I've been curious about doing fava beans. I see that they're winter hardy .and would like to try them sometime. Keep me posted.

Okie HU

The last few years I'ved just been gun whole on fall/winter gardening , season extensioning , low tunnels , green houses....etc.

My usual spring / summer plantings just haven't been like they use to be.

Climate change maybe.....?

Okie HU

Okie HU have you tried "White Lady" turnips? We find them to be milder in taste than the purple top types, I picked these a few weeks ago....

btw, I used to grow savoy cabbages but I'm in Va, as I recall savoys were a bit less tight/hard headed than the usual cabbages.

Haven't tried White Lady . I'll put it on my list for next year.

The "Tundra " cabbage i tried last winter was supposed to be a savoy type that looks like this:

https://territorialseed.com/products/cabbage-tundra

but didn't for me. Maybe it does better in the UK.

Okie HU

It's finally beginning to really feel like winter here. I have a couple oak trees (red oak and burr oak) that have finally decided it's time to drop their leaves. It started on Friday. Should have collected them yesterday because there was little wind even though there was still about half of the leaves on the trees. Today the wind is present, so the leaves have blown in to the beds.

Here are fava beans after snow melt. They seem quite happy.

Looks good Len.

I guess they'll do ok when it's single digit temp or worse...?

Wonder if they need to be under cover for the worst of winter.

Being under snow insulates things a little.

Okie HU

I have grown fava beans a couple of times. The variety I grew were called Aqua Dulce. They withstood very cold weather but here in Georgia we only had a few days below 20 degrees F. What does happen when there is a hard freeze is the plant collapses on itself. They will continue to grow but their stem bends. Here are a few pictures from previous years.

Thanks for the input yolos.

How was the end product. The beans I mean.

Do they compare with shell beans in the southern regions?

Okie HU

Okie, we just don't get single digit temps out here on the west side of the Cascades. Every once in awhile (rarely) the temperature where I am will drop into the upper teens. I grew fava beans one winter, mainly for the benefit of the soil-never ate any.

This was my last real harvest, along with some Merlot lettuce-Aspabroc, and it's still plugging along out there. We have had frosts, the test will be when we might have temps in the 20's later this week. This stuff is so sweet now that it's cooler!

Ok , so you're saying that it's more like a cover crop , like Austrian winter peas ?

Just wondering why they're called a bean when there isn't a bean.

Okie HU

They do have beans, I had pods with beans in the late spring. I wanted them because they are a wonderful nitrogen fixer for the soil.

Growing the fava beans is an experiment on many levels. We plan to harvest and eat the broad beans, and if they are good we will grow again. Fun to have something to watch during the winter.  

Thaaspabroc t

Lea that aspabroc looks delicious, and much more than my few stalks.

so it's like Austrian winter peas then.

It has peas but later in the late spring but by then I have them tilled under to make way for the spring plantings.

I had visions of picking fava beans in the snow but I guess that's not the reality.

Okie HU

Picked more collards and carrots yesterday but forgot to place a blanket over that last small cabbage (low was 28F this morning), it should be ok. More rain for tomorrow but thankfully the ice/snow line is well west of us (hope you dodge it too Cindy). I've completed the shutdown of one large garden plot (25' x 30') to remain dormant all of next year (covered with >6" of leaves and pine needles). Also cleaned out the chicken coop and spread the old woodchip/manure combo over that plot. My extra N95 mask came in handy for that dusty job, our last surviving hen was pleased :-)

No problem with ice here this morning. A number of school systems west of us were closed though.

Same here., except the closed schools were east and north. Still have good lettuce in the garden.

Finally have some ripe tomatoes-Sungold. Had a Cherokee Purple tomato on Monday. A few of the Cherokee Purple, San Marzano, and George Detsika tomatoes changing colors, so hopefully I will have some ripe ones soon

San Marzano

Egyptian walking onions

Whew! We're topping off at 2.5" of rain here, a real soaker all day long but thankfully nothing violent. Looks like we're now caught up on the average annual rainfall numbers. A good day to fill out Xmas cards, nyuk. Glad yawl dodged the ice up there, local weatherdude is hinting at something icy by next Thurs? Nice maters there RD! Hope your luck holds up avoiding a freeze!

Black Krim

Nice and Smoky-not quite as good as the Cherokee Purple, but close

Vgkg it is supposed to be 33 here next Thursday and 26 on Friday, so I will probably have to figure out a way to bring the best plants inside. Can probably fit 5 plants inside the shed and maybe 10-15 inside the house. Guess I will use up all the extra cardboard on the floor.

We ended up getting 2.85" of rain yesterday.

Today I received a notice from the VDOT (Virginia Department of Transportation) that next Thursday we may be getting a winter weather event. It's the first time I've ever received such a notice.

vgkg - How about you?

No winter weather notice down this way yet Cindy but the local weather dudes and the weather channel dudes are getting excited. The 2 most accurate forecast models don't agree right now as just one of them sees snow here starting next Friday, and the other some rain? A long ways off yet so things are in flux. One thing seems certain and that's below normal temps are ahead for us in the east. I went ahead and picked that last little cabbage today along with about 4 lbs of carrots which would split open soon from this heavy rainfall. RD take real good care of those tomatoes! Priceless!

Love black krim Richard! Grows well here in the NW. Freezing here now with some snow forecast next week.These Fava beans don't seem to mind.

With the cold wave hitting here this coming weekend I'll most likely pick the rest of the carrots and much of the collards before they get zapped hard with several days of below freezing temps and nights in the lower teens. It looks like only heavy rains before the cold hits so we should avoid getting any snow other than some flurries in the end.

I have exactly two cherry tomatoes left from our summer garden. They will be used in the next salad we make.

Mission accomplished, we picked most of the collards and all of the carrots so that pretty much officially ends our 2022 veggie gardening. I doubt the the remaining collards will survive the next few nights in the lower teens so they'll be mush soon. The late planted spinach (3 rows) will be ok, they'll get through winter for an early March harvest. I'll post their progerss pics as time goes on. A very rainy day ahead with tumbling temps starting tomorrow, no white Xmas but it'll feel like the north pole for a few daze.

My best friend

Tomatoes Inside

Richard, a Hawk, right? That's beautiful, do you know what kind? I have to say I'm never thrilled to see a Sharp shinned hawk come flying through my yard though. Their favorite food is song birds.

It's 22F here and the east wind is just howling at 30mph, snow and then freezing rain tonight.

That 1.5 lb carrot is sweet and tender.

Lea it is either a Red Tailed Hawk or a Ferruginous Hawk-both are common here-I think it is a Ferruginous because it is so huge and has a lot of lighter feathers on his/her breast. It has caught and consumed numerous doves including one yesterday (all that was left was a pile of feathers outside my door) and it has chased some sparrows into a bush (after knocking one to the ground) in my front yard and probably would have went after them, but I happened to be outside and scared it off. It has dropped 35 degrees in the last hour and a half here and continues to plunge. It is around freezing now. Luckily I got all my tomato plants moved inside that had tomatoes on them-the rest I just left outside (moved the pepper plants and the potato plants inside also). Got the heater going full blast now and it looks like about a week of temperatures in the teens and 20s.

Might be able to see the outer feathers better on this picture

Got down to 17 here-it is 23 now.

It's -1 °F here at noon. Wind chill of -25 according to 2. We got snow but there's so much drifting that it's all blowing to the east. What it looks like is a light dusting with grass showing thru. But we're on top of the hill. Channel 2's videos show them plowing at the mall?? It's so windy that I'm wondering if the drifting snow ever comes in before the snow falling from the clouds.

Wondering what the uncovered lettuce will look like after Mondays warming trend begins. I see green poking out of the ice and snow from the window.

We got it much easier than most of you out there. Just some sleet pellets this morning as the front passed thru and right now it'a 30F with 30 mph gusts. Low tonite will dip to 9F. Heading outside now to dump my rain gauges before they crack, got 1.5" over the past 2 days.

I can't get to the garden,  too dangerous to walk out there!

https://youtu.be/CUfYQ7W1z70

Cold here. My thermometer got up to 7° this afternoon...-2° now.

Merry (post) Christmas fellow gardeners!

As the days get just a little bit longer the bright light given off by a pile of seed catalogs calls me. Is it too early to start some onion and leek seeds? The new year awaits, meanwhile our weather has reverted to mean...raining steadily and 40 degrees.

The rest of the tomatoes are outside again and should have a week or two to produce-not sure I want to drag them all inside again.

Len it is not to early to start some Egyptian Walking onions-the 17 degrees here didn't affect them in the least

Here's the link to the new January thread. Can't believe it's 2023.

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/6334449/veggie-tales-january-2023