winter "gardening"

Well we got just over a foot of snow last Thursday, bitter cold temperature, and then I got a winter cold (achoo). Tis the season. Over half of my winter tunnel is crushed from the snow load since I never got that top support put in. Other than these sad things, there are fun gardening things going on too.

My Belgian endive is doing great. I dug several roots last fall, stored them in the fridge 'til mid December, then planted them in a pot with a paper bag over it to keep them dark. I harvested a salad at Christmas and one yesterday. It's the first time I've tried growing Belgian endive and it's actually pretty easy.

I entered all of my seed packets into an Excel spreadsheet. About 240 packets. It seemed like there were enough packets that I wanted to see them on a list even though they're pretty well organized in their folders. I placed my seed order a couple weeks ago (with Johnny's) and the list helped my see what I had and what was missing.

I've been volunteering at the Elm Bank vegetable garden Monday mornings. We're working on packaging dried herbs from last year's garden. Sage and thyme. These will go to the local food pantry. It's nice to get together with a group of gardeners even though this task is tedious. (It does smell very nice.) Soon our group will start seedlings for a display at the Boston Flower Show in March.

Finally, I'm getting my new vegetable garden plans ready. That's really exciting. I have my old favorites going in, and some new varieties. I'll post lists of both of these soon - and the garden diagrams.