Add a post about the winter garden

_posts/2021-01-02-winter-garden.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: "Finally a successful winter garden"
+tags:
+- garden
+- croyfamilyfarms
+---
+
+Of all the bizarre things to have happened in 2020, my winter garden may be one
+of the more benign occurrences. I started gardening in seven or eight years ago
+in Berkeley. The long backyard with excellent sunlight rewarded me with
+incredible tomato harvests summer after summer. Autumn became the time when
+everything would get thrashed or covered up to lie fallow through the wet
+winter months in Northern California. After moving to Santa Rosa, my gardening
+became much more serious but still packed it all in around October/November.
+The last few winter seasons I have tried a winter garden with little success,
+but **this year** the winter garden is **astounding**.
+
+Santa Rosa is [hardiness zone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardiness_zone)
+10a and has a climate which allows for a substantial growing season; sometimes
+I'm harvesting from April to October. The winters however are unpredictable.
+This season we didn't get rain in October, or even really into November as we
+might normally expect. When amounts of rain finally showed up in December, it
+was a few days of soggy ground before the skies turned clear and the humidity
+plummeted. Moisture aside, the frost and ground temperature are also
+unpredictable. We have had days of 70-80 degree weather followed by nights at
+or just under freezing temperatures. Despite some frigid nights, it's highly
+unlikely that the ground will ever hard freeze in Santa Rosa.
+
+Growing in these conditions is challenging, and in previous winters the snow peas
+were the only thing that really succeeded.
+
+## Status
+
+It's January and I am astonished that the garden is still going, let alone
+flourishing! The types of plants selected for the winter garden were all plants
+that could handle mild frosts.
+
+This year, around September if I recall, I planted:
+
+* Curly kale, ~8ft
+* Broccoli, ~10ft
+* Cauliflower, ~8ft
+* Yellow and red onions, ~18ft
+
+![Winter garden](/images/post-images/2021-winter-garden/garden.jpg)
+
+Unlike previous winter garden attempts, all of the above were starts purchased
+from a nursery. The autumn ground temperatures are too unpredictable to
+germinate seeds effectively.
+
+Fortunately, the temperatures and sunlight were strong enough in September to
+get the starts really going before colder weather set in.
+
+### Challenges
+
+Aside from the weather, the big challenges that the garden has faced this
+winter have all been somewhat predictable but I didn't anticipate them having
+the effect on the plants the way they have.
+
+For example, with big leafy greens you always have to worry about predation,
+typically from bugs like moth caterpillars. Early in the autumn I feared that
+deer were also munching away on the curly kale. By chance I was
+admiring the garden through the window one early afternoon and saw a fat grey
+squirrel sitting happily in the row, chewing away on my kale! Slamming open the
+window I shouted at him as he scurried off across the street. I have since made
+sure to throw sticks at any squirrels I see even so much as glancing at my
+garden.
+
+After the squirrel-incursions, the end of the fire season brought strong and
+sustained winds to Santa Rosa. Fortunately none of the plants were too tall as to snap at
+the time, but the cauliflower was still blown around quite dramatically. I
+ended up staking numerous plants to ensure they continued to grow properly
+after the winds subsided.
+
+
+The last major challenge, which I should have known about but just forgot I
+guess: **sunlight is different in winter**. Our garden runs east/west on the north
+side of the house. In the northern hemisphere the sun dips lower to the
+south during the winter. The result is only one bed sees strong direct sunlight
+for more than a couple hours a day. I believe the lack of sunlight is
+responsible for some of the inconsistencies I've seen in broccoli plant growth
+during the fall and winter. Broccoli is the only thing which I've planted in a
+full row, and the plants in the middle of the row look rather anemic when
+compared to the ones at the end which receive good morning and evening sun
+respectively.
+
+For whatever reason however, none of these challenges have prevented a number of beautiful plants from growing, including the first successful broccoli harvest I have ever had!
+
+![Broccoli](/images/post-images/2021-winter-garden/broccoli.jpg)
+
+
+If you have never had broccoli fresh from the garden, it will forever change
+the way you perceive broccoli. There is notable bitterness in store-bought
+broccoli when compared to fresh. I wouldn't call it "sweet" but it is a very
+pleasant vegetable straight from the garden.
+
+Kale is also _far_ better fresh, but then again what isn't.
+
+Just recently a couple of heads of cauliflower have also started to show up,
+which I haven't yet harvested. These will be interesting because the head must
+be protected from sunlight in order to maintain it's good yellowish white color
+and flavor.
+
+The onions will certainly not be harvested until early spring, but the leaves
+are almost all looking strong.
+
+For a number of reasons, I cannot wait for spring!
+
+## Dirty work
+
+My "normal" winter routine is to work on the soil for the following planting
+season. This includes aerating, dressing with straw mulch, and keeping moist.
+This season is a little different since I have plants in the ground and very
+little of the garden is lying fallow. Nonetheless, all the beds are dressed
+with straw mulch. I have also been taking more of the fallen leaves from the
+trees lining the sidewalk to incorporate more compostable matter into the beds
+and walkways. Hopefully the earthworms I introduced into the soil have avoided
+the birds and are happily eating away at the decomposing material in the beds.
+
+When spring arrives, I will take another delivery of fresh compost and pile it on top
+of whatever "green manure" is left on top of the beds, setting the stage for
+the next growing season.
+
+---
+
+All the vegetables I grow in my garden can be considered organic. I only very
+rarely have to use any form of (organic) pesticide, like that which I used last
+season to curb powdery mildew on the zucchini. From a plant nutrition
+standpoint, I do sparingly use an organic fertilizer for the hungrier plants,
+but I have been using the same 25lb sack for almost a year now.
+
+Neighbors have asked me how my garden does so well: **it's the soil**.
+
+If I really think about it, the vegetables are secondary, what I'm really
+growing here is dirt. Teeming with life, rich and productive dirt.
+
+My hope is that by continuing to invest in this soil, it will continue to give me delicious vegetables _year round_.