Winter Gardening

[MyBabyBunnies]

I've been seriously considering trying to continue growing certain herbs for the bunnies during the winter so that I don't have to buy as many from the stores and fresh stuff is always better!

I'm not planning on growing lettuce because of the room it would require but I have done reasearch on a few herbs -- mainly cilantro and parsley and they are 'cool herbs' so they tend to like cool growing weather which is ideal for indoor winter growing. I've read that herbs tend to like direct sunlight and our house gets direct sunlight from noon until the sun sets.

Does this seem ok? Has anyone else done things like this in the winter?

I will also have other dried leafy greens such as carrot tops and raspberry leaves. Every year at the end of summer we sun dry them and store them and they normally last me all winter and although it may not be as good as fresh, it's still something and still better than store bought! But I just though fresh herbs would be good too.

(I know, it's August and I'm thinking about winter but it's better prepared than not!)

 

[Runestonez]

I didn't know it was possible to dry carrot tops!!:shock: We dry basil and stuff for the bunns over the wimter...but I hadn't thought of those others! Do you dry white raspberry or red? I thought I read somewhere that one of the two had big prickles? We have a small red raspberry bush out back...so it is something to think about!

I've tried growing parsley and watercress in the winter but i found that they didn't do well. Unfortunately our house is very dry in the winter so that probably didn't help at all! I don't see why it wouldn't work though! As long as you had enuff sunlight!

 

[MyBabyBunnies]

We grow both yellow and red raspberries but I only ever feed red raspberry leaves to them. The yellow are so much more prickly and although the red have their fair share of prickles, you can find leaves without prickles on them. I run my hand under them while picking leaves and if it's too prickly for me to put in my mouth, then it's my opinion that I wouldn't expect my rabbits to eat it either.

But yes, if you put them on something like a mesh screen and raise it even just an inch or 2 so it can breathe and then place it in the sun, you can sun dry both raspberry leaves and carrot tops. We collect them from everyone so I have a big box for the winter.

 

[Runestonez]

Thanks MBB, I'm going to give that a try this year!

 

[MyBabyBunnies]

Just be careful not to over dry it. They should both still be very green when dried so you need to do it on a very warm day and rotate it. Bring the stuff in the middle and bottom up or better yet, spread it thinly over several surfaces. If you don't double up any of the carrot tops or leaves then you can even place them on a table or something but you still have to rotate them to make sure they dry evenly. And if they aren't dry in one day, make sure to put them somewhere so they wont get wet overnight but don't store them in plastic, try to keep them exposed as much as possible.

Once dried, just place in a cardboard box and store where desired. I keep mine in the shed and out of reach of mice.

 

[SOOOSKA]

Hi MBB, I also did't know you can dry carrot tops. Maybe I'll try that, except my 4 "piggies" just love them so I don't know if they would last long enough to dry them.

I have grown parsley in the winter, and yes they do like sun.

Have you ever tried growing basil, all 4 of mine love it. I wouldn't suggest you grow it in the garden as it takes over the whole garden, it actually grows like weeds. I didn't plant any this year but it still came up and I do mean come up from last year. I thought I had pulled it all out. Some of the plants had 2 foot roots. However Basil is quite easy to grow in pots.

Soooska:apollo:

 

[Bassetluv]

MyBabyBunnies wrote:

Just be careful not to over dry it. They should both still be very green when dried so you need to do it on a very warm day and rotate it. Bring the stuff in the middle and bottom up or better yet, spread it thinly over several surfaces. If you don't double up any of the carrot tops or leaves then you can even place them on a table or something but you still have to rotate them to make sure they dry evenly. And if they aren't dry in one day, make sure to put them somewhere so they wont get wet overnight but don't store them in plastic, try to keep them exposed as much as possible.

Once dried, just place in a cardboard box and store where desired. I keep mine in the shed and out of reach of mice.

Oh, this is a great tip, thank you for posting this, MBB! I have a ton of raspberry bushes in my backyard and would never have thought about drying the leaves for winter feed. And it costs a small fortune to buy greens here in the winter for the bunnies. I also have thornless blackberries...would you know if you can dry and feed these as well?

 

[MyBabyBunnies]

I've never tried drying blackberry leaves but they are safe so I imagine it would work! You can even feed the stems of both blackberries and raspberries granted they are not overly prickly. My rabbits LOVE the raspberry branches and go nuts for them.

I've never fed basil but if it grows like a weed I just might, it should be easy to grow indoors then.

 

[MyBabyBunnies]

Well I picked up seed today -- I got cilantro, parsley, and basil so I hope at least the cilantro will turn out because the bunnies love it!

I hope to expand myrabbit gardennext summer and grow a little more -- endive, chard, pasley, cilantro, romaine, basil, dill, sage, mint, fennel. That way I can grow less of each but much more variety for the rabbits. I'm sure they will enjoy a change in diet like that.

 

[SOOOSKA]

MBB, just be warned basil is best grown in pots. I cannot believe how fast it will take over a garden. Like I said I didn't plant any this year and half the bunny garden is loaded with it.

Good luck with your winter garden.

Soooska:apollo:

 

[MyBabyBunnies]

Let me rephrase that, next year I will grow basil (and possibly some of the other herbs) in pots. I normally plant only the lettuce and things like it in the garden but I might plant the cilantro in there as well because the bunnies love cilantro so a big row of it will do them well. Plus by planting some in pots, I can move them around the yard to the best place throughout the day.

 

[Runestonez]

MBB-Do the raspberry stalks have to be dried? Or can they be fed while still fresh? I was thinking of cutting some of Tony's raspberry stalks off as a treat tonight! I just won't tell hubby!

 

[MyBabyBunnies]

They can be fed fresh, it's just that they seem really prickly until later in the year and since that's the time we dry the rest of the leaves, I normally feed them dried but I have also fed them fresh.

I know my bunnies love raspberry branches!