Gardening: In November?

Yesterday on Thanksgiving we got our first really hard frost. It's late this year. Even got a touch of snow. Today is a frosty day, about 32 degrees. My son just told me it's snowing lightly. I should be listening to Christmas music, baking, decorating our house for Christmas (what little room we have for decorating, that is.) So why would I be thinking about next years garden?

I am really wanting to grow a garden next year to help with our family food costs. We'd also like to see if we can sell some of our produce, locally. We've tried gardening before, and the deer eat it (duh, we live in the country. What were we thinking?) I've done container's of Tomatoes on our deck, and caught our three-year old feeding the "pretty" red ones, to our chickens. Hmm, how to explain to a three-year old that the tomatoes shouldn't be fed to the chickens just because they like them. This year, we've bought the material for an eight foot "deer/toddler fence." We bought enough (we think) to surround one of our ten acres. Not a small purchase, mind you! However, the goal is to start our landscaping tree farm and my home garden, all nicely protected from huge long-legged rats.

Now, why am I thinking so far in advance? I mean it's November after all. Good question! And the answer is, I hope just as good. I am starting a business January through April 15th. Can anyone guess? Yes, I am going to work from home through the tax season doing Personal and Business Taxes. This falls in line with my accounting degree and I am busy right now, re-familiarizing myself with current tax laws. I am working towards being busy enough that it would be a good idea to have my garden strategy all planned out before tax season starts.

So, I am attempting to have my home, berry, and herb garden plots all designed, and the seeds/plants purchased, before the tax season busyness starts. I will need to pre-plant my starts sometime mid-March, so I can't procrastinate now.

If I can figure out how, I will be posting my garden design on this blog, and you all can encourage me, and maybe help me improve.

Now before I post anything further, let me assure you that I grew up gardening, cooking, freezing, and canning homemade foods. I added dehydrating in my twenties and thirties. The only thing I am not proficient at is root cellaring, but since I don't have a root cellar it's not a problem. (I am working on that, husband is not cooperating, yet.) We will at least need a larger, cool and dark, storage room. I may need to get creative on that (under the beds?)

I got my husband out on his 1940-something Ford 9-N tractor to plow up the tree/garden space about a week ago. I am pretty excited that he did it this fall, rather than waiting until Spring. I'd still like to see some manure spread out this fall, however, I don't think I'm going to get that. So working on the compost piles of leaves, is a good start. I am asking the kids to rake up the leaves into bags, and set them next to the chicken coop. Then as the snow falls, they can spread out the leaves in the outside chicken pen. The chicken's should love to scratch around in, and poop in the leaves, and it should make some might fine compost to add to our garden in the Spring.

I am adding some links to some great websites and blogs I follow:

Garden Plans Internet Software
In My Kitchen Garden: Blog
Better Homes & Gardens: Gardening Plans

Thanks for listening!