Winter 2019/20, Zone 8b: Garden Updates

This post catalogues my garden activity during our first winter in this zone 8b home.

Fortunately, we had a few harvestable plants that thrived through the cold season such as carrots, arugula, and cauliflower.

Carrot I grew from a rainbow carrot seed blend on Amazon. Supposedly, this white aesthetic used to be the only color we had before orange and purple varieties emerged.

This bed receives full sunlight nearly all day in a north-facing bed. I noticed the leafy greens are a bit smaller and tougher in such intense sunlight, even during the winter.

In preparation for early spring, I sowed lots of greens in my west-facing garden bed. 

This bed is on the west side of the house and the end closest in the picture is pointing north. Notice the large leafy green in the back right.

If you guys know a convenient way to label plants, please share! My method of marker-on-white-tape faded in a week.

Why did I choose this spot? During the last calendar year, a cauliflower (or was in broccoli? I'm still working on a labeling system) plant grew in this somewhat shady area of my yard and outperformed all my other brassicas that were in sunnier spots. This makes sense, because plants with big leaves tend to do well in the shade. So, I created the above raised bed for brassicas and other leafy greens. In it, I planted turnips, beets, cabbage, sorrel, cauliflower, spinach, kale, and arugula!

Toward the slightly sunnier end of the bed, I also planted a few herbs including oreganos, sages, thymes, cilantros, and parseleys.

In retrospect, I should have given the parsely and cilantro much more room. They grew quite a bit!

The winter is a great time for big changes in the yard. I use my usual gardening energy to do garden-centric projects that don't necessarily consist of growing plants. So while my garden was somewhat dormant, I added some much-needed nitrogen to my compost pile in the form of horse manure. Before adding to my garden, I tested it to make sure there were no growth-stunting herbicides in it by growing radishes in a mixture of 1:1 compost:potting soil (radishes grow quickly and should be affected by persistent herbicides if any are present). The radishes grew just fine, so I'll be applying to my beds any day now!

I managed to get the compost to 120*F (49*C) for a few days, although 140*F (60*C) is ideal for destroying weed seeds, which are much more prevalent in horse manure than cow manure.

This compost went from completely inactive to literally steaming hot after adding the manure. Nitrogen is important!

Also on the subject of compost, I built a nicer looking rustic-style compost bin from crepe myrtles I sacrificed when we moved in. It's a work in progress but it's nearly done!

Stepping away from the compost, let's talk about mulch. Many cities provide free mixed-source wood mulch for their residents. I want to cover my entire backyard with this woodchip mulch so that 1) we can walk around the yard right after it rains without stepping in mud and 2) the ground underneath becomes moist and loamy over time. Organic mulches trap water like a sponge which reduces watering requirements and also decomposes slowly to feed the soil beneath it.

Some of my favorite projects this winter involved long-term plants. I chose this time to install a few fruiting perennials/trees, because when plants are dormant for the winter, they experience less stress during a transplant. It's important to know the chill hour requirements of a fruit tree to ensure you will get fruit from it. Just as important as it is to look up hardiness zones for the plants you grow. Otherwise, it's a bunch of work for no harvest. I'm excited to one day harvest from grape vines, a peach tree, a persimmon tree, and even a few tree collards!

Black Spanish grape

La feliciana peach

I removed this flower so that the peach tree puts more energy into growing new roots instead of fruit this year, but not before snapping a photo. My wife loves these flowers :)

Bought these tree collard cuttings on Amazon. Supposedly, they grow as small tree-like perennials in zone 8. Very excited for a consistent source of leafy greens.

Stick 'em in the dirt and they grow roots. Biology is basically magic.

I welcome you to visit this blog again for a zone 8b springtime update! I am curious to know if you planted anything this winter, especially if you're in zone 8. You can comment down below if you want to share. Happy gardening!