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The December Garden is full of surprises

I hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas! We’re still celebrating with various family members and will be until January 1st but I wanted to pop in and share our December garden with you. We’ve had a really warm fall and winter – in fact, we’ve not run the heater at all and have actually had to run the a/c because it’s so humid and warm. 

We had our first real cold front blow in today and it’s cold and rainy so many of the photos are kind of dark. But we’re all about keeping it real here so dark winter garden photos it is. 

The December garden in zone 9 has a quite a few surprises this year. We still have a few tomatoes and basil but we also have cabbage and other greens. We also put in a new herb garden and are learning what needs to be planted over the fall in order to get a good harvest before it gets too hot. The lemons are ready and while it looks like we haven’t picked any we’ve actually picked quite a bit. We juice it and freeze the juice to have fresh lemonade all year long. The Cara Cara orange tree is dead. We have no idea what happened. It was fine, then dropped all it’s leaves and died. The sweet orange tree isn’t looking so good either. But the grapefruit, key lime, satsuma and pumello are looking great. 

The December garden in zone 9 has a quite a few surprises this year. We still have a few tomatoes and basil but we also have cabbage and other greens. We also put in a new herb garden and are learning what needs to be planted over the fall in order to get a good harvest before it gets too hot. We mowed the garden! I’m so happy to have that done. We’re collecting cardboard to lay down in the pathways and over time will cover them with wood chips. We had so much rain in 2015 that these walkways have been the major irritation of my gardening. We’re hoping to not have waist high grass in the future. 

The December garden in zone 9 has a quite a few surprises this year. We still have a few tomatoes and basil but we also have cabbage and other greens. We also put in a new herb garden and are learning what needs to be planted over the fall in order to get a good harvest before it gets too hot.

This is the new perennial herb garden. We planted a row of comfrey and some ginger that I grew from a ginger root from the store. I also have sage, thyme and lavender in this area. Carl is building a bench to put in this area as a resting spot. 

The December garden in zone 9 has a quite a few surprises this year. We still have a few tomatoes and basil but we also have cabbage and other greens. We also put in a new herb garden and are learning what needs to be planted over the fall in order to get a good harvest before it gets too hot.

Our lone tomato plant. This guy popped up in our front yard as a volunteer and we re-located it to the garden in the early fall. It’s doing well. 

The December garden in zone 9 has a quite a few surprises this year. We still have a few tomatoes and basil but we also have cabbage and other greens. We also put in a new herb garden and are learning what needs to be planted over the fall in order to get a good harvest before it gets too hot.

On the right is our asparagus patch – year one is over, just one more before we can harvest. Since we’ve had such a warm winter so far we’ll probably have to cut it back next month. One the left is one of our strawberry patches. This is the first year and they survived the summer and are thriving right now. 

The December garden in zone 9 has a quite a few surprises this year. We still have a few tomatoes and basil but we also have cabbage and other greens. We also put in a new herb garden and are learning what needs to be planted over the fall in order to get a good harvest before it gets too hot.

We even have some berries and quite a lot of flowers. 

The December garden in zone 9 has a quite a few surprises this year. We still have a few tomatoes and basil but we also have cabbage and other greens. We also put in a new herb garden and are learning what needs to be planted over the fall in order to get a good harvest before it gets too hot.

We only have a few cabbage plants that made it so we planted storage onions all around them. 

The December garden in zone 9 has a quite a few surprises this year. We still have a few tomatoes and basil but we also have cabbage and other greens. We also put in a new herb garden and are learning what needs to be planted over the fall in order to get a good harvest before it gets too hot.

I just love it when cabbage starts to ball up. 

The December garden in zone 9 has a quite a few surprises this year. We still have a few tomatoes and basil but we also have cabbage and other greens. We also put in a new herb garden and are learning what needs to be planted over the fall in order to get a good harvest before it gets too hot.

This…this is our crazy luffa plant! It’s still blooming and luffa really likes the heat. 

The December garden in zone 9 has a quite a few surprises this year. We still have a few tomatoes and basil but we also have cabbage and other greens. We also put in a new herb garden and are learning what needs to be planted over the fall in order to get a good harvest before it gets too hot.

It has three large luffas on it and we harvested 10 from three luffa plants this summer. 

The December garden in zone 9 has a quite a few surprises this year. We still have a few tomatoes and basil but we also have cabbage and other greens. We also put in a new herb garden and are learning what needs to be planted over the fall in order to get a good harvest before it gets too hot.

This is my favorite garden bed right now. We planted a fall crop of green beans for the first time. We didn’t plant many but we get enough for dinner twice a week. It is such a treat, normally we just have greens this time of year. We have some swiss chard and lettuce growing around it. The chard is great but the lettuce is bitter. It could just be the variety, I planted black seeded simpson and and a red head lettuce. The black seeded simpson is bolting so we’re leaving that for the bees. I just planted some bib lettuce which has a mild flavor and hopefully won’t be bitter. 

The December garden in zone 9 has a quite a few surprises this year. We still have a few tomatoes and basil but we also have cabbage and other greens. We also put in a new herb garden and are learning what needs to be planted over the fall in order to get a good harvest before it gets too hot.

We planted more storage onions and some cilantro. Here’s the thing about living in a place that has long hot summers, some herbs like cilantro that like cooler weather really need to be planted in the fall instead of in the spring. I know this but this year is the first time I’ve really acted on it. 

The December garden in zone 9 has a quite a few surprises this year. We still have a few tomatoes and basil but we also have cabbage and other greens. We also put in a new herb garden and are learning what needs to be planted over the fall in order to get a good harvest before it gets too hot.

Our carrots are coming up and looking pretty good. 

The December garden in zone 9 has a quite a few surprises this year. We still have a few tomatoes and basil but we also have cabbage and other greens. We also put in a new herb garden and are learning what needs to be planted over the fall in order to get a good harvest before it gets too hot.

Our Chinese cabbage has bolted. There are a few plants that we’re still eating off of that haven’t bolted but mostly the bees are enjoying the flowers. We also have quite a few spots of basil (one is in this bed). We’ve collected most of the seeds but still need to pick the last of the leaves for pesto

The December garden in zone 9 has a quite a few surprises this year. We still have a few tomatoes and basil but we also have cabbage and other greens. We also put in a new herb garden and are learning what needs to be planted over the fall in order to get a good harvest before it gets too hot.

Our three moringa trees are looking great. I noticed that our local grocery store sells moringa capsules for $26 a bottle. That’s just crazy when it grows so well here. 

The December garden in zone 9 has a quite a few surprises this year. We still have a few tomatoes and basil but we also have cabbage and other greens. We also put in a new herb garden and are learning what needs to be planted over the fall in order to get a good harvest before it gets too hot.

Our fig tree is confused. It has two small figs but is now dropping its leaves for winter. 

Is anything going on in your garden? Feel free to share what you are doing in the comments. 

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If you are looking for some healthy living inspiration you’ll want to check out the Ultimate Healthy Living Bundle flash sale. I bought this bundle during the regular sale this fall and have loved it. You can read about my most favorite items in this post. It’s only available for Dec 28th and Dec 29th.

Also, as an additional bonus, I’m offering a pre-release copy of our new printable ebook, The Wellness Notebook, to anyone who purchases through one of the links on our site. The Wellness Notebook will really help you organize all the things you are learning about wellness but it won’t be available to the public until the fall of 2016. Just email me and let me know that you ordered through one of our links and we’ll send  you The Wellness Notebook. Don’t worry, when the final product is ready, we’ll send that to you too so you won’t miss out on anything we add to it. 

SchneiderPeeps - The December Garden pin

Thanks for sharing with your friends!

Vicki

Monday 18th of January 2016

Hi Angi, I am thoroughly enjoying your blog. I am a newbie here in Austin, TX and adjusting to this new growing zone. I realize you're quite a bit further south than I am, but how do you keep those Meyer lemons through the winter?! I have two in pots that I bring in for winter. This is my third year and I finally was able to sample the first lemon last week. It was perfect! Do you think I could get away with planting one outside permanently in zone 8b? Your lemon trees are beautiful!

Angi Schneider

Monday 18th of January 2016

Hi Vicki, welcome to Texas! Honestly, we don't do anything special to the lemons during the winter. We rarely get a hard freeze and citrus can go through a light freeze just fine. If we are going to dip into the mid 20's we'll put some blankets over the tree if it still has fruit on it. If all the fruit has been picked, we don't do anything the tree will be fine. We have friends who had citrus trees that survived the South Texas snow of 2004, the fruit was ruined but the trees survived. I'm kind of a rebel so I would just plant a tree outside and see what happens. You can usually find citrus trees for $15-$25 at HEB (at least you can here.) Let me know if you do and how it works out for you.

Rachel E.

Tuesday 29th of December 2015

You inspire me to have a garden next year even though I will have a new baby. It's nice to see that you allow the grass and such to co-mingle. :)

Angi Schneider

Tuesday 29th of December 2015

Congrats on the new baby! What a blessing. You know, I wish I had a garden where the weeds didn't take over, but if I aspire to that kind of garden I wouldn't have a garden at all. Like you I'm in a really busy season of life and I have to just do what I can and let the rest go. Enjoy your winter break, is it snowing there yet?

Cari

Tuesday 29th of December 2015

I ordered your datebook/planner twice and got redirected to this page. I can't seem to find the link to download it. What am I missing? Thanks.

Peggy

Tuesday 29th of December 2015

The PayPal link is very small, on the left side, under the promo code box. I had the same issue. Just click that. Thank you! I can't wait to use it!

Angi Schneider

Tuesday 29th of December 2015

Hi Cari, the datebook download link will come to you via email. Can you check your email (including your spam folder) and let me know if you received it? The email will be titled "Thank you for your purchase". Thanks!