The Modern Victory Garden

I grew artichokes for the first time ever this year.   Started them from seed during the late winter months, gave them a suitable period of “chilling” in colder outdoor temps to force first year bud development, and then planted them up in large outdoor pots.   They produced a light harvest for me, which was most satisfying and whetted my appetite to grow more of them and improve the harvest levels.   When I started out on this small adventure of planting something new (to me), I did my usual practice of reading up on the matter to educate myself on this plants particular needs and requirements.   I learned a lot about this interesting plant in the process, but the most important thing I found out was that the ideal growing conditions for artichokes are cool and moist summers with mild winters.   I am in zone 8b (maritime pacific northwest) and the best description of our climate is “cool and moist summers with mild winters”!   Obviously this is a plant that is well suited to my region's growing climate.   In fact, if I use sufficiently deep winter mulch, the artichokes may survive as perennials.   The mulch is needed to protect the roots from deep freezing during the few weeks a year that we get below freezing temperatures.   Even if I am unable to successfully grow them as a perennial, I ( and others in climate areas colder than Zone 8 ) can easily grow them as annuals, so long as they are started ahead of time and the transplants have 90 to 100 frost-free days to grow in.                          

Since I want to keep growing these, I created a permanent new bed for them earlier this fall and transplanted my large container grown plants into it.   It was heavy work to get them out of those large containers and set in place and the plants got knocked about a lot during the process, but they bounced right back and gave me some strong new shoots.   Here they are approximately two months later on November 6th.                      

Artichokes are heavy feeders and need consistent and thorough watering.   Growing them in containers this past summer worked just fine but I expect that the plants will do better growing in the ground with the soaker hose on them to keep them well hydrated.   I used worm casting compost to amend their new bed and planting holes with.   Now, to put them to bed for the winter, I top dressed the bed with a thick layer of rough finished compost and then layered on lots of fall leaves for insulating protection.   I used quite a bit of compost because it not only served the function of adding a layer of insulating mulch, but it also will provide a slow release of nutrients and soil improving humous to the growing bed.        

Notice the hens helping me out there?!   They are wistfully looking at that newly laid down compost wishing they could get to it so they could scratch out some worms and bugs.                                

Next, I took the wheelbarrow out to the front yard and raked up some fallen leaves from one of our Japanese maples.                        

These were then layered on above the compost mulch to create a deep blanket of insulating mulch.                                        

Another hen in that picture, just sure there are bugs to be had in that pile of leaves – if only she could reach them!   This covering is more than sufficient for most winters, but we are in for year two of La Nina this winter and odds are good we are going to be colder and wetter than normal (again), so I would prefer to cover this twice as deeply for extra protection.    I am going to have to wait though, as I raked up all of the leaves for tree number one and the remaining two trees are still largely hanging on to their fall leaves.                                      

We are forecasted to have some gusty winds on Friday, so I won’t have to wait long to get another load of leaves to finish off that bed.   What leaves I don’t use for the artichoke bed, I plan to use for mulching the tree kale/collard plants.                               

In addition to tending to the artichoke plants, I have also been working on ripening my pumpkins off of the vine.   I had a horrible squash year in 2011.   The abnormally cool summer caused everything to be delayed by at least two to three weeks from normal, and the long growing season warm lovers like pumpkins and winter squash were even more impacted than the other garden crops.   My butternuts just started really setting fruit just in time for the cold fall rains to arrive.   The pumpkins at least set their fruit earlier but were still very late and definitely not ripe when the cold rains started taking the plants down.   At first I moved them into the greenhouse hoping the temperatures inside would be warm enough with the passive solar to finish ripening them off.   This picture was taken on October 23rd.

Not long after this picture was taken though, I determined that the night time temps were dipping down too low to allow the ripening process to progress, so I brought them inside the house and put them on my front window sill.    Here they are on Sunday November 6th.                  

The largest continues to quickly ripen and will likely be ready for cooler storage (or use!) and inclusion in the harvest tally by the end of this coming weekend.   Obviously, I much prefer to have my pumpkins ripen in the patch, but they definitely can be ripened off the vine if needed -  so long as  they were sufficiently mature enough and if placed where they are exposed to sunlight and warm temps.   The extra effort is worth it to maximize my pumpkin patch production despite our strange summer season.                                                      

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

The mid-week blog updates are getting more challenging lately.   The leaves have turned on our trees but are largely still attached to the branches.   Once they are off the trees I will be raking them up and composting them, or using them to mulch and protect the artichoke plants, but for now it is not time yet to do that.                                       

The garden beds with winter crops are growing (albeit very slowly now) under the extra protection of a grow tunnel; or in containers in the greenhouse; or for extra hardy items - exposed but covered with bird netting to keep my hens out of them.   The fall and winter crops do not require much care during the dark days of winter as the weeds are not growing much either, and the soil stays moist for long periods (even when covered) due to the colder temps and damp conditions.   There will be very minimal watering and weeding chores for the next four months.          

The spent summer crops have been removed and the plant debris added to the compost bin.   The garlic has been planted.   The pumpkins have been brought into the warm house to finish ripening since they were so late setting this year and did not quite make it to the finish line before the cold fall rains arrived.   To summarize, there just is not that much going on out in the garden at the moment worth talking about.   However, the food production garden still occupies my mind quite a lot during the late fall and winter season even if I am not physically in it very much at this time.   If you are serious (like I am) about providing for all of your family’s vegetable needs from the garden, there are several important management issues to stay focused on during this low period in the garden season.               

First, I have to really be careful to avoid overharvesting the winter hardy and protected crops.   A fall / winter garden is really nothing more than plants that have been grown to a mature state prior to the arrival of the really short and dark days of winter and then held in a state of near dormancy for fresh harvesting as needed.   If the plants are mature enough and hardy enough to survive winter conditions (usually with the assistance of some protective cover) they will provide a fresh source of food.   However, with the diminished strength of the sun, much shorter day length, and cold winter temperatures, these plants may survive but are certainly not going to continue to grow much (if at all) and therefore will not bounce back after a harvest with new growth.   Particularly if your garden is like mine and goes into heavy shade during the winter months  because the winter sun sits so low on the horizon that it causes the trees that edge our property to block the sun for much of the day.   Given this fact, a sufficiently large amount of crops must have been grown to provide adequate fall / winter supply and harvesting must be done judiciously to spread the benefit of the fresh harvests out over the greatest period of time possible.   The trick is to use stored and preserved items for the most part, but to augment that with regular infusions of fresh harvests.   Having enough of both supplies and knowing how to pace yourself through each of them during the winter season is something that you pretty much have to learn through personal experience, because every garden's capacity to produce, and every family’s needs, are going to be different.   Unfortunately, just as you start thinking you’re getting pretty good at balancing both parts of the equation (fresh harvests and stored items) something changes to mix it up again!   In our case, our daughter moved away to attend college and suddenly the household I was feeding was down by one person.        

Another critical component of keeping the garden working as much as possible throughout the year is to keep the pipeline going that adds new items to the growing mix.   There is a window of time in the late fall where I stop planting anything and I am currently in that time period, but it does not last very long.   By the end of December or first part of January, I am starting hardy greens inside under grow lights and in the warmth of the house or shop, so that they are ready to be tucked in under the protection of the grow tunnel or greenhouse in early February (or soon afterwards) to take advantage of the gradual increase in day length and sun strength that starts really happening after Imbolc (most of us know it as Ground Hogs Day and is the mid-point between winter solstice and the spring equinox).   Plants begin responding to the increasing day length and sun strength and slightly warmer conditions by once again growing (although slowly in this early period).   Having some new crops coming along is a real help as the winter storage foods start becoming depleted in March and April, and the summer garden crops are still many months away at that point.   The steady schedule of regular succession planting really gets started thereafter and keeps going until once again late fall arrives.   While it is too early to start these next generation transplants, it is not too early to assess whether the seeds needed for this mid-winter seed starting are on hand.                                                                                

What is happening in your fall / winter garden and how are you doing on the levels of fresh harvests and stored items?   Are they keeping up with your vegetable needs?              

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

The focus of my time lately (outside of my professional life that is) has been on four primary things:

1. Coaxing the summer crops along despite the unusually cool season we are experiencing.
2. Getting items harvested when optimal to do so, trying to ensure nothing goes to waste from inattention.
3. Completing the final planting up of critical garden beds with fall or overwintered crops.
4. Preparing the homestead and garden for the coming fall and winter season.

Summer Crops

The summer crops are doing remarkably well considering how cool our summer season has been this year.   I am being extra vigilant to watch for fungal diseases because the risk is already high for those problems in my naturally cooler and damper region – but even more so with an extra cool year like this.   Fortunately, while cooler, our weather has not been particularly wet this summer, which has helped a lot to keep rots and fungus problems to a minimum.   In fact, I have had to really pay attention to irrigation needs because my garden beds have such good drainage that they have a tendency to dry out quickly during our dry season.   Absent rain events, I rotate through the garden on a weekly basis watering specific zones on different days such that by the end of the week all the areas have been watered at least once.   Doing it this way keeps the work load for this routine maintenance manageable, particularly during the busy work week.  

Another summer crop task I have been doing lately is hand pollination of the pumpkins.   The melons, butternut squash, and pumpkins are the most adversely affected crops by our abnormally cool summer.   The other cucurbit family plants (zucchini and cucumbers) are also negatively impacted but they produce harvestable fruit so quickly (once they get going) that a late start to production is not necessarily a big problem - as it only means I may have a shortened period of harvesting versus no harvest at all.   However, the pumpkins, melons, and winter squash have a limited period of time to develop a very large fruit and bring it to a fully mature state before the plants are knocked down by disease, pests, or the onset of our heavy cold fall rains.   This year the squash-family plants are so late getting started that it is quite probable I will not get any properly matured items at all.   In fact, the melons and butternut squash plants are so immature (not even producing flowers yet) that it is now virtually impossible for them to produce mature fruit prior to the plants demise.   I know this to be the case but just don’t have the heart to pull them out because they are just now getting some nice growth on.   The pumpkins on the other hand are just a little further along and have been producing flowers and immature fruit.   The temperatures dipped back down to rather chilly levels last week and the bees went quiet.   I could not afford to have the flowering pumpkins wait any longer to be pollinated giving their low chances of finishing up with mature fruit as is… so I went to work last week on a daily basis hand pollinating anything that was flowering if I also had an open male flower available to grab pollen from.   If I am lucky, my extra attention may reward me with a few mature pumpkins despite the cold summer.                     

Harvesting

Lots of crops are coming to maturity or heavy production and need to be regularly harvested to ensure the full value of the planting is taken advantage of.   Some crops are only producing enough to provide for our current fresh eating needs – the tomatoes for example, but other crops are producing larger amounts that we process and put by for later use in the coming dark days of winter when fresh harvests are limited to mostly cold hardy greens.   The bush beans, red cabbage, and beets are crops that are currently being harvested for preserving purposes and the corn, cucumbers, zucchini, and a greater volume of tomatoes will shortly be ready.   So far my preserving efforts have all been freezing with no canning done to date.   That will change if the tomatoes ever really get going and when the cucumbers ramp up their production.                             

Fall and Winter Crops

Many of my fall and winter crops have been in the ground for quite some time now.   The parsnips and leeks were both planted in late spring and at this point are both getting quite sizeable but not quite yet to full mature status.   These are both very slow growing crops and literally take the whole summer in order to be ready for fall and winter harvests.   Even in spring, I am planning for the fall and winter garden.   Mid summer plantings of broccoli starts, cabbages, carrots, beets, onions, kale, and spinach are all growing along and on track to be ready for harvesting when the summer crops are all winding down for yet another year.   Here’s a picture of the fall broccoli transplants when I transplanted them out on July 17th.             

And here they are a month later on August 17th.                      

This past weekend, I pushed to get more fall crops in because mid August is generally my last opportunity to plant certain faster growing items and still have sufficient time remaining (as the day length shortens and sun strength diminishes) to reach harvestable size before the plants grind to a very slow growth level by late fall.   Last Sunday, I planted another large bed of spinach, corn salad, lettuces, and transplanted out some more kale, cabbages, pac choi, and swiss chard.   Since we are in a dry period right now, I have to water these newly planted beds more frequently to ensure the young plants or germinating seeds experience a higher survival rate.                        

Preparing for Winter

There are some routine things we do during the hot days of late summer to prepare for the coming winter.   Obviously harvesting and preserving food from our summer garden is one of those.   Other tasks we are doing include stacking the winter firewood supply, cleaning the roofs of our buildings of moss and debris and cleaning out the rain gutters.   In addition, as I plant up fall and winter crops I am beginning the process of covering them with hoops and bird netting cover in anticipation that they will need to be kept secure from the flock of hens that we will allow to roam the garden area once again over the winter months to eat weeds and lower the resident insect populations.                  

That about sums up the things that have been occupying my time of late.   I hope you too are enjoying summer’s bounty while also preparing for the coming dark days of winter.                     

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

The seedlings growing in the shop (under grow lights and on a heat mat) are coming along well.   I started the seeds October 24th so they are about 3 weeks old now.   The true leaves are formed so I gave them a drink of dilute kelp emulsion tea this past weekend.   I prefer this organic fertilizer for seedlings and young plants.   When I started these seedlings, I put them straight away into larger sized pots and used potting soil rather than germinating mix so I can easily just keep these under the lights for quite a while if needed.   However, my intention is to plant them up in containers in the greenhouse after the first part of the new year, assuming the winter is not excessively snowy or gloomy that is.   Unfortunately the long term forecast models predict a wicked winter, and if that should turn out to be true I will just leave them where they are until February and then plant them out in the greenhouse.                      

I will start some more seedlings around the first part of December to follow behind these for early spring greenhouse plantings.                      

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone submits links to their blog posts summarizing their harvest for the week.   It’s fun to see what everyone else is harvesting from gardens in so many different regions.   Check it out and join in!               

The harvest this week included the last three pumpkins from the pumpkin patch.   There was actually one more pumpkin that was removed but it did not get sufficiently mature to store properly and so was not included in the harvest tally.   Instead it was added to the compost heap along with the vines and other debris cleaned out from the vacated bed.   Earlier in the week I harvested some broccoli and Sunday I harvested some kale and carrots to go into a hearty soup for dinner. 

Harvest totals for the week of October 25th through October 31st (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).

• Broccoli 0.50 lbs
• Carrots 0.50 lbs
• Kale 0.25 lbs
• Pumpkins 13.00 lbs

Total For Week 14.25 lbs

Total Year To Date 438.50 lbs          

Eggs harvested this week - 40                 

We have had a series of rather heavy rainstorms lately but we caught a break on Sunday.   I took advantage of the drier weather and did a thorough cleaning of the chicken coop and yard.   The whole time I was doing the cleaning process, I had one of the hens underfoot.   She was vastly interested in what I was doing and was actually in my way quite a bit.   No sooner had I finished up then she popped into the coop and proceeded to lay an egg!    You can see her in the far nest box in the following picture.      

Apparently she was just trying to get me to hurry up and finish so she could lay that egg!    Poor dear was probably pretty uncomfortable.           

The garden is very quiet at this time of year.   Most of the fall clean up and bed preparation for winter is completed and the fresh harvests are less frequent, much smaller in volume, and not as varied.   There are however a few tasks to regularly complete including keeping the greenhouse container plantings and seedlings in the shop (growing under lights) watered; pulling the occasional weed that I may spot growing in a garden bed; and adding items and turning the compost piles to keep them working.   There was one last winter prep item that I took care of on Saturday in that I covered two of the beds with a grow tunnel to protect certain crops.   Here is the larger of the two beds that I covered.                        

The overwintered spinach patch, some green onions, and some carrots are under this tunnel cover.   In the smaller covered bed are more spinach, carrots, and some celery and kale as well.

Everything is thoroughly soaked from the heavy rains we have been getting (more on the way late tonight).   It was nice to get a brief respite from the wet on Sunday.   The chickens enjoyed the improved weather…        

…and the pumpkins had a chance to dry off  on the front porch steps before being put away.                        

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

In the northern hemisphere, the growing season is coming to a close.   I pulled the last of the zucchini and cucumber plants Sunday and one of the Japanese Maples in front of our house is putting on it’s brilliant late fall display.   Soon the other two will be glowing just as vibrantly and ultimately all of them will drop their leaves, which I will then rake up, and compost.              

The fall equinox marks the mid-point between the summer solstice and the winter solstice.   This year the fall equinox occurred on September 22nd.   What this means is that we have completed the first major descent into the winter season and are on the last big roller coaster drop down to the final darkest point of the year – winter solstice (December 21st).   While the day length and sun strength have been on the decrease ever since June 22nd, we have reached the tipping point now where plant growth essentially starts grinding to a halt.   The fall/winter harvest crops generally need to be not only in place, but mature enough for harvest, because for the next several months growth will be minimal to non-existent for even the hardiest of items.   This is especially true for those of us that have trees or buildings near enough to the garden area such that when the sun arcs lower on the horizon during winter – it effectively restricts what sunshine there is available.   Personally, I have found on my property that I hit a real growing lull for a period of approximately four months – November through February.   In order to rely on the garden for all our vegetable needs, we have to go into this period with a good reserve of preserved items (canned, frozen, dried, cool storage), have mature crops of cold hardy items in the garden that are protected if needed and are ready for harvest, and that a few young cold hardy crops are started and well enough along - such that they are waiting to leap immediately to life as we round the corner and start making the ascent back out of the darkest days of winter.   My favorite crop for over wintering this way is spinach.   If you can get it germinated and well started before November, protect it during the coldest periods of the winter under a grow tunnel, and water and weed it as needed - it will absolutely spring to life in the very earliest days of spring when all the preserved items are running low, the fall/winter harvest crops are depleted, and the first spring plantings are just starting to be seeded and are still months away from being ready to harvest.   An overwintered crop of spinach really fills a gap in the lean season months of February, March, and April.   Regrettably, I lost my overwintered crop last year by not getting it covered timely before a severe cold snap hit.   I am determined not to let that happen again.         

It is now October 20th, and my 4’ by 8’ patch of young spinach to be overwintered is germinated and starting to set their first true leaves.   They are a little hard to see in the following photo but hopefully you get an idea of how far along they are.   

We are forecasted to have a series of rainstorms roll through over the next four or five days and I plan to let this patch benefit from the soaking rains before I put a clear plastic sheet over it for winter protection.                      

I recently posted about a gift I received of tree kale/collard starts. They have been sitting like sticks in the mud (literally) for two weeks now in the protection of the unheated greenhouse.   This evening when I did my evening garden “walkabout” I noticed some new beginnings happening there also.   The following picture is not the clearest image – but I drew some circles on the photo of a couple of the new leaf sprouts and I hope you can see them despite the fuzzy picture quality.           

Each of the cuttings looks like they are coming to life with leaf nodules emerging.   I did not have any rooting hormone on hand when I potted these starts up and so I am quite happy to see them apparently getting a fast start despite that.           

Fall brings with it many endings, but in a four-season harvest garden, there is always something just beginning too.            

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

Whether I am ready or not for it to happen, fall is about to arrive.   Today was a beautiful summer day, temperatures climbed to the low 80’s and the sky was clear and bright.   But I am not so easily fooled, as I know that the progression to fall is already well underway and today’s brief respite from what has been a remarkably cool summer was just a last teasing kiss goodbye from that elusive lady - summer.   The days are rapidly shortening and our regional forecast is calling for an extended period of cool, showery, and overcast conditions – starting tomorrow.   While we certainly will get periods of sunny weather in the weeks to come, it is highly unlikely that temps will climb above low 70’s again until next spring.   At some point the persistent and cold fall rains will arrive and when they do, it will quickly finish off the heat loving crops such as tomatoes, peppers, and beans.   Knowing this, the race is now on to try and salvage as much of the summer harvest items as possible.   

The peppers are well fruited and healthy and I expect the peppers that are formed already will finish ripening without any intervention on my part.   What I cannot expect, is that the current flowers will go on to set fruit at this point in the season.   If it were a warm late summer/early fall season then that would be a possibility, but totally out of the question this year.             

If the heavy rains do not show up for a while, then the dried bean crops (Pinto and Dark Red Kidney) stand a very good chance of ultimately maturing and drying down – as they are a little more tolerant of cooler conditions but not so tolerant of overly wet conditions.   The bean pods are thick and well developed already so the odds look pretty good that they will make it to the finish line successfully.                        

The corn has been struggling all summer and while there are some ears maturing that we will soon enjoy for fresh eating, there is not nearly enough in the patch to provide corn for the freezer.   We have done without in many other years so I do not find this unduly concerning – just a little disappointing. 

The cucumber patch is poised to give a last big flush of cucumbers soon and I should be able to get enough to process a batch of our favorite dill pickle relish.   We have been enjoying lots of refrigerator dills lately too.   Considering how cool this summer has been, the cucumber patch has been performing admirably.   Go cukes!               

So that leaves the tomatoes. We have been getting intermittent small amounts of ripe and semi ripe tomatoes from the Siletz plants for several weeks now.    

They have provided some fresh eating fare but nothing has been coming along in sufficient amounts to even think about doing any preserving.   The likelihood of any of the tomatoes ripening is decreasing dramatically with the big chill moving in so I need to take more aggressive steps to bring in as much as possible while the small window of opportunity is still open.   First step is to start bringing in any fruit that has broken any color or appears to be on the verge of doing so.   In the warmth of the house they will move on to ripening.   Tonight I picked all the Siletz tomatoes that met those criteria.                    

I will keep doing this over the coming days to try and pull in everything possible so it can potentially ripen.                

The other action I need to take is to start buttoning up the greenhouse at night and reopen it during the day.   I have five Celebrity tomatoes in the greenhouse that are healthy and bearing good-sized fruit.   They need warmer temps at night to finish ripening so closing up the greenhouse will help hold in the heat at night and push that envelope a little further.   I cannot leave it closed during the day though because ventilation is a huge problem particularly when the greenhouse is full of lush vegetation and condensation that builds up from the cool night time conditions.   So my morning and evening routine will have to be modified to add this extra little step for a while.                    

I am confident I will squeeze out some reasonable tomato harvests yet, but it will take some effort on my part.   This cool summer has certainly put a dent on this year’s garden season, but there are some positives that came from it too.   The peas (shell and sugar snap) , lettuce, broccoli, spinach, and potatoes flourished.   I have not dug into the parsnip patch yet, but I think it will prove to be a good one this year too.   And the crops I have recently planted are rushing along nicely to maturity.   Just look at this broccoli and swiss chard plants I transplanted approximately four weeks ago on July 18th.         

Those are happy plants.   So not everything in the garden is sad to bid goodbye to summer.   I would have preferred to have her be with us longer and with more intensity this year, but I am content to work the hand that was dealt me this year as hard as possible and just keep moving forward.    Farewell summer.   I look forward to your return again next year.                   

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

It’s mid June and the summer garden season is not even really started for me, and yet I am thinking ahead to the coming fall and winter season.   Gardeners who want to do fall and winter gardening have to come to terms with the fact that we always have to be thinking about 2 to 3 months ahead of our current situation - putting in motion the necessary actions to make that future expectation happen.     

In the early spring, thinking ahead is easier because there are no distractions of a summer garden requiring attention and providing significant harvests, and in mid winter to early spring most of us are suffering from cabin fever and are itching to start planting something!   But thinking ahead in early summer to prepare for a fall and winter harvest is harder because life is busy in the summer, the garden prolific (even overwhelming at times), and the timing of growth to harvest is very different for late season crops because the day length and sun strength is declining rather than increasing.   That last consideration is something a lot of folks get tripped up on when planting fall and winter garden items.   They use the seed packet days to maturity as gospel and then are disappointed when the items they planted for fall/winter harvest do not make it to maturity before essentially stopping growth altogether due to the cold and short days of winter.                                        

The days to maturity on seed packets are for spring/summer season planting when day length and sun intensity is increasing.   The goal is to have your fall/winter crops completely mature before they go into the winter dormancy period or holding pattern of growth.   In addition, because the plants will not bounce back and provide cut and come again harvests (like many do in spring and summer) it is important to grow enough of each item to provide the harvests you want without the benefit of replenishment from new (or at least not very fast!) growth.   When I am planning my fall/winter crops I want them to be mature by no later than September 30th or I risk not getting a harvestable crop from them.   That applies to both fall and winter harvest items.   With that goal in mind, I work backwards from that date with “days to maturity” under optimal (spring/summer) conditions and then add almost three weeks to that number.   Yes, you read that correctly, three weeks.   The reason is that when the plant is getting into the critical final maturity stage of growth the sun strength will have become greatly diminished, the night time temperatures colder, and the fall cold and heavy rains will have started up which translates into overcast and gloomy skies which means even less sun strength and cold wet soil.   For those in more sunny and drier locations two weeks would probably be sufficient to add.                      

So, it is now mid June and 3 months from now (90 days) it will be September 15th. Typical fall and winter crops for me include carrots, parsnips, brussel sprouts, leeks, cabbages, broccoli, kale, swiss chard, lettuces, various hardy greens, and spinach.   Very long growing items (120 days or more) such as some varieties of carrots, parsnips, leeks, and brussel sprouts are actually started in late spring in order to be ready for a fall/winter harvest.   I am not growing either leeks or brussel sprouts this year but do have my patch of parsnips and several patches of carrots already planted up.   Here is a list of typical fall/winter crops that I grow with days from planting to maturity under optimal (spring/summer) and less optimal (late summer/fall) growing conditions.

• Beet (optimal - 55 to 70)  (less optimal - 70 to 90) 
• Broccoli (optimal - 90 to 110) (less optimal - 105 to 130)
• Brussel Sprouts (optimal - 90 to 150) (less optimal - 105 to 170)
• Cabbage (optimal - 65 to 120) (less optimal - 80 to 140)
• Carrot (optimal - 70 to 150) (less optimal - 95 to 170)
• Kale (optimal - 50 to 60) (less optimal - 65 to 80)
• Kohlrabi (optimal - 50 to 60) (less optimal - 65 to 80)
• Lettuce, leaf (optimal - 40 to 50) (less optimal - 55 to 70)
• Onion, green (optimal - 50 to 60) (less optimal - 65 to 80)
• Parsnips (optimal - 105 to 130) (less optimal - 120 to 150)
• Radish (optimal - 21 to 30) (less optimal - 35 to 50)
• Spinach (optimal - 40 to 50) (less optimal - 55 to 70)
• Swiss Chard (optimal - 60 to 75) (less optimal - 75 to 95)
• Turnip (optimal - 45 to 75) (less optimal - 60 to 95)

I generally choose faster maturing varieties for my fall/winter crop plantings so that I am on the lower end of the days to maturity spectrum.   As you can see from this list, to meet my target of no later than September 30th maturity items like parsnips and brussel sprouts need to be started in May for a fall/winter crop.   Other items must be started in June or early July (broccoli, carrots, cabbages, green onions, swiss chard), but some items can be planted as late as August and still provide a fall crop (lettuces, radishes, and spinach).           

Sunday I started seeds of broccoli, chinese cabbage, pac choi, swiss chard, and kale.   The pac choi, and kale are for late summer/early fall use but the chinese cabbage, broccoli and swiss chard are fall crops.                     

Soon, I will be direct sowing some green onions, carrots, more kale and other hardy greens (once space opens up in the garden), and in August I will sow the big fall crop of spinach and fall lettuces.                    

Are you thinking ahead for a fall and winter harvest?

March is a trying month in the gardening year.   The beginnings of the season are underway but the dangers of pushing too close to the “season extending edge” is high.   Even worse, the temptation to do so is fed by the dearth of fresh harvests offered up from a winter weary garden.   After a long dark season of living largely off of preserved and stored items and winter garden harvests composed largely of root crops - the lure of fresh spring greens is strong.                           

I use season extending tricks on both ends of the growing season, early spring and late fall, but I am most aggressive with the spring season.   An old gardening friend of mine (who had tremendous experience to back up his advice) once told me that if I did not lose at least a few plants in the spring and fall that I was not pushing the season extending process nearly hard enough.   This year I feel like I am living close to the season extending edge - but so far have not pushed beyond it.    The question then is…am I really pushing the season extension to the real limits?         

Last weekend, I posted about prepping the garden for a forecasted cold snap (a typical March occurrence).   The forecasts turned out to be quite accurate and the next day we had temperatures drop almost 20 degrees below the highs and lows we had been experiencing for the preceding many weeks.    Much of the garden was already protected but I covered up the freshly planted onions, kale, cabbages, and pac choi.   The Merlot lettuce (seeds from Dan at the Urban Veggie Garden Blog) were also transplanted last weekend, but placed in a container that is currently residing in the unheated greenhouse.   Tonight after work, I did a quick inspection of everything to see how all of the plantings were doing.   I am pleased to report that everything is looking quite sturdy and unaffected by the colder conditions.   The spinach patch has newly emerged seedlings and they are growing and getting substantial enough that they are now clearly visible growing in the garden bed.   The kale, cabbages, and pac choi are clearly recovered from the transplanting and are looking sturdier than the day I set them out and the onion seedlings are similarly looking just fine.   The Merlot lettuces looked a little limp immediately after I transplanted them on Sunday, but they looked quite perky this evening despite the decided chill.           

The super early tomatoes (Siletz) have graduated to the unheated greenhouse during the day and are enjoying a daily trip into the house at night for protection.   The daytime temps the past three days have been quite chill but they seem to be thriving on this regimen despite that.   They continue to put on new growth and are starting to harden up from the constant handling and exposure to colder conditions.   Here’s a picture of them this evening sitting on top of our wood stove (no worries – there is no fire in the stove tonight!).   Sorry the pictures tonight are not as clear as usual but evening indoor shots without a flash tend to be a little more “fuzzy” and lower quality.               

There is always a runt or two in every crop of tomatoes and peppers each year.   I call them my Charlie Brown plants because like the pathetic little Christmas tree in the Peanuts Christmas special – all they really seem to need is just a little extra TLC to live up to their potential.   The littlest super early tomato (on the right in the picture) is one of those little characters.   He is lagging behind his brothers but not failing – just not thriving like they are.   All the plants have been exposed to the same conditions, same care, but you can see that there is quite a difference between them in growth.   It’s really a mystery why this regularly occurs.   I suppose it is just a product of that plant’s genetic inheritance?      

I have yet to lose anything this year as a result of pushing the season extension too far.   I shouldn’t really admit that though, because as soon as I do I know something will go sufficiently wrong to prove me quite premature in my declaration!   Gardens and children have a keen ability for keeping us humble on a regular basis.

How are you doing in managing through the usual March madness?

We have been enjoying a rather balmy spring so far, but the weather forecast for the next several days is for a sudden shift to much colder weather.   This is a typical early spring condition - with abrupt changes in weather that can catch the inattentive gardener by surprise.   To extend the spring season successfully, you have to watch the forecasts and take action as needed to protect young plants from dramatic dips in temperature.        

All of the plants in the greenhouse are cold hardy and protected adequately by the greenhouse envelope with the exception of the super early tomatoes (Siletz) that I have recently moved out to the greenhouse.   I have been transporting them indoors at night and taking them back out to the greenhouse in the early morning, so they will be fine with the forecasted weather change.   The super early tomatoes are really growing well and seem to be happy with the extra attention and handling they are getting.   They are on the right in the first picture below.   Next to them is the sugar snap peas (Cascadia) and lettuces (Super Gourmet Blend) that I seeded yesterday – covered with a humidity dome.   The tray to the far left has the broccoli, swiss chard, and celery starts.   These tomatoes were started January 22nd and are being given extra care and protection so that they will (hopefully) produce a very early crop of tomatoes for me.   They will ultimately be planted in my 4 large black containers and will reside in the greenhouse until the weather really warms up and then move outside to continue growing.

For comparison, the majority of my tomato plants were started three weeks later on February 13th and they look like this right now.                   

Today I transplanted kale (Siberian Improved), pac choi (Ching Chiang), and cabbages (Savoy Ace and Tronchuda) into the garden.   They took up one 4 foot by 4 foot section in the garden bed.   They don’t look like much right now, but they will not take long to get established.                                 

Because we have some cold weather forecasted, it was important to get a grow tunnel cover erected over this newly planted bed.   I actually covered another 8 feet of bed in addition because I intend to plant the broccoli there in about two weeks and want the soil warmed up ahead of time for that.   

The last thing I needed to do today in preparation for the coming cold, was to cover the onion starts I planted out yesterday.   They are in a bed that does not work well for the grow tunnel covers, so I improvised using some of my tall tomato ladders, a panel of stiff wire grid (part of my compost bin sides), a few spring clamps, and plastic sheeting.                                         

I will leave these in place until the weather warms back up and is forecasted to stay that way for the foreseeable future.   Those of you who follow my blog regularly are used to seeing me use these tomato towers frequently for many purposes beyond their intended role as a support for tomatoes.   I find them quite useful to have around!

I think everything is buttoned up for the cold front that is moving in and hopefully the warm weather will return shortly thereafter.