Why does winter always catch us ‘off-guard’? Earlier this month I took some time to trim all of my pond plants back and move them into one pond, along with all of the fish that were keeping mosquitoes out of my buckets and tubs. Then I installed a stock tank de-icer to keep it from freezing solid, ensuring that all plants and fish will survive through the winter months.
I went around the yard and picked up many things and tucked them away under cover.
I also got a row of garlic in the ground before it is frozen in place. Planting garlic in the fall is necessary so that the individual cloves will ‘split’ into sections as it grows into the next year. (If you don’t do it in the fall, typically individual cloves will simply grow into large individual cloves). The garlic stays in the ground until mid-late July, once the tops have begun to die back. I did get about 100 garlic bulbs last year, but they were small, so I started this year with a new batch of big heads from a local grower.
I’m not a big garlic fan, but Mark uses it almost daily and there is something satisfying about growing ingredients that get used regularly in the kitchen.
Good thing I got this all done on time, because shortly after that we were blessed with this. It’s quite moist and the temps are hovering around zero so it melts down and then is replaced. However, I think we’re going to have snow right through the winter now.
I will be building a new pond up next to the house next spring. Stayed tuned for construction pics and ongoing updates. For now, everything is happily settled in for the winter and for survival through the cold months.
