Once the fall gardening season winds down, grocery stores and garden centers tend to really pull out all the stops for the holidays. You’ll find tables of greenery – pine, cedar, spruce, magnolia, and more! – and other accessories to adorn containers, garlands, wreaths, and other holiday décor. But don’t be afraid to experiment with the diversity of materials you can find in your own yard and garden. You never know what amazing beauty awaits! Here you will find some ideas from Tara, Jessica, and Niki that will hopefully inspire you to head out to your garden and gather some gorgeous natural materials for your holiday embellishments.
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Edible sunflower microgreens
Looking for something to satisfy your green thumb AND fill your belly with fresh veggies this winter? Look no further than sunflower microgreens! Graced with a nutty flavor and a crunchy texture, sunflower microgreens are nothing short of awesome in sandwiches, soups, salads, scrambled eggs, and wraps. Both the leaves and the stems are edible. In this gardener’s opinion, sunflower shoots are the finest of all the microgreens. I’ll be starting a batch of my own later this week and continue growing them all winter long. It’s easy, fun, and a great project for kids.
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A simple winter mulch = easy winter harvesting
Protecting root and stem crops with a thick, insulating blanket of winter mulch is the easiest – and cheapest – way to stretch your homegrown harvest into January and February. You don’t need to buy or build any structures like cold frames or mini hoop tunnels, and you can typically source your mulching material for free by using chopped leaves or straw. It’s a technique I talk about in my books, The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener and Growing Under Cover: Techniques for a More Productive, Weather-Resistant, Pest-Free Vegetable Garden.
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Cherry tomato round-up
Every year I grow several different varieties of cherry tomatoes in my garden, and at the end of the growing season, I compare each cherry tomato variety for production and disease resistance. I take careful notes on which varieties are most prolific, which seem to out-grow the blight, and which withstand summer droughts with nary a wilted leaf. Then I decide which ones make the grade and earn a spot on my “favorites” list. Here’s the skinny on a few of this year’s superstar cherry tomatoes from my garden.
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Asters: Perennials with a late-season punch
Asters are hands-down my favorite fall-blooming plants. These colorful, pest-resistant, and late-flowering perennials are perfect for gardens in areas where winter temperatures dip as low as -30 degrees F. There are about ninety species of aster native to North America, many with dozens of named cultivars, varieties, and subspecies. They range from one to four feet in height and vary in color from pink and purple, to red, white, lavender, and blue. The choices are dizzying!
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Growing Celeriac
With a show of hands, how many of you have ever grown celeriac, also known as celery root? Hmm, I don’t see a lot of hands. Why not? Celeriac, often described as knobby or (gasp!) ugly, seems to be a rather under-appreciated root vegetable, but it truly is a superstar in my winter garden. However, growing celeriac is a long term commitment as it takes around four months to go from seed to harvest. But, trust me, it’s worth it. Celeriac lasts all winter long, offering its rounded roots until we finally run out sometime in late March.
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