My harvest today was collards, lettuce, and cilantro. I live near Tulsa, Oklahoma, located in the southern midwest of North America.
I have black gumbo clay dirt, which is awful for gardening. It dries rock hard and acts like pudding when wet. I installed eight 8 x 4 x 1 foot galvanized beds. I installed frost and bug netting with support made from 1/2 inch PVC pipes and 1-inch x 8-foot wood. I screwed the wood slats to the PVC pipes and attached the piping to the beds using 3/4 inch water pipe brackets. The hard part was hauling all my dirt delivered by Gem garden dirt company from my front yard to my backyard using my Gorilla dump wheelbarrow. I love that wheelbarrow; it's super tough!
My chicken house is to the left; I have eight hens and get three to four eggs a day in the winter. The Hens slow down from limited sunlight and go on a vacation. The neighbors don't seem to mind the hens fighting over the nesting box. They all want to nest in the same box at the same time. Silly hens!
I grew winter crops that are easy to care for, like collards and kale, which have a high mineral content and are essential vitamins.
You can see curly kale, collards, romaine, and winter lettuce.
From September through October, I planted winter lettuce, all-season, and red lettuce. I pick the bottom leaves until the plants start to develop seed heads. I let the best plants go to seed for my next round of plantings. Lettuce grown in quality dirt has a high nutritional content too. I was surprised by how many vitamins are in a serving of lettuce.
The small dark green leaf plant is called the Japanese mustard plant. It has a subtly sweet taste and doesn't taste like mustard. You can steam, stir-fry, or use the leaves in salads. The plant sprouts quickly either through starting in a tray or direct planting. It grows year-round in my garden if I start it before freezing temperatures. We can have a month's worth of days below freezing in Oklahoma. But extended freezes last a couple of weeks, usually after January through March.
