It's been a long winter and we can't wait to see it end. Thing was, it wasn't all that cold again. About two snowstorms this year of any real significance. This year the orchids have been pretty dormant, having been moved and just now starting to have buds on them.

Swiss Chard has been growing outside in the raised box with the help of plastic when it got below freezing. We dispensed with the coldframe and just had kale and chard growing outside in the box.

Here is a shot of one of the winter bay window dwellers

We are eating the chives, parsley and chard. Some of these are still going strong outside. The chard and kale grow well into the cold weather, only being stopped by a hard freeze. Chard and kale are now favorites on the menu. These dark green leafy vegetables are good sources of vitamins. The Kale is delicious steamed and then lightly fried w/ onion, oil, spike seasoning (or the herb/spice of your choice). The chard, which is not as strong a taste as spinach, makes a good substitute for lettuce in a salad. These two vegetables also provide fiber along with the vitamin benefits.

Tomatoes ripening in the sun. They were harvested and allowed to ripen in a brown paper bag. Then they are removed to ripen in the sun on the windowsill or in the bay window.

We just had a hurricane followed by Nor' Easter here. The garden tomatoes, peppers, etc. were harvested before Sandy and Athena (now our winter storms are going to get names too?) The chard and kale were left outside and are still doing well, except for the Swiss Chard in the fence boxes that fell victim to squirrels or some other hungry critter in the snow. Luckily, we still have some in the raised bed box that is protected by fencing. The snow and cold temperatures brought an abrupt end to the outdoor growing season. Any herbs or annuals left out are done now. Below is a picture of the last harvest from the raised bed box. Pictured are red pepper, tomatoes and cubano pepper.

This marks the beginning of the indoor growing season with orchids, bulbs, aerogardens (for greens and cherry tomatoes). Now is a good time to start amarylis for blooming in time for the holidays. Orchids usually start blooming in January, lighting up the window when everything outside is dreary.

It's that time of year again. The garden is slowing down as the days grow shorter. We've had good harvests of herbs, chard, kale, pears and small cubano peppers. The tomatoes and red peppers have been pretty slow this year. I have to admit I saw less bees around here than in previous years and wonder if that had an effect. Here is a sample harvest from the past summer:

The purple petunias were wonderful this year