in the complex.

Golden Snow Peas in November Fall Zone 5

I have a terrific neighbor that is 80 plus years old. She remembers our neighborhood had vegetable gardens in most of the yards, but now I'm the only one on our block with a kitchen garden. Last summer she asked me to give her some of my green beans, she missed them so much! My family is from the Chicago area, and we grew food every summer on our city lots. We had quite sizeable kitchen gardens on small lots in the suburbs and  in the city! I remember eating all summer long from our kitchen gardens.

I think after reading these articles we all need to grow food!

Bronze Arrow Lettuce-Great One for City Lots! Mine is loving this fall weather.

Datura Unfolding

We need to change like this Datura and learn to grow food locally YEAR ROUND, so everyone can enjoy healthy, clean, affordable food! 

Tatsoi

Tatsoi

I started this Tatsoi early summer, and it is just taking off and tasting pretty marvellous in our fall salads. I transplanted my tatsoi plants to another bed late summer to be able to protect them with cloths for winter salads. I watered them regularly for the first few weeks, and they did just fine. They are taking off now since they love our chilly weather.Below is a wonderful site for more information.

http://www.food.com/library/tatsoi-716

We enjoy including it in our Fall Salad mix

Violetta Pac Choi

This is a new Purple Pac Choi that looked a bit intriguing to me this year. I have limited space and choose to include the vegetables that give me the biggest nutritional punch for my time. I know this is a (F1)hybrid, but I thought I would give it a try in our fall salads. I think the seed is a bit expensive and not as productive as the green tatsoi, but it is quite tasty and it creates beauty in our fall salad! I am partial to any vegetable that is purple and it looks lovely in a container.......here is more information about this new variety.

http://www.territorialseed.com/product/8679/275