The Winter Garden

     After a wonderful summer of fresh, homegrown tomatoes whenever I wanted, wonderful smelling basil and baby potatoes for the digging, the garden has given me all it had to offer.  Now it's time for winter crops.

     The tomato plants had to be dug up.  A few green tomatoes and one blossom still clung to the vine.  Tempting as it was to leave the plant and let the flower mature into a ripe tomato, I knew I'd have to wait till March or April when it got enough warm sun, so hardening my heart I yanked the plant out.  The green tomatoes are now on my windowsill, waiting for the sun to turn them red.

     In place of the tomato plants are red cabbage, broccoli, peas and baby carrots.  The peas are doing really well, climbing way above the cages I'm using for supports and already sporting blossoms.  The broccoli has a baby head.  As it gets bigger, I'll break off what I want for a meal and leave the rest to grow larger.  The red cabbage plants are still mostly leaves, but I know they'll grow into firm heads I can use in my favorite salad.

     Ruby's Red Cabbage Slaw:   Ingredients:  chopped up red cabbage, grated carrots, chopped celery, dried cranberries, chopped almonds, toasted.  Mix them with some mayonnaise that has been thinned with a little milk and a bit of sugar.  Enjoy.  Quantities are not listed because you'll want to experiment till you get it exactly to suit your taste.

     Everything in the garden is covered, as in the summer garden, with netting to keep thieving squirrels and pooping cats out.  Since the super cold nights arrived, I've put plastic around most of it for frost protection.  But the peas have made a break for it and are reaching way above the netting and the plastic.  The carrots are too small to pull but have beautiful, lacy tops that will be worm food some day.

     Speaking of worms, they're very sluggish these days.  As you would be if you spent all day and all night, every waking and sleeping hour, surrounded by damp soil.  But they do eat, so I still bring them veggie scraps.  That's one aspect of gardening that doesn't change from summer to winter.