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As always I enjoy and appreciate your posts.  My husband and I are in our early 70’s  and have a small yard. He had built me 10 raised beds 4x10 and I have 2 smaller metal beds. We are working on more fall veggies too. I’m growing lettuce, cabbage , kale and chard. Take care. 

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My Mother is 90 and gardens in her greenhouse during the winter. She has the most wonderful tomatoes! Two weeks ago we pulled onions! She grows lettuce as well as some potatoes in pots. She is in zone 7a and I am in 6a. I grow lettuces and greens in my greenhouse. Let me add here that she has a proper greenhouse with heat. Mine is a “Frankenstein” made with scrap wood, metal hoops recycled from a temporary building, pallets, and a greenhouse cover. I have cement pavers in mine and a water barrel to help keep it warmer. They absorb the heat during the day and make quite a difference. This year I have added a trough and hope to grow carrots and turnips. I also grow basil, bay, and mints. I use the house to start some plants. Mother always starts our tomatoes as she has an earlier growing season. I have three other troughs I may move in and try a few more things! You’ve encouraged me! 

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The Cooper's hawk is beautiful, and so close to your house!

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It's fascinating to me to hear about your Southern garden. We are in zone 4 sometimes even 3B depending on the winter. We absolutely cannot grow anything through the winter except in a greenhouse with heat. Though of course I do bring lots of house plants in. In my limited experience with lavender it likes heat dryness Sandy soil and neglect. I had an amazing crop of lavender blooms this year basically by forgetting about them and never watering them. 

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Your Thanksgiving cactus is beautiful! I'd never heard the plant called that before: I live in Atlantic Canada and we had one in our house when I was growing up, in fact my mom still has it, but we call it a Christmas cactus. I've been reading your blog for a few years now, and I enjoy it very much. I saw a photo on an older blog post of your mother with a dish called pâté chinois. I'm curious to know how she made it, because it's our name for a shepherd's pie in French here: ground beef, corn, mashed potatoes on top.

Edited Fri Nov 29, 24 8:59 PM by SMaryse W

I wish you a good harvest!
Sibylle

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Hello Grandma Donna from Australia, where we've had a heatwave to end the spring here.

Thank you for this post! I'm inspired by your determination, and hope you're eating home-grown vegies all winter!

This summer, I have some veg in the ground, some in large pots and some in wicking beds. We are gradually transferring to all wicking beds, but didn't get them finished in time for spring planting.

Carrots, if you're not already growing them, are easy to grow in polystyrene boxes (or other similar containers) with drainage holes punched in the bottom. 

I use a half and half mixture of sand and potting mix.  You can leave them in the soil until they're needed; they're sweeter if they are in the ground through the winter.

Sorry if you already knew that.

We have had trouble here with lavender literally growing like a weed.

Our temperatures range from about 20°F in winter (overnight temp), to around 102°F in the summer. It's considered a dry climate.

My uncle gave me a few plants; they were in a cultivated bed that's surrounded by compacted decomposed granite.

They escaped and thrived in the hard granite. 

I think the granite drains very well; lavender doesn't like "wet feet" and doesn't need much water.

As Ellen said, it seems to thrive on neglect, not needing much water, although trimming it after flowering keeps it healthy and compact.

Maybe the humidity is a problem? If you think so, I just was reading that Spanish and French varieties do better in humid areas than does English Lavender.

Maybe also ensuring the plant has space around it for air to flow, if it doesn't already?

Looking forward to seeing how your winter garden goes!

Kellie 

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Thank you for your inspiring post.  What determination in moving those beds.  I’m in the subtropics in Australia, so we are heading into summer, but it is very wet at present. My sweet peas, stocks, and pansies have finished and my roses and gladioli are flowering.  I have pumpkins setting, and am eating tomatoes, rocket, beans, asparagus, strawberries and the odd paw paw.  Fruit fly is our problem so tomatoes have to be bagged.   My lavender and daisies are are flourishing.  

  The Italian lavender is short and does not do well here.    But  the French variety loves the heat, good drainage and morning sun.  I do tip prune to keep it flowering and compact.  I have planted butter crunch lettuce and beans today.  I get delicious cucumbers and zucchini  fresh from our community garden.  It must be a challenge gardening in such low temperatures.  Stay well, keep gardening and keep inspiring us. 

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Dear gDonna, I also am trying to increase the amount that I grow. I live in growing zone 5b, but the summers now are so warm and humid that I believe that I will be able to grow things that weren't thought of in the past. One thing I've learned is from Youtube videos from other countries. I watch " Koreancountrysidelife". It is a youngish couple (in their 40's?) who basically live off their garden. They eat fish, but not often--they are mostly vegetarian. They harvest ginger root last. She peels the ginger, and blanches it, then dehydrates it and turns it into a powder. This then she will use in cooking but she also adds honey to it to make tea. I only just learned that this is how the asian people use beets--mostly to make a powder which eventually becomes tea. It is my belief that in order to survive, we will have to stop listening to the large companies (like Kellogg's) and start eating a variety of things like millet and sorghum, because having only a few varieties is damaging to our soil/planet. And I like to look at how other countries garden, because we in North America have never experienced hunger--other countries have. My biggest setback is my age-- as I get older I might be getting wiser, but my joints don't like it. Oh, to be young again and to know what I know now!

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I had to laugh because after losing pretty much  all my broccoli last week (I had 8 plants, was able to harvest one before it happened), I was thinking of giving up! I grow jalapenos, some herbs and various peppers but most else is not successful. Everyone's tomatoes didn't make it this year so I didn't feel alone! I have two baby apple trees that are doing fine for now, hopefully in the years to come they will produce. I am at an altitude of a mile high and in zone 7a but sometimes they change it to 7b, then back again...?? We went from 60s during the day to below 20s and I think that is what destroyed the broccoli. So, I will try try again! You inspired me to stick to it. I will amend what I plant (I planted wayyy to much jalapenos, I was giving out pickled ones like crazy) and fingers crossed. I have a ton of trouble with lavender as well. Maybe seeing what I read about it above, I need to ignore it more! I tend to over love it I guess?! Thanks for the great inspiration and ideas!!

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Grandma Donna wrote,  

Diana, You have a lot of grow space with all of those large raised beds!  This is wonderful that you have this.  

Matty, that is funny that your greenhouse is Frankenstein verses your mothers greenhouse.  Yours sounds quite interesting and as long as it has a purpose that is good.  You have encouraged me too.

Tea, I did not know the name of that Hawk, thank you.  I have never had one this close to the house.

Ellen W.  Thank you for the neglect advise, this will be easy for me to do. Lol

SMarySeW, Our cactus blooms the week of Thanksgiving each year.  Charles says we do not need a calendar page for November.  About the Pate Chinois, for our family this is a tradition from My Father's French Canadian side, my paternal Grandmother made this dish and so my father wanted my mother to make this so we grew up eating it with the name Pate Chinois.  I do not know how to put the little tent above the a and the mark above the e.  Please anyone chime in here to tell me how to do this, I have always wanted to know.  Our Pate is made by cooking ground beef in the skillet, adding onions to that after the ground beef is cooked and sauté them and then add that to a casserole dish, then a layer of cream corn, and then a layer of mashed potatoes with dabs of butter and baked in the oven.  My maternal side made Shepherds pie and the only difference is the shepherds pie had added ingredients that the Pate did not, which was green beans and carrots.  I think through the generations both of these dishes are much the same.  I just know the origin of where it came from in my family. 

Sibylle M, I agree that heating the green house would be expensive, I wish there was a simple way but it is not in our budget at this time. Thank you for the tip about the plants reaching 80% of their growth by end of October.  I hope by next fall I will be ready earlier, if my health stays good I will be ready early for spring this year.  I am new to winter gardening and excited to expand the growing season.  I love your greenhouse, thank you for sharing the photo.  This is encouraging for all of us.

Kellie, Thank you for the carrot tips.  I do grow carrots, Danvers mostly but adding new varieties this year.  We were 32 degrees last night, they said it would be 37 but we dipped further down.  We get triple digits in summer here with high humidity. 

Carolyn F, Your garden sounds like you have a very nice variety. You get the fruit fly and we get the tomato rot here.  I am going to look into the French Variety of Lavenders for here since you and Kellie mentioned it too.  I hope your newly planted lettuce and beans do well. 

Gail M, The Korean garden you-tube videos are very interesting and helpful to watch.  I will add dehydrating to my list of ways to preserve ginger.  Interesting about the beets as well.  I agree with what you said, "as I get older I might be getting wiser, but my joints don't like it." Oh, to be young again and to know what I know now! The sky would be the limit.  

Thank you for the comments this far, it is great to get tips and comments and photos too.  Get brave and post photos, we would love to see them.   Donna

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Grandma Donna wrote,

Michelle L, Awwww, for your broccoli, see I just know it will happen here too but we just have to keep trying.  I did invest in frost covers with hopes that will help.  I guess we just keep planting the seed in succession, at least that is what I am going to do to hopefully have some spare on the back burner so to speak.  Best of luck with the new ones you are going to plant. :) Donna

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I so agree with you!  As an adult, I have always had a veggie garden.  I live in zone 8b in the very northwest corner of the US.  My house is on a small city lot in a small city.  For several years we have given over the west and back yards to garden.  We don’t have to buy veggies from late spring through fall and I freeze a lot of extra for winter.  I’m in my early seventies, and as I’ve gotten older, gardening and preserving has gotten harder.  After putting our overflow of green beans into the freezer, freezing tomatoes and sugar snap peas, and canning jams, I was thinking maybe we should wind it down a bit.  I was pretty tired.  You’re right, though.  With all the food recalls and the weather changes that are having an effect on agriculture and our food supply, we’ve decided to continue and ramp it up a bit, too.

We used to have our first light frost in mid October, but we haven’t seen even a touch of frost yet.  We still have winter lettuce and spinach, corn salad, arugula and kale.  We grow carrots in big pots and pull them as we need them.  We also still have Brussels sprouts to harvest.  In a few months, our purple sprouting broccoli will be an early spring treat.  One of the bins in the frig is still full of apples from our espaliered trees.  We have an espaliered pear, as well.  We do harvest an abundance from our small area. Yes, it makes so much sense to grow your plants from seed.

Even though we get a lot of rain during the winter and spring here, my lavender plants do well.  One is in a pot.  I planted it several years ago in regular potting soil haven’t fed it, and water it occasionally during the summer.  It thrives on neglect, as does the other plant which I planted in poor soil in a rockery.

Thanks for your posts! I have gotten so much encouragement and validation from reading them.

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Grandma Donna wrote,

Carol C, you have a very productive garden with the many vegetables you grow and to have enough to put away for winter.  You are doing many things right up there in your corner of the U.S.  You said you have not had a frost yet and we have had three frosts here now and a freeze this morning. I have never figured out how we have the same zones (8b) from northwest to southeast corners.  I am glad that you are now going to continue and even ramp it up a bit!  Donna

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There are so many recalls! We had a good gardening year, and I'm starting to think that we've figured this gardening thing out. We planted spinach and cabbage to overwinter until spring, all snug in their cold frames, and we planted sorrel this year that I hope comes back next year. Our garden experiment is with a perennial called Nine Star Perennial Broccoli which some people think is closer in taste to cauliflower. We got seed from Ireland and grew two beautiful plants this year. They have their own winter covers, and we hope to get some to eat in the spring. We lost half our asparagus last winter which we'll replace this coming spring. 

Our fall garden has carrots and beets and turnips and leeks and celery in it. We grew many sweet potatoes and onions and garlic, and a few winter squash, all in bushel baskets in the kitchen. I froze some roasted chile peppers. We got to can some tomatoes for the first time this past summer. 

Thank you for all the good gardening ideas.

Edited Sat Nov 30, 24 12:42 PM by Stephanie G

Our yard is too shady for a proper garden but I'm hoping this spring  my husband and I can find spots that get some sun.

I checked out a library book about having a garden in 3 square feet. I'm hoping we can find 3 square feet that is sunny!

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It is so interesting to read about everyone's garden. Grandma Donna, your greenhouse looks enormous! I don't have a greenhouse (with shade cloth) but if I did it would be to use in summer to keep the sun off. I am in the sub-tropics in Australia. We are on flood watch at the moment. It is very muggy and stormy and the ground is sodden. I just potted up what looks turmeric this morning. It came up in a pot of mint as a volunteer plant. Always a nice surprise. 

I've just purchased some raised garden beds and am looking forward to setting them up over the next month or two.  It is not good gardening weather for us from now until February as it is too hot and humid with too many pests and diseases so no rush. It's a good time of year to plan and tidy.

Later today weather permitting, I will set up some solar Christmas lights outside and some sustainable decorations for inside, being the 1st of December. 

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How to make â or é changes depending on what device you're using to type, but on my android phone, touching and holding the letter brings up a menue with more options, then you just slide your finger over to the one you want.

For example, touch and hold "a" and a little square pops up with @, æ, ã, å, ā, à, á, â, and ä.  Then I have to slide to it without lifting my finger, or the box will disappear.

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Another wonderful post! I learn so much from each of your posts and love the pictures too. Thanks too for everyone's comments, another learning experience. 

Three years ago I planted a fuyu persimmon tree. We are in zone 7b, Chattanooga Tennessee.  It is not a big tree yet, but this year it gave me 12 persimmons. I was thrilled and watched them grow all through the summer and waited patiently for them to change color. When I was finally able to pick and enjoy them I had such a wonderful feeling. I grew my own fruit!! :) They were so tasty too. In the grocery store they are $3 for 2, which I guess is still not too expensive, but if you buy a bunch it adds up.

I do have a question for everyone who has a Green house, and this might be a stupid question, but do you use it in the summer months too, and if so, doesn't it get too hot in there?

Edited Sun Dec 01, 24 10:00 AM by Tandi S

I also want to let everyone know about this blog: http://gigiphotography.com/blog/

This family lives on Prince Edward Island in Canada and they have a huge garden every summer. The mom is the one who writes the blog and has gorgeous pictures. She cans a lot of the vegetables and store others. They have 10 children so growing their own food is a tremendous help. Anyway, just thought some might enjoy reading the blog and seeing the pictures. I'm attaching a picture of the children helping in the garden.

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What Gail wrote about other cultures' gardens is something I am very interested in too.  I like to watch Korean and other Asian gardening/cooking/normal life videos on youtube and I have learned a lot, even if I don't know what they are saying (though some have subtitles).

Gardening is my passion!  I blog about mine at https://gardenofgaladriel.blogspot.com.  I live in zone 8a here in the UK, but I think we get a lot more rain and a lot less sun than the US South.

This is the first year I wrote out a garden plan and actually stuck to it, which means I have the best autumn/winter garden I've ever done.  I have an allotment, a plot at a community garden for which I pay a small yearly fee, and I grow a lot there.  I also grow at home in my small kitchen garden.  

Just today my four year old and I took our ten minute walk to the allotment and pulled all the remaining beets, ranging from about an inch diameter to three inches, which I put on to cook for pickling later on.  I also picked five nice turnips and a "mini" daikon radish;  so called because the "normal" daikon can be up to a couple feet long and these are only the size of a large carrot.  And a nice big leek too.  I'll keep picking radishes, turnips and leeks for the next several weeks, as well as cabbages, chard and lettuce at home;  and I have lots in the freezer and even the pantry (such as garlic and squash).  For several years I challenged myself to go a several month-long period without buying any veg;  the last time I did this (a few years ago), I lasted six months.  I think I could manage the full twelve now, if I didn't mind giving up onions (but I'll try them once again next spring).

Edited Sun Dec 01, 24 1:01 PM by Galadriel F

My tomatoes and cucumbers are in the summer garden. I plant tomatoes every year for cold, wet summers and hot, dry summers because our summers are very different. Even if one variety of tomatoes dies due to unsuitable weather, I still have the other variety, which will then (hopefully) produce enough fruit so that I have a supply for the winter and until the next harvest.

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Hi Grandma Donna,

It was so lovely to see an email update that you had written a post :) !! Your spot on the web is one of my happy places. I love to read everything you write and am always encouraged by your words. I agree with what you said near the end of your post, about this forum being a great place for like minded people to share. I enjoy reading how other people do things in their part of the world. 

I had a little realisation one day with regards to gardening, that I never really think of myself as a real gardener, as I am not an expert, and just grow a very simple garden with the vegetables we like and some flowers, herbs, fruit trees etc. Sometimes the garden is successful and other years not so much. However my married daughter thinks I am an expert :) ... this is so funny to me.  I think I just love being in nature and the miracle of actually growing food is so much fun, healthier and saves money too. When my daughter expressed a desire (finally) to grow a vegetable garden, she was quite anxious that it would be difficult. I told her that all gardening really is, is this: prepare the soil, dig a hole, put the plant in, water it :)  She thought that was great and ever since she is unstoppable !!! It's such a joy to me to see this love passed on to her and also my little granddaughter had a stall at a market where she was selling vegetable seedlings. That green finger came to me from my Nana, and now it's passed on again.

Blessings to you ~ Linda

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I grew onions from seed in cups this year then planted the healthy onion "sets" - and a vole or mole got every one of them out of my concrete block raised bed.  I poked around in the bed and found tunnels under the onions.  Onions should be planted in November here, and now I don't see any sets for sale.  I may try again, but that was discouraging.  Also discouraging is that something is eating every beet sprout that comes up in a metal trough raised bed.  I have small drain holes - just the size of a drill bit, and I haven't found tunnels inside the trough, so I'm unable to figure out what is doing it.  This is also discouraging.  (My entire raised bed garden is fenced with 4-foot fencing and then is located inside a fenced yard patrolled by two dogs.)

On the other hand, my carrots are doing well and I will keep succession planting them.  The komatsuna greens are also growing well, and I may grow more of them.  

I like your determination to garden.  I feel the same way.  Let's keep at it.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

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Hello Donna - ahhh yes, our joint and gardening! I keep a large pot beside where I want to garden and it helps me to get up.

I have grown a potager garden this year. It is beautiful but still in the throws of being done. 2 apple trees, herbs, flowers,vegetables all in a big circle garden.

I have 30 tomato plants in this year... heirloom. Soup, sauces,relish,plain canned,salsa and if course to share.    Currently my hens are laying well so I'm making lemon curd and I freeze it in jars. Have had it in freezer before for up to 2 years and it's still fine. I also freeze my yeast. In an airtight container the lot I'm using now is 13 years old and still viable .  The next few days I'm making fresh mixed herbs to freeze. I could dehydrate them but the fresh just tastes better.

To do this it is 5 parts parsley,2 parts sage,1 part rosemary, 2 parts thyme. Now I know that's made you start to sing the Simon and Garfunkel song Scarborough Fair hahahaha.

We live in a very high wind area that sees our tunnelhouse cover torn off every year and am over it so we're covering the frame with netting instead and will have tomatoes growing on the inside and my dahlias ( favourite flower) growing on the outside.  Temps here are already very hot during the day and it's only 5 days into the Summer season. We tend to have high humidity here.  If you do too and your zucchini( courgette) and cucumbers get mildew on the leaves then spray every 10 days with a milk spray 1 part milk, 10 parts water.

I have what you call the Thanksgiving or Christmas cactus and my mum called it a Chain Cactus ( NZ) so that's what I call it. Same plant, many names. Mine has been flowering for months in a sunporch.

So many great and encouraging posts. Thank you very much

Karen NZ

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