Cold Season Carrots

This is just another post I've been meaning to write - The other week, I pulled the remainder of this year's carrots, mainly because the field mice were beginning to feast on them. Growing my carrots in taller raised beds seems to deter them a bit but not completely. Last year, I lost all of my fall and winter carrots to them, which is a shame since the year before, I was still pulling extra-sweet carrots from the garden well into January. With a bit of protection in the form of floating fabric and plastic row covering, they store very well in the garden in our Zone 6 winters. The soil tends to freeze solid at night but the added heat provided by the protective covering during the day defrosts it just enough so that you can still access them, even when the outdoor temperature never goes above 32 degrees F. Generally, they'll keep well until about early February, at which point our mid-winter thaws will encourage the plant to send out new lateral white roots.


The most annoying thing about field mice is the fact that they tend to nibble at the tops and then work their way down. Usually, you'll end up with a large percentage of carrots that look like this. Commercial farmers must go crazy when they see this. Sometimes, I'll just cut off the tops and save the rest of root if the damage isn't too bad. I doubt most farmers market customers would go for that.


My winter carrots could have used a few more weeks to size up fully. Oh well. These baby carrots are wonderful roasted whole.

The Season For Kale

Ok, I officially take back what I said about kale. While it's definitely not one of my favorite vegetables, I can honestly say that I'm starting to develop a taste for it, especially since we've had several hard frosts now and the fall veggies are fading fast. Our kale will probably be the last thing to bite the dust this winter.

Above is a Portuguese kale, the seeds of which were kindly given to me by Michelle. (Thanks again, Michelle!) I wonder if it will taste much like Red Russian.


My spring sown Tuscan kale last year grew like gangbusters and was virtually ignored all summer long, which is why I decided to grow it as a fall crop this year. Well things didn't really pan out all too well. Out of the four varieties I plants, this one did the least well. Tuscan kale is not as winter hardy as other varieties so I doubt that we'll get much of a harvest.


This more traditional-looking variety is 'Vates'. (Thanks again Dan for the seeds!) I have a feeling that it will fair the best this winter. The love the crinkly leaves on this variety.


Finally, the mice seem to be ignoring my Red Russian kale so far this year. That will probably change as the seasons progress. I've grown Red Russian for the past two winters as it has proven to be extremely resilient if given some protection in the form of plastic or fabric row cover. I may not cover it at all this year just to see how much it can take. The most recent batch I harvested was really good in an Italian Wedding soup that I made last week. I can see how this variety is a favorite of many gardeners.

Will you be harvesting kale this winter?

Harvesting Mache

Not much is growing in the garden right now. In fact, what is still green seems to be hanging on for dear life. Except that is for the mache, which seems virtually impervious to whatever winter throws its way.


We've developed quite a taste for this hardy winter green. Traditionally the whole mini-rosette is picked and looks so pretty in a salad. Best of all,The leaves are packed with so much flavor - fresh and floral, it's a wonderful thing to experience especially during this bleak time of year. Next winter, I may forgo winter lettuce all together and plant a whole bed of mache.


On a side note, the claytonia may be the hardiest winter green of all but it's not doing much of anything right now. I've tasted it and boy is it good. The leaves are fairly succulent with a wonderfully wild taste. I'm hoping that it will eventually take off as the days grow longer and the temperatures get a bit warmer.

First Harvest of 2011

It felt good to kick off 2011 with a fairly decent winter harvest (by New England standards of course). Today I picked a good amount of mache (aka corn salad), which we prepared lightly dressed with a simple vinaigrette for dinner. If you've never grown or tasted mache, I'd highly recommend it. This hardy winter green is very delicious and simple to start from seed. The leaves are mild and have a slightly floral flavor reminiscent of rose petals.


I also harvested a bit of spinach, which has proven to be very disappointing this winter. I haven't been able to harvest nearly as much as I did last year. The plants seem completely unfazed by the cold but are not growing at all (probably because I've been too lazy to cover the bed with some fabric row cover). Plus the voles have been taking much more than their fair share.


Speaking of voles, they are having a field day with my Red Russian kale right now, toppling whole plants and scattering stripped stems everywhere. They've already done away with my winter carrots and Swiss chard. I never thought in a million years that they would become such a problem this time of year. Building one of those industrial-sized 5 gallon bucket mice traps is definitely on the top of my list of things to do this spring. Anyway, I harvested as much kale as I could (no sense in leaving it for the little bastards) and some thyme to store in the fridge.

On a side note - I love the look of Red Russian this time of year. The leaves are so beautifully tinged with shades of purple.


And yes, more Meyer lemons. I'm sure you're all sick of seeing them in my harvest posts but considering the climate we live in, every single one is so very precious to me.

Finally, I've decided to forgo weighing my homegrown produce this year. I'm glad I did it last year but after a while, the effort began to feel tedious. I'll still post about my weekly picks and envy your harvest totals though!

The Last Harvest of the Year...Sort of

This will be the last harvest post before arrival of the winter solstice. In a lot of ways, December 21st will mark for me the end of one growing year (my first) and the beginning of another. Winter hasn't even officially started yet and already I'm looking forward to the increasing light. I've been feeling rather unmotivated during the past couple of months, but I'm sure this will change as the days grow longer again. Before you know it, our seed-starting shelves will be running at full capacity again.

Today I picked several Meyer lemons to make another batch of marmalade for Christmas. This time around, I think I'll add some vanilla to the mix.

I also cleaned up my carrot bed today and pulled the remaining few that the voles hadn't gotten to by now. They're rather pathetic looking but tasted mild and sweet nonetheless.

This week's numbers:
Meyer Lemons - 1.62 lb
Carrots 1.20 lb

Total harvest this week - 2.82 lb
Total so far this year - 690.28 lb

Winter Greens

From left to right - Red Altaglobe radishes, claytonia, Winter Density lettuce, mizuna, mache, Little Gem lettuce, Tango lettuce

My winter greens are growing very slowly these days. It generally gets into the upper 50's/low 60's during the days and down into the mid 20's at night in the hoop house. Pretty soon, I will place an inner layer of fabric row cover for some added protection.


I will start harvesting some of these greens inthe next week or two. The mache is definitely ready to be picked.

This winter is already starting out to be much colder than last year. It will be interesting to see how the garden fares during the next couple of months.

A Cold Mid-December Harvest

Winter is getting an early start here in New England, at least compared to last year. We were lucky that it got into the high 40's today, despite the fact that it rained all day. The soil thawed enough for me to go out and dig up the remainder of my leeks. These are the leeks that I transplanted out in August. I'm really impressed by how big they've gotten. I will chop and freeze most of it for later use.

Also, I harvested a good amount of Tuscan kale that had been left unprotected in the garden. The haul would have been a lot more if I had picked it before the temperatures reached down into the teens last week.


I also harvested some bok choy in the form of micro-greens. They were great in a Pho soup that I prepared for dinner tonight. I placed them in a bowl with some rice noodles and poured the hot soup broth on top, which scalds them just enough to render them cooked. Delicious!


Admittedly, I had started the extra-dwarf white-stemmed bok choy a few weeks ago with the intention of transplanting them into the hoop house. But with the present conditions being what they are, I don't think that they would have fared too well. Since it only took them about four weeks to reach this size, I think I'll continue to raise some micro Asian greens for the remainder of this winter. Having one grow light in operation doesn't seem to have a noticeable impact on our electricity bill and it will be nice to have some fresh greens in the dead of January.

This week's numbers:

Bok Choy micro greens - 0.30 lb
Leeks - 1.92 lb
Tuscan kale - 1.44 lb

Total this week - 3.66 lb
Total so far this year - 687.46 lb

Inside the Hoophouse

I thought I'd do a quick post on some of the things I have growing in my hoop house right now.


As you can see, there's not much going on at the moment. At the very least, I need to tidy things up a bit. Hopefully by late February, things will be hopping in here. For the time being, I'm relying on the kale to supply the bulk of our homegrown winter greens. The protective environment of the hoop house should get them through the next few months.


As I'd mentioned before, the carrot bed is a mess! If you look closely, you can see several holes made by voles. I have placed several traps nearby and may construct a five gallon bucket mousetrap this weekend. Pretty soon, the remainder of the carrots will be pulled and the bed will be cleaned up and planted with Asian greens.


After months of doing nothing, the claytonia is starting to produce larger edible leaves. I think I may have a fertility issue with a couple of my beds. I will have to apply a liquid feed this weekend to help compensate for this.


In front is some Winter Density lettuce that needs to be dug up, separated and replanted further apart. I'm not certain as to how well they will fair in here this winter. Last year's lettuce turned incredibly bitter by the end of December. I've read that blanching the leaves under the darkness of say a flower pot can alleviate some of the bitterness. I might just have to give this a try. In the back is mizuna, which I've already started to harvest.


It's turning out to be a good year for mache. Last year's crop never matured because of one vole with a rather voracious appetite. I should be able to harvest a few miniature heads within the next week or two.


Finally, I'm currently experimenting with growing carrots in pots. I'll try again this upcoming spring. We have rather heavy soil here and so our carrots only turn out perfect about 50 percent of the time. I'm hoping that if I can find the an appropriate variety and get the fertility just right, I'll have a new use for all of the 7 gallon buckets I'd bought for growing potatoes.

Fall Garden Update

I thought I'd do a post on how my fall garden is coming along. There's still quite a bit of work to do but I'm hoping to get all of my seeds planted within the next week or two. In no particular order:

The 8 broccoli plants I started back in July are doing rather well despite being assaulted by little green worms. Regular applications of Dipel Dust seem to help. I'm hoping they will begin to form heads within the next couple of weeks. To the left of them are my mini Napa cabbages.


The Tuscan kale desperately needs to be picked. The tops are getting a bit heavy at this point. I'm sure all of them will need proper staking in the near future.


My fall beets are growing rather slowly. Germination was good but then I lost quite a few at the seedling stage. Many of them damped off seemingly overnight. I really should check the PH of my soil.


The winter carrots are growing steadily. I only have one bed of carrots this year but had planted the seeds closer together. I'm also experimenting with growing my half-long Nantes carrots in buckets that had been used for growing potatoes. My spring carrots were a dismal failure, partly because our soil is so heavy. I'm interested to see how carrots fair when grown in containers. Hopefully the roots grow long and straight.


It's nice to have some lettuce to harvest again. These will have to hold us over until the Mesclun mix I just planted is ready.


The spinach is growing comfortably under row cover. Without it, the plants would have been toast by now.


I'm really surprised by how quickly the Red Russian kale has grown. These were started at the beginning of August. I should be able to harvest a few leaves in a week or two. In the same bed is some white stem chard. Hopefully, these will fair as well this winter as they did last year. To the left of this bed, I have some Watermelon and Daikon radish growing alongside the leeks.


Finally, not only are the snow peas up but some of the plants are already staring to flower. Boy that was quick. Despite the high temperatures of late August, they seem to be comfortable in the shadier part of the garden. To the right of the snow peas are Asian greens, including Tokyo Market turnips. Thanks again Winnie for the seeds!

Winter Alliums

I'm sure most of you would agree with me that gardening is a hobby that requires a lot of patience and planning. There's also the anticipation that comes naturally with the change in seasons, which is why I usually find myself focused on what the garden would look like 3 to 5 months from now. At the moment, I'm focused on November, December and January. During the past 12 months, I've been able to pick something from the garden each month, even when temperatures failed to get above freezing. Granted, some of those harvests were rather meager. I'm hoping that with a bit more planning this year, I can get some of those cold weather harvests to be more substantial.

Above are some of the leeks I planted in the Spring. They are definitely slow growing. I think I'll top-dress them with a bit of compost and fertilizer to get them growing again.


Last week, I decide to transplant my winter alliums. These scallions were started a few weeks ago. If all goes well, they should be ready by late November or December.


Last spring, I also planted a clump of leeks for transplanting later in the summer. These are my experimental winter leeks. I'm hoping that, if all goes well, they will mature sometime during mid to late winter.


The entire clump lifted easily with a simple turn of the garden fork...

Then I went about sorting through the bunch, trying to pick out only the largest leeks for replanting. (I'm learning to be more cut-throat this time of year.) After a quick trim of the leaves and roots, they were ready for transplanting.


At this point, I'm watering all of my fall/winter seedlings almost every day to protect them from the summer heat and they seem to be responding well to it.

If you're growing a fall/winter garden this year as well, I'd love to hear about it!

On a random note, how creepy is this!!! Makes you think twice about inhaling your food (literally).

The Summer Garden Clean-Up

Not too long ago, my garden looked like this...


...and this...


I can't believe that I had let things get so bad. Raised beds plagued with weeds, coffee can pots rusting away, garden paths littered with dead leaves and pulled spring crops - I must have been preoccupied with other things.

Last week was the first time in almost a year that I had taken a solid week off from work. It was much needed to say the least. Instead of going away on some sort of vacation, I really just wanted to be home. It was also an opportune time to get some work done in the garden in preparation for the fall growing season. Before you know it, we'll be getting our first frost warming.


So what was once rather messy is now relatively neat and tidy. Fall broccoli has been planted in the foreground, along with Brussel sprouts (rather late) and lettuce in the left side bed. Carrots, beets, Swiss Chard, snow peas, watermelon radish and Daikon radish have also been sown. And many other fall and winter crops will be planted this week.

Let's all hope for a long and warm fall growing season like the one we had last year!

Soft Neck Garlic and Fall / Winter Seed Starting Schedule

This past weekend, I pulled all of my softneck garlic. Considering that this was grown from garlic purchased at the supermarket, I was happy to find that there were quite a few good-sized bulbs. There is always a certain level of risk when planting stuff from the supermarket, but all in all, I think this little experiment worked out well. If anything, I planted it just for fun. Whether or not I'll do it again come October is another story.


I also planted 5 supermarket shallots last fall but unfortunately, only one of them overwintered successfully. Maybe I'll purchase some from a seed company this year. It's interesting how shallot bulbs pull apart from one another as they grow - definitely makes it easier to tell when they are ready.

Finally, for all of you out there who may be interested, this is my tentative fall/winter seed starting schedule:

Broccoli - F, now (I)
Beets - F, 7/11 (I)
Mini Napa Cabbage - F, 7/25 (I)
Shanghai Bok Choy - F, W, 8/1, 8/15, 9/1 (I)
Extra Dwarf Bok Choy - F, W - 8/1, 8/15, 9/1 (I)
Mizuna - F, W, 8/1, 8/15, 9/1, (I)
Tatsoi - F, W, 8/1, 8/15, 9/1, (I)
Choy Sum - F, 7/25 (I)
Scallions - W, now (I)
Swiss Chard (Fordhook) - W, 7/25 (I)
Kale (Red Russian) - W, 7/25 (I)
Mesclun Mix - F, 8/15, 8/29 (D)
Minutina - W, 8/15 (D)
Mache (2 varieties) - W, 8/29 (D)
Lettuce (Tango) - F, 8/22 (I)
Lettuce (Korean) - F 8/22 (I)
Lettuce (Winter Density) - W 8/22, 9/12 (I)
Wild Arugula - F, 8/22 (D)
Claytonia - W, 8/29 (D)
Radish (Daikon) - F, 8/22 (D)
Radish (Altaglobe) - W, 9/12 (D)
Radish (French Breakfast) - F, 9/12 (D)
Radish (Watermelon) - F, 8/22 (D)
Turnip (Tokyo Cross) - F, 8/22 (D)
Turnip (Hakurei) - F 8/29 (D)
Carrots (Nantes Half Long) - F, W, now, 7/25 (D)
Chinese Celery - F, 7/25 (I)
Spinach (Space F1) - W, 8/15 (D)
Snow Peas and Shoots - F, 8/1 (I)

D - Direct sow outdoors
I - Start indoors

Again, this year's fall and winter garden will be largely experimental and utilize plastic covered hoops in order to extend the growing season. Hopefully we'll have lots of warm weather again this fall.

The Summer Garden and Fall Preparations

In gardening terms, when I think of April, I think "sparse". And when thinking of September, "overgrown" comes to mind. Which is partly why I enjoy this time of year so much. Everything looks perfectly lush and green yet manageable, except for maybe the weeds. Anyway, here are some gardening bits worth noting:


I found a ripe ground cherry the other day. After a month of doing absolutely nothing, the plants have exploded in growth during the past few weeks. I see quite a few green husks. Unfortunately, either the chipmunks or birds have been going to town on them...eating the green berries before they have chance to ripen. I will be covering the plants with bird netting tomorrow and hope that it will deter the chipmunks as well.


The Piracicaba broccoli is putting out tons of side shoots. I'm rather enjoying the texture and taste of this variety. Also, I realized the other day that one particular plant is responsible for producing all of the bitter shoots I've been tasting. Maybe it's the result of some sort of plant mutation.


My Imperial artichokes are growing rather slowly these days. I had inadvertently planted them in the shadiest spot in my garden...not good for a plant that requires full sun. I still haven't seen any signs that they will put forth flower stalks anytime soon. If I don't get any artichokes this year, I will try my best to overwinter them.


My melons are flowering at the moment. I haven't seen any female flowers yet though. Now that the weather is warming up, the plants are really starting to sprawl. Pretty soon, I won't be able to walk as freely in the back garden. Any tips on how to ensure that your melons pollinate properly?

Finally, the end of June means that it's now time to start planning for the fall and winter growing seasons. On Tuesday, I placed a seed order with Johnny's, which I'm glad to say arrived in the mail on Thursday. Here is a tentative list of my fall and winter veggies for this year.

Broccoli (Bonanza - produces a center head and the many side shoots) - F
Mini Napa Cabbage - F
Shanghai Bok Choy - F, W
Extra Dwarf Bok Choy - F, W
Mizuna - F, W
Tatsoi - F, W
Scallions - W
Swiss Chard (Fordhook) - W
Kale (Red Russian) - W
Mesclun Mix - F
Minutina - W
Mache (2 varieties) - W
Lettuce (Tango) - F
Lettuce (Korean) - F
Lettuce (Winter Density) - W
Wild Arugula - F
Claytonia - W
Radish (Daikon) - F
Radish (Altaglobe) - W
Radish (French Breakfast) - F
Radish (Watermelon) - F
Turnip (Tokyo Cross) - F
Turnip (Hakurei) - F
Carrots (Nantes Half Long) - F, W
Chinese Celery - F
Spinach (Space F1) - W
Snow Peas and Shoots - F

I'm sure I'll make some changes along the way based on the amount of space that becomes available. Also, I still need to finalize the garden plan, sowing and transplanting dates. Last year's winter garden had its share of successes and failures. I'm sure this year will be no different, but hopefully, things will be slightly more predictable.