Happy New Year: Picking the Garden Ahead of the Winter Weather + Potting Up Bulbs!

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Happy New Year’s Eve to y’all! Just before Christmas I went out and picked the last of the biggest tomatoes off the two indeterminate tomato vines we grew this year. Guess how many there were in total??? I’ll tell you towards the end of this post. ;)’ Then, I had fun getting some bulbs planted up.

Alright, let’s get going here and go “picking and planting!!!”

Were you able to see the full moon right before Christmas?? It was up while it was still daylight outside (before 5:15pm, when we get full dark here at the beginning of winter) and so bright! I shot this right from out family room couch zooming in.

But I digress… 😉

Why I picked almost every tomato?

December 23rd on my weather apps showed we were going down to 30-32 degrees for a good six hours, so I thought I’d best get out there and gather the last of the tomatoes to keep them from freezing. Tomato plants and fruit can handle right around 32 degrees, and often can take slightly lesser temps if they are lightly covered and the freeze doesn’t last too long (1 hour, maybe 2).

But six hours and going lower (we got down to 29 F.), that was really going to freeze the fruit. That’s why I picked them; I did not want to lose the fruit. Happily ripening in our only north-facing window, these tomatoes will be perfect cut up for sandwiches and salads.

The broccoli and kale are still out in the raised planters, along with garlic starts, onions and asparagus.

And how many did we end up with?

57 total tomatoes!!! This was wonderful as I was able to make up baggies for several neighbors as small Christmas presents. I gave each family one or two tomatoes which were already ripened or turning red. Gramma Gini got a nice big bag, too. Part of her Christmas gifts!

That was fun for me!! 😀

I also picked the basil off the one basil plant. I love how basil dries so quickly! I just let it dry on a plate or a paper towel for a couple of weeks. Once it crumbles between the fingers, it’s time to chop it up and pop into my basil bottle in the cupboard.

Before giving away the tomatoes and basil, I made sure to wash them all and rinse the basil to get off any bugs or organic matter. 😉

Planting up spring bulbs

At the end of last spring, I dug up some of the tulips and as many of the paperwhites and other small bulbs as I could from the pots I had them in. I did exactly what I’d learned from English gardener Monty Don had said to do:

• Let the tops of each bulb dry out and turn brown
• Cut off the dead foliage and compost those leaves
• Dig up the bulbs and clean off any dirt
• Let dry out fully and store in a vermiculite mix or in an airy bag.

I had a couple of yellow bulb bags that were sent out and held the original bulbs. It was so easy to drop them back into those bags and just set them on a shelf.

I didn’t water them once this summer. I did nothing and they sat on a shelf in our big shed all season. Only one bulb had dried out too much and one was mushy (this was through 114 degree heat! and six weeks of over 100 degrees!!).

I tossed the mushy one and planted the dry one just in case it might decide to produce a shoot. Can’t hurt. 😉

Claus Dalby, who lives in Denmark, has a fantastic garden which is mostly grown in pots. He is known for his spring show of bulbs.

I thought you’d enjoy seeing his video sharing his garden and how he layers his pots. The link here is to his shop home page. He creates incredible vase designs and his YouTube videos are just another dimension to his business.

Getting ready for spring, I thought I’d see if I could round up more bulbs to plant in a bunch of the unused pots we have in the shed greenhouse and others, just for fun!

I wish I had had the money at the time to buy a 1000 bulbs from Color Blends or one of the other big bulb companies, but I just didn’t back in late summer.

Next year!

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They should be beautiful here in the spring!

But finding bulbs at Lowe’s, our local Winco grocery store, and other places worked just fine. The large bulbs you see in the biggest pot here are those pink tulips shown on the little box to the lower left of the photo.

I put the tulips about 5″ down in the pot on top of the soil, covered them with 2″ of soil, then layered in daffodil bulbs on top. In total, I planted pink tulips, some purple tulips, the paperwhites and some other bulb which I’ve forgotten the type (narcissus??).

There are still some globe allium to plant out which will flower out in late spring, and I think I’ll spend this last day of December 2023 driving around to see if I can find more bulbs to plant in pots…