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garden:comment:20151230

A winter garden

I always plant a few things that overwinter well, for example, leeks and garlic. I've tried other vegetables like carrots and onions with less success. This year I attempted my most ambitious fall and winter garden yet. It includes:

  • carrot
  • leek
  • garlic
  • winter cabbage
  • kale
  • chard
  • green onion
  • radish
  • lettuce

August

The area for the winter garden had been in a mixed cover crop the previous winter and under buckwheat for the summer. Weeds, especially purslane, were creeping in because the winter cover crop hadn't done its job (of covering).

As the buckwheat was going to seed I scythed an area of about 22 by 25 feet. Then I chopped (with a hoe) the buckwheat into the soil.

I used some of the remineralization minerals to prepare the soil.

I was germinating onions, cabbage, lettuce and chard in the greenhouse, for planting in September.

September

During September I prepared the beds, seeding the first stage of radish, and transplanting onion, lettuce, chard, kale and cabbage.

Delights

I found several unexpected delights in this fall and winter garden, particularly from the low tents.

  • Just having fresh radish and lettuce through the fall was a pleasure.
  • The radish, lettuce and chard grew slowly, barely meeting our own consumption. This was nice not needing to synchronize harvesting with dropping off produce at the Food Pantry. We did contribute about 5 pounds though.
  • Humidity in the low tents was high (seldom below 95%), so there was no need to water once the plants were established.
  • Weed pressure in the tents seemed lower than outside.
  • Except for weeding the plants in the low tents required relatively little attention (compared to faster growth in warmer weather).
  • I learned how to keep the lettuce and chard healthy in the 20-degree weather by using a row cover cloth over them inside the low tent. The temperature differences were surprising.

Disappointments

Before freezing temperatures came the tiny slugs ravaged the chard (mostly) and to some extent the lettuce. I had hoped they would have found more appealing dinners elsewhere.

When the weather began to warm (by mid February when high temperatures occasionally rose into the 60s) the kale (especially the Dwarf Blue Scotch, which is my favorite) began to bolt. This was true for the fall transplants as for the few plants left from early summer. There was never a significant harvest from the fall plants before they began to bolt.

Strong winds buffeted the plants outside the low tents, especially cabbages, some of which were torn out of the ground, and most of which appeared bedraggled. (Cabbages in a low tent at home in a raised bed, have never (as of mid-March, began to form heads - they are reaching for the sky. I'm not surprised about these because of the minimal amount of sunlight reaching these.)

Significant amounts of moss formed inside the low tents, and in some places outside. It took a couple of treatments of iron sulfate to kill them. Then I needed to extract the dead moss (along with a significant amount of topsoil).

A number of lettuce plants in the low tents expired. I'm not sure why, though it didn't appear to be from pests. So I will have some spaces for spring transplants there.

Revolting bolting

Many of the vegetables I hoped to have during the sprint sent up seed pods before I could harvest much from them, primarily, spinach (I harvested just enough for a few lunches and a great quiche), cabbage, kale (two varieties), some of the lettuce (I did get about four pounds for the food banks) and some of the chard (though I did harvest maybe 12 pounds of beautiful chard). The latest disappointments are the onions and leeks, which were supposed to overwinter well, but as of the end of April are going to seed.

Perhaps, some of this, though not all, resulted from the 80+-degree weather we had in April. The cabbage was clearly bolting earlier, though.

All-in-all, much less success with the winter garden than hoped.

Here's a gallery of photos of the development of the fall and winter garden.

garden/comment/20151230.txt · Last modified: 2016/04/25 13:53 by davidbac