Hoop House Experiment

The days are getting shorter and snow could come any time now. As we finished cleaning up the yard for winter on Sunday we took advantage of the sunny day to put plastic on the hoop house. We used 2x4s and a staple gun to attach the plastic on the two sides. That way I can roll the plastic up around one of the 2x4s and they weigh the plastic down.
Most things that I tried to seed were eaten by the slugs. So I've been transplanting other things into the hoop house. Here's what I have.
Bok choy, broccoli, Italian danelion

Red Acre cabbage, tatsoi, Red Kale, a few spinach seedlings in the back.Radicchio & lettuce. The Radicchio was a surprise. It came from a mesclun mix and for some reason when I pulled the rest of the lettuce this summer, it didn't look like it was bolting, so I left it behind. Recently it began to turn red in the center. I pulled off the outer green leaves when I transplanted it. Maybe we'll get a head of radicchio to grill. We used a few leaves in a salad and they are quite bitter.
This is mostly an experiment to see how things do and to see if it gives an earlier start in the spring for some of these plants to begin growing again.

Harvest Monday 11/1/10

I am surprised in this last week of October to still have tomatoes ripening from the box I picked at the beginning of the month. I got another pound and a half of tomatoes. With some from last week and a few from the freezer I was able to make a fresh tomato soup on Saturday. 2 oz of carrots went into the tomato soup too.
The other harvests are slowing. I know the chard will be done soon. The leaves are smaller and more crinkled. I picked 6 oz of it this week.
I picked 4.5 oz of arugula, mizuna, mache, & claytonia to make a base for this Lentil & Pumpkin Salad.
I used a small pumpkin and even smaller butternut. We really enjoyed it and will be making it again. We did put goat cheese and toasted seeds on top too, but its easier to see the squash in this photo.

Total this week: 2.27 pounds
Total this year: 443.9 pounds
You can see what other gardeners harvested this week at Daphne's Dandelions.

Hoop House & Winter Greens

I wasn't content with just my little cold frame in such a big garden for winter crops. The cold frame is full and I had more seeds I wanted to try to get to grow in the winter or sprout in early spring. In the cold frame I have, mache, mizuna, kolhrabi, lettuce, claytonia, beets, carrots, walking onions, spinach & arugula.

I had tatsoi outside the cold frame but it has been mostly eaten by slugs.

So I'm trying out the mini-hoop house idea. We went the cheap route, and bough 1/2" pvc pipe. It came in 10' lengths and was cut in half to be 5 feet. We got a long piece of threaded rod that fits inside and my wonderful husband cut it into 1' pieces.

Those 1' pieces went in the ground about 1 1/2 feet apart. We weren't exact. Then the pvc pipe went over top.
I already had some row cover which is currently being held down with the few stakes I could find and some rocks. We may use some clear plastic left over from a painting project to cover it more when snow comes. (Notice the forest of kale behind. We're not lacking for hardy greens)
Here's what went inside.

Transplanted Seedlings:
Bok Choy
Broccoli
Red Kale

Red Cabbage & Dandelion Green (not pictured)

Seeds:
Mizuna, Tatsoi, Purple Mustard, Chinese green onions, Chinese Cabbage, Sugarloaf Chicory, Spinach, Mache

This is all an experiment. I know it's too late for seriously starting seeds in my area, but maybe some things will sprout and over-winter and we'll get an early spring crop. If some things are successful, then maybe we can expand (and plan better) next year.

Seed Saving

Here are some plants that I will be saving seeds from this year.

From my cold frame at the old house I transplanted:
One Winterbor kale,

six to ten assorted carrots,
two Chicory or Italian Dandelions,
and five to ten mache plants.

In the new garden I found four red kale that survived the winter after being pushed over and buried under the snow. I don't have any red kale seeds so I'm excited to expand my collection with these.

I have the kale plants at opposite ends of the garden so they don't cross pollinate. I'm looking forward to having more free seeds from these plants!

Cold Frame Update & Harvest

Today the temperature was above freezing so I ventured out before dark to check on the cold frame before the snow hits tomorrow. Things look pretty sad in there. The only plants with signs of life are the tatsoi, winterbor kale, claytonia, and mache. The claytonia and mache are too small to amount to anything as is the tatsoi. They were planted to late.

The kale looks rather shriveled but I picked some anyways. Some seems freeze dried. I also pulled a few carrots. The little ones that were there in the ground didn't do much, but now taste sweet. I had to go get a trowel to dig out the stubby larger ones because the ground was frozen after the first 1/4 inch. Next year I'll did carrots before the ground freezes.

So here is my token harvest for February: 1 oz kale and 2 oz carrots.
You can see other gardener's harvests at Daphne's Dandelions.

Harvest Totals 12/21/09

Early last week I took advantage of above freezing temperatures to harvest salad greens from the cold frame. I got a bit wet in the process as there is snow all around the cold frame and I had to get close to reach in to where the greens were. However, it was worth it for the fresh salad we had for dinner that night.

Pictured here clockwise from 12 are 1.5 oz of tatsoi from under the snow, 1 oz of arugula, a few leaves of mache, a few leaves of claytonia, .5 oz of mizuna, 1 oz of swiss chard and .25 oz of beet greens (center).

I also picked two kohlrabi, which together weighed 7 oz.
Together with the carrots from a previous week we had a nice salad from the garden in the middle of December. Since this harvest early last week, the temperatures have not ventured above freezing (even venturing into the below freezing range) so I'm not sure how things are doing. I'll be gone for the holidays but I'm hoping that I'll return to at least one harvest in the New Year!

You can find out what other gardeners are harvesting at Daphne's Dandelions.

Cold Frame Update

Today the temperatures were above freezing so I went out to check on the cold frame and gather some greens for a dinner salad. It was different to see through the glass and not have ice on both sides. Almost everything had rebounded from the cold except, surprisingly, the italian chicory dandelion. I was under the impression that this was rather hardy but it was still limp. The carrot greens had browned a bit, but I've harvested the larger ones and those still in the ground are an experiment to see if they will survive colder temperatures.

Here's how things looked inside today. You can compare them to how things looked a little over a week ago on Dec 5th or way back in September.
The sorrel is doing fine taking up the middle of the first window, but I don't know what to do with it. We made a sorrel soup, but that was just so-so. Any suggestions? I harvested the largest kohlrabi in the back. Hopefully the others will size up. The mizuna at the bottom right is doing great. I took this photo after harvesting the larger chard leaves and arugula from the middle. The dark red leaves are beet greens. I don't think I'll get any beets, but we'll eat the leaves. There is some new tatsoi in the middle as well. Kale is in the back. I didn't pick any today.
More kale in the back, limp carrots and italian chicory in the middle with small mache under and small claytonia on the bottom left. Both claytonia and mache are supposed to be very hardy but I planted them late in shady spots and they haven't amounted to much yet. Maybe they will continue to grow as the winter marches on.

Next to the cold frame under the snow was some tatsoi. I dug it out to harvest two heads. Then I covered it back up with snow so that it will be protected from the harsh cold that's predicted for the rest of the week.
And here was one of tonight's salads with all home-grown ingredients. It certainly is a pleasure in December. More on the harvest next week.

Harvest Totals 12/14/09

This past week we got at least a foot more snow. My lacinato kale did not do well with being snow covered last year so when I saw that it was getting close, I harvested almost all of it. I had to be on snow shoes to do so. It totaled around 7 oz of kale. It was the sweetest we've had yet. I think this might be the last from these plants. Over the course of the season from May to December I've harvested over 4 pound of kale from these plants. A usual harvest would be around 3 to 4 oz for a meal, though there were larger harvests of 10 oz a couple of times this summer. Altogether a good showing for my six lacinato kale plants.

You can see what other gardeners are still harvesting at Daphne's Dandelions.

Harvesting in the Snow

Winter has arrived in full force. I measured 13" of snow this afternoon. We went for a walk in snow shoes and I thought I'd better take a look at the garden while I could still get to it. I found that the Lacinato kale was close to being buried in the snow.


I returned to harvest it. It was the sweetest kale yet and we ate it all tonight. I left a few of the littlest leaves to see if they will continue to grow. Maybe I'll be able to dig some out after our next snow storm. More about the harvest on Monday.

I began to brush snow off the cold frame but then thought better of it as freezing rain was predicted for tonight. It will be a lot easier to get the ice off if it is on top of a foot of snow than if it is directly on the windows. I hope everything in there will be ok for a day or two since I won't be home during daylight tomorrow to go brush it off.

First Snow!

This afternoon our first snow began. It was wet with big flakes.
I went out while it was still light to brush off the cold frame, though it was still snowing.
Here's what is still inside, looking a bit ragged. Please forgive the wet spot on the lens in the photos. Under the right window there is kohlrabi in the back, which has been mangled by the slugs. In the middle is sorrel and there is some arugula at the bottom.
In the middle section, there is winterbor kale at the back, arugula, tatsoi and beets in the middle, and chard and mizuna at the bottom.
Under the left window is more kale, carrots, italian dandelion, mache, and a bit of claytonia. Just outside the cold frame are two swiss chard plants. The snow on them will probably cause the end of them.
And here is my lacinato kale covered with snow.

Monday Harvests 11/30/09

It seems quite amazing that I can still run out to the garden on this last day of November when I need a little bit of green for a meal. You can see what other gardeners are still harvesting at Daphne's Dandelions.
This week I ran out for some arugula and mizuna to add to a breakfast of huevos ranchros on Saturday morning.
Here is the breakfast they contributed to.
Tonight I ran out in the dark for some greens for out tacos. I ended up with a few leaves of swiss chard which we chopped to use as one of our toppings.

Neither harvest amounts to much by weight but psychologically it is nice to know that I don't have to buy store-bought lettuce and I can provide the bits of green we need. I do wish that I had seeded some lettuce back at the end of August because we only have arugula and some regular lettuce would be nice. However, the Swiss Chard does alright as a stand in.

We still have some carrots and kohlrabi in the cold frame that I need to pick and the kale is plugging along quite well. Maybe we will get to the carrots this week.

P.S. Here's a funny photo of the squirrel that was licking the mat on my parents' porch in Maryland last week. Not sure what yummy substance he found on the mat there.