A Bit of Outside Work

We have some below zero lows predicted for the next couple of weeks . . not every night but a few nights. The temps at our house are usually about 5 degrees cooler on cold nights so we could easily have lows near -10. It isn’t worth the cost of trying to keeping the greenhouse warm for the few plants I have in there now. I’ve already brought the bay leaf trees, three of the rosemary shrubs, three pots of basil and a couple of pots of ginger lilies into the downstairs garage. On warmer days like today, I move them all out, water them and let them get some sunshine.

Today has been up to 50 degrees and sunny so I was able to work outside, some in the greenhouse and some in the beds, with just short sleeves and it felt great.

I moved in the cilantro that was in the greenhouse. It should be ok down to about 10 degrees but much below that and I could lose it. I have some in the ground outside. I’ll mulch it with 10″ or so of leaves and see how if it survives. I still had two pots of ginger in the greenhouse that I hadn’t harvested so I dug it all up.

I had a good ginger harvest this year, especially considering it was all planted in grow bags. What you see in the box is about 1/4 of what I harvested. I’ve been peeling it, chopping it, freezing it on parchment paper, then breaking it apart and putting a few pieces in bags and vacuum sealing them, then . . back into the freezer. I can take out one vacuum sealed bag, open it, use what I want and putting the other few into a zipper bag and back to the freezer for using fairly soon. That’s what I’ll do with what I harvested today.

I had a few sweet potatoes that had sprouted so cut those up, stuck the sprouting section into dirt and those will grow slips to be planted in the spring.

Dinner has been served and now it’s time to start stitching!