Discussion Board

I have started doing a little container gardening this year, and so far I have some good results with my green peppers. I am still waiting for my jalepenos, red chiles and sugar snap peas.

This is my first attempt at gardening, and I want to plant more vegetables and fruits next year, using the square-foot gardening method.

This will probably sound like a basic question, but, how do can I enjoy what I've grown during the non-growing seasons? I live in Michigan, so the non-growing season is pretty long!

Thanks,

Scott

Scott, I assume you are asking how to preserve your garden's bounty. You can use a number of food preservation methods including canning, drying, curing, freezing, and lactofermentation (no, that's not dairy). The National Center for Home Food Preservation is an outstanding online resource. Click here for the home page and use the links along the sidebar to get to each food preservation technique. It would also be a good idea to pick up the latest edition of the Ball Home Preserving book. Do not rely on older copies as the guidelines have changed to increase the safety of canning and reduce the possibility of deadly botulism.

Square foot gardening really can lend itself to some winter planting. Not sure if you can actually go all winter there in MI. Ask around. I probably could, but I'm mid states on the east, so shorter winters.

Anyway, you can build a cold frame to go ontop of your square foot garden, to help extend the growing season.

If you have extra green peppers the easiest possible way to save them for future use is to freeze them! I usually cut them in half and remove the seeds, then pop them in a plastic bag and freeze them. (No blanching.) Every summer I put aside a few peppers in this way. In the winter, these are great to chop up and add to a stew, or whatever recipe calls for cooked peppers. They lose some of their texture so probably won't be good for eating raw.

The second-easiest, if you have a food dehydrator, is to chop them and dry them, then store in a jar. These dried pieces are great added to anything cooked that needs peppers.

If you get a crop of jalapenos, the same thing applies--I usually freeze a few and dry the rest.

For the red chilies (like the long, thin cayenne ones), you can air-dry these without even chopping them, which is really convenient. Some people string them up with a needle and thread, and let them dry that way. After they are thoroughly dried, you can put them in a jar. I have found that these need to be kept out of direct sunlight as they turn an ugly dark color if exposed to sun over time. I usually have a jar of these that I refresh once a year from the garden--I use these in cooking all the time!

As for snap peas, I use to blanch and freeze them but have never been very excited about the taste after they've been frozen. Instead, now we concentrate on eating them fresh--steamed, sauteed or raw, they are delicious. Then if there are too many to eat I let the rest ripen on the vine and save the seed.

Good luck with your efforts! It sounds like you are off to a great start.

I found the UGA site very informative.

I had considered a cold frame, too. Now I have to plan next year's strategy for planting so I can get the most out of my garden for the longest period of time.

Scott

"How do you enjoy your garden during winter?"

Not to be a smarty pants but I moved to Thailand where is summer all year....I plant anything now I wish matter what month.

I started a hydroponic garden for the first time this past winter with my students. It was easy, cheap, and fun. We grew lettuce, spinach, swiss chard, italian basil, purple ruffled basil, 1 tomato plant, and some onions(which did not grow well, but we tried). It's a great way to keep eating fresh salads in the winter.

Fulenn

That's right fuelnn. I remember you sharing a tiny bit. So you were impressed with what you got? You kept the pots inside right?

Hi Faith!

Yes, everything was indoors. I used a Rubbermaid bin instead of individual pots, I cut holes in the top and dropped net pots in, the water and nutrients were in the bottom. I used 4-foot long shop lights with plant grow bulbs in them for lighting. Here is the website I used as a template for doing it myself:
http://frugalhydroponics.blogspot.com/
This is a man's blog who did it himself and wanted to show others how to do it easily and cheaply. I don't think that he is selling anything.

I was really impressed. We had basil and greens coming out our ears. I plan to run the tanks again this school year, but start them as soon as school get going instead of waiting until after Christmas.

Fulenn

Very cool and impressive. I know you had to be happy to be producing food during the winter.

I have only seen lettuce for sale that was grown hydroponicly. I'd love to grow greens for eating.

Faith, you should look at that link. The tank he built is super cheap and easy.

I went to a huge farmers market in Austin several weeks ago, maybe in May, and there were two people with hydroponic cucumbers and one with hydroponic tomatoes. It was really amazing. I did the greens at school because the nutrient requirements are much easier and they only require one type of lighting.

Fulenn

I did look at the site and bookmarked it too. He looks like he's got some interesting stuff. I love looking at sites like when it's winter.