This weekend has been a busy one so far. Winter is upon us now and the temps. have been dipping in the evenings to somewhere around 35 to 40 degrees for the past couple of nights. Most of my veggies can withstand a bit of cold but I still wanted to get ready for the freeze. Earlier on, I had built hoops out of PVC pipes. They seem to be o.k. but wobbly. I'm going to see how they do this winter and if it turns out the hoops aren't stable enough, I'll clamp them down to the sides of the beds. The "sand worms" were a total FAIL!! They tended to leak sand if it rained and weren't heavy enough to hold the plastic sheeting down. The good thing was that putting up the plastic when I did was premature anyway; it got really warm again, which gave me a chance to rethink the whole plastic situation. In the meantime, the sand worms that I had made, I've been using to secure my tulle netting.
Yesterday, I spent the majority of the day planting bulbs in the front bed and mulching beds with straw. I cut down the passion flower plant and mulched the hell out of it! I also saved some of the cuttings to see if I can root them over the winter just in case the plant doesn't survive.
I also mulched and tented my Kyoto Red carrot barrel with plastic.
In the beds, my lettuces are doing really well and my napa cabbage has grown quite a bit regardless of the slug attack all fall. My collards and rapini have just started to take off.
I pulled out all of my arugula, though. Unfortunately, aphids really love arugula and I just couldn't get them under control.
My winter squash, well.... I think the cold isn't helping. Some of the leaves have darkened and wilted.
This morning, I decided to feed my veggies before putting up plastic on the hoops. I made a big bucket of worm casting tea. Apparently, the tea, whether it be compost or castings has to be aerated. I guess some people build percolators for the compost/worm casting tea, but I had to do it the old fashioned way. I stirred the hell out of the tea before dumping it into my watering can. I hope it will give the veggies a nice boost!
Once everything was watered and fed, I started to put up plastic. I wanted to do it yesterday, but I totally lost steam. I did think up a solution for securing the plastic, though....DUCT TAPE! I love duct tape!! I don't know if it will work all winter long, but I'll try it. It's easier and cheaper than buying fancy clips!
Now I just need to attach side flaps. The flaps will be secured with rocks or pots filled with dirt so I can lift the flaps up to vent or have access to the beds.
I also harvested more Korean radishes yesterday giving me enough radishes for kimchi!
The radishes were peeled and washed really well, chopped and salted for 5 hours. I used the
Kimchi: Blender Version minus the cabbage of course and green onions (cuz I didn't have any).
The kimchi is now sitting on my table fermenting as we speak! I'll wait until the end of the day today before I put it in the fridge to continue fermenting.
Like I said, a busy weekend and it ain't over yet!!!
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