Cool weather gardening

[Silver City Heritage Farmstead]

This year in NC, it's been cooler and wetter than any other since I moved here in 2007. I'm planting square foot (raised bed) gardens now.

What vegetables do well in cooler conditions? Are there heirloom varieties anyone can recommend?

What about flower varieties do well? Again, I'm looking for heirloom varieties.

Also, are there flowers or vegetables that make good chicken feed? My compost pile has become a sprouts/greens plucking area for chicken feed! When I cleaned the brooder, I threw the shavings on my very modest compost heap. Chickens--for me so far--are very wasteful feeders. They fling stuff EVERYWHERE! Anyway, I'd been feeding a 5-grain mix (millet, black oil sunflower, cracked corn, milo and I forget the other) and it's all sprouted on the heap. It's looks like a giant chia pet. :-D I pluck sproutlings morning and evening. My lovely Campines and Gretchen (the 5 month old banty hen) were the first to try it and the others quickly followed their lead.

Thanks in advance for the suggestions.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Tom Thumb lettuce is my favorite. When you get ready to harvest, twist off the stem and use the whole plant. I just toss the stems back into the garden. Onions are doing well in our cooler, wetter spring. I do raised beds in tractor tires and an old cattle hay feeder. I think lilies enjoy the cooler, wetter weather, and the cosmos and four o'clocks have reseeded generously. The four o'clocks are so fragrant!

The oregano wintered over and I've had to cut it back severely twice already. It enjoys this weather. All the cuttings go into the compost with the chicken and horse manure. The pile gets excavated regularly by the chickens and my husband uses the loader to scrape it back into a pile and turn it every few months.

For some reason the broccoli isn't happy and the yard long beans don't like the cool, either. I'm waiting to plant the okra till next week.

Knock Out Roses are doing well and also the David Austin rose I have. Others get black spot or succumb to local 2-4D aerial spray.

My biggest challenge seems to be pollinators. Don't know if the chickens are doing too good a job, or if the "scientific" farming around me is the culprit.

 

[paintponylvr]

Julie - I haven't seen any actual "pollinators" around much this year either (lots of wasps though) - but do have flowers including several volunteers in the front yard that we are mowing around.

As to warmth - cover with plastic bottles to make a mini green house. Or with a milk jug or a glass container that is tall enough not to cause your plant to "bend down". OR do for your raised beds what you can do with the straw bale gardens - put in two posts or more and string string (hay?) across. Then tent plastic sheeting like you used on your shed. That will help with keeping the plants warm. I hadn't planted anything yet - kinda glad right now. This is sooooo weird weather for us right now!

Chicken feed - when they are larger, this type of feeder hung up high seems to help with them slinging feed everywhere. Sorry you can't see the bottoms - pic was of the pine straw/leaves using for deep litter method...

I understand that these work too. I've got all the supplies to make mine, but haven't done so yet... pics directly from backyardchickens dot com. this thread - Show me your DIY feeders & Waterers

 

[Ryan Johnson]

I planted some cauliflower, baby broccoli and some purple carrots in an attempt to have some veggies growing during the colder months here. The rabbits had a field day on the Cauli and broccoli, so Ive decided to hold off till spring. This will give me a chance to erect some fencing around the raised beds.

I love the Heirloom varieties , especially the tomatoes. Julie if your planting Zhuccini or cucumbers hold off until you are past the cold mornings as I found Ive had to replant them a second time as the frost doesnt agree with them at all.

Chickens are very messy but they are also great "weeders" in your garden beds. I really wanted chickens and may still one day but with the amount of foxes here, Ive seen what they do to the ducks of a night.

After you get all you can from your veggie gardens over the Spring/Summer let the chickens into clean it up for you. A friend of mine rescued a few battery hens and has them trained to weed her garden beds and when time to clean the veggie gardens , she said its amazing at the "Good" that they do.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

I would never let my chickens into my garden! They would destroy it in a few hours. Banties, maybe, but not our big girls. I used to let the chicks go in for a few hours a day and they didn't do any harm, but big girls--no way. We built our chicken run around the perimeter of the garden so they could control the insect population, but maybe they are doing too good a job. Though we have not seen a single grasshopper yet this year.

I'm picking lots of cherries and wild blackberries right now. Off our little espaliered cherry tree I've picked 4 quarts so far. Need to plant the okra. I did not bother with tomatoes this year; I've had rotten results with them for several years. Two came up volunteer and I will let them go awhile to see if they are worth the space they take up.

We are eating big onions now and potatoes.

 

[Ryan Johnson]

They look great Marsha , the blackberries look huge