Re: gardening in winter

[Guest guest]

couple of points

Deer fencing.

you will need two fences, four feet apart, five feet

tall. They can not jump both height and distance, but

can jump up to three times their hieght. I have see

them stand on their hind legs and jump over. Amazing.

Since you have lots of rocks, I would suggest raised

beds. Use lots of mulch (Chipped trees are often free

from the road crews) in the pathways in between.

You can slowly have the rocks cleared away and become

the walls of the beds. Others use wood, but don't use

the treated rail road ties or any treated wood, gets

in your food stuff.

Before i knew better I used to garden in old tires

piled up, best tomatos, but heaven knows what I did to

my body.

Mini greenhouses can be had from this source. I have

two and lots of pots and my garden is actually bigger

then when I lived on the farm. I wrapped my garden

bed around the building, with nice pots to anchor it,

and my beds are about six to eight inches high.

(Each year I add more dirt and fork it over well, this

is my second year for the first half and the first

year for the second half. I put my cold wheather

loving plants on the east side.

You can use heavy plastic sheeting for row covered for

over nights, just make sure you pull it back in the am

so you don't steam your veggies.

I also dug down a little and put an old plastic tub on

an incline and filled it will dirt & Compost. I put

plexi-glass over it and its an instant green house.

You can do the same with rubber maid or maidwear tubs.

Often available at thrift stores.

keep your eyes open for old windows in frames as they

make great and cheap cold frame lids. Just dig down

deep, line with wood on the sides, and put some of

your freshest compost in there, cover with a bit of

dirt and plant ontop of it, or in shallow pots on top

ofit. The compost will keep the veggies from

frezzing.

Here is a site on winter farming.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/library/1982_January_February/The_Deep_Mulch_Midw\

inter_Garden

Also another group called " northern heirlooms " who

often will share tips and seeds (free or low cost)

with other organic northern living folk. (100 days of

growing time on

average.)Northern_Heirlooms/?yguid=109528268

Hope this helps.

ps get a good composting book.