Sanctuary Gardener Update ~ 12/29/14

Welcome to my last garden update of 2014. I can hardly believe the year is just about over, and a new one is about to begin. The new seed catalogs are arriving, and I’m working on garden planning – determining crop rotation/planting placements, deciding on seeds to order, making a garden shopping list for spring. Even when there’s not much going on in the garden, there’s still a lot going on with the gardener. 🙂

WHAT’S NEW:

On Christmas Eve, I noticed that one of my dwarf gray peas had its first flowers.

Dwarf gray pea flowers

A few days later, there were quite a few flowers on my peas in that pot. (And my other pot of peas had started to flower, too.)

Dwarf gray peas flowering

While weeding around my elderberry trees, I noticed something a little concerning – new shoots. The warm weather (on the heels of the cold) seems to have tricked the trees into thinking spring is coming. We have many frosts coming still, and I’m not sure what’s going to happen to these.

Elderberry shoots

I almost pulled this one up with the weeds because it was a foot or so away from the base of the tree.

Elderberry shoot

My other elderberry tree has no new shoots, but it does have what looks like buds on the canes.

Elderberry buds

IN THE GARDEN:

This last weekend of 2014 brought beautiful weather, and I was able to get some gardening chores done. On Christmas Day, Sanctuary Santa was in the garden, weeding.

Sanctuary Santa in the garden on Christmas Day

While weeding my elderberry trees, this little guy startled me.

Toad in the garden

I pruned the dead branches from all my potted chrysanthemums, so the sun can get to the new growth better.

Chrysanthemums with new growth

The frost last month got to my lemon balm, so I decided to finally prune that plant, too. What a surprise when I found all this new growth at the soil line!

Lemon balm with new growth

My Garden Wilson scored these awesome Adirondack chairs for a steal at an auction a couple of weeks ago and gave them to me. A couple coats of paint, and they will look brand new! Now I have chairs to relax in the shade by my garden this coming spring.

My new Adirondack chairs

IN THE KITCHEN:

This week, I cooked up a “mess o’ greens” – kosher, of course.

Kosher greens

GARDEN BOUNTY:

This past week, I harvested 2 key limes, 1 carrot, 2  1/4 pounds of turnips, and 1  3/4 pounds of greens. Not bad for the end of December.

I have two more key limes left to harvest after these, but I do have two more growing.

Key limes

Here’s that mess o’ greens. The escarole went into a batch of chicken soup, and the kale and mustard greens were cooked up with turkey bacon and onions. (Identification is from the top, clockwise.)

Escarole, Scotch curled kale, mustard greens

I had so many mustard greens, I had to put some in the basket with the turnips.

Purple top turnips & Mustard greens

Yesterday, I pulled one of my carrots to see how they were coming along. They’re still a little small yet, but this carrot was juicy and sweet!

Scarlet nantes carrot

What’s happening in your garden?