The Modern "Victory Garden"

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.

Grey wet day today ending a week of grey and wet conditions.   The heavy rains gave me some grief earlier in the week.   I had my horizontal pea support structure covered with clear plastic to help warm the seedbed and keep predators out.   Unfortunately, it had a flat surface area, which collected large amounts of the heavy rainwater - causing breakage and a collapse of several of the support posts.   I pulled the plastic cover off midweek to try and avoid any further damage but unfortunately it left the sprouting pea seeds exposed to bird predation.   I found evidence this morning of empty seed coats scattered about which looks to me like birds enjoyed some nice pea sprouts and left the tough coating behind.   Not sure how much I lost to the birds but it was obvious I needed to do two things 1) fix the trellis supports; and 2) get another cover on the bed – but this time it needed to be one that would not create the problems that the clear plastic did. 

Here’s the bed this morning.   There were three posts that were broken by the weight of the pooled water in the plastic covering.          

I picked up some replacement ¾ inch square 3-foot long pieces of wood doweling during my lunch break on Friday so I would be ready today to make the necessary repairs.   It was a simple matter to remove the hook eyes from the broken posts and place them on the new posts.   The new posts were then inserted into the structure.   Repair completed!                    

The second step was to get it covered again so that I could stop the bird carnage.   Rather than use plastic this time, I pulled some reemay fabric out of the shop storage area and placed it over the entire structure.   I have a big roll of this stuff but almost never use it.   I am hoping it provides protection and insulation and that with it being porous that it will allow the rainwater to drain through and not puddle.

It sort of looks like a Christmas package all bundled up – but I think this will work fairly well.   The real question now… is how much did I lose to the birds?   If it was too excessive, I may have to reseed the entire bed.   Going to just wait and see what emerges before taking any further action.  

Once the pea patch repairs were completed, I turned my attention to the seed starts.   I was planning to start the peppers and basil this weekend, but despite juggling the seed trays around – I just don’t have room for them right now under the big grow light set up with the heat mat.   After thinking about it for a while, I have decided to go ahead and purchase a tabletop light stand and heat mat to provide for my peak season overflow needs.   I have been doing without for some time now and am ready to give in and purchase a second smaller set up.   I really love my Goliath light stand (my primary set up) and am not interested in replacing it to go much bigger, but by adding a tabletop set up I can augment it for the high season of seed starting.   I placed the order today and hopefully will have my new lights by next weekend.   I will just postpone starting the peppers and basil for one week until it arrives.            

I did do some seedling care this morning.   All of the trays of seedlings were thoroughly bottom watered.   I then used scissors to trim the tops of my onion seedlings and to remove extra seedlings from the seed trays – leaving only the strongest plant in each cell.   I moved the Merlot lettuces, Ching Chiang pac choi, Improved Dwarf Siberian kale, and Tronchuda and Savoy Ace Cabbages from the shop to the greenhouse.  The onions were moved out there last weekend.   I made some temporary staging out of two short saw horses and 2’x2’ plywood board in the greenhouse and placed the trays of seedlings on that.       

The greenhouse is starting to get busy again.                                              

The top left half-barrel planter has the Chinese cabbages and kale that were started back in mid December.   They are quite happy in their permanent home in the greenhouse.   The middle half-barrel has the mache growing in it and the top right half-barrel planter has the pac choi that I planted up last weekend.   In the planters to the right are onions and the lettuces that I planted up last weekend also.   The little planter to the left is my cat Sid’s catnip plant.   It has been over wintering in the green house.   Sid begs to get into the greenhouse so he can go visit his catnip plant!   Out of the picture to the far left is the temporary staging I set up with the seedling trays.  

Despite the grey skies today, we went for a nice hike in the woods mid day.   Frogs croaking, birds declaring their territory, buds swelling, and leaves unfurling – heralds of springs arrival were all around us.   Tomorrow is supposed to be a little nicer weather and I am hoping to finish constructing the raspberry bed supports.   Unfortunately, the raspberry bare root plants did not arrive on Friday as expected so I will probably be planting them in the dark after work next week.  

Keep your fingers crossed for me that the birds did not eat too many of my pea seeds this past week.

Spent a few hours puttering in the garden, shop, and greenhouse today.   The weather is overcast but generally fairly warm (54 degrees as of 1:30 this afternoon) so it is an ideal day to do some garden chores.   Took care of some routine items such as mixing and turning the compost piles and watering the seedlings in the shop (as well as the crops in the greenhouse) with a fish emulsion tea.   The day length will be creeping up in the days and weeks to come and the various greens will benefit from a shot of light nutrition to help them kick up the growth.             

Another task I got to was a salvage operation for the bed of overwintered spinach.   I planted them last fall in a portion of one of the beds in the newer section of garden – next to a green manure crop of crimson clover.   It’s in the mid-section of the lowest main bed in the following picture.               

I have two problems going on with that planting.   First, the germination was spotty and so there are some fairly large bare patches in the planting area.   Second, the wild rabbit that has been raiding the carrots and the cover crop of crimson clover, has also been mowing down the young spinach plants as well.   Despite all that, there is a good scattering of very young spinach plants in the bed and I want to salvage as much of them as I can for an early spring crop.    The first order of business was to take a few minutes and do some weeding to get rid of large weeds that had gotten a foothold established.   Once the largest of the weeds had been disposed of, I then mixed up some fish emulsion tea and gave the entire bed of tiny spinach starts a quick drench.   The final step was to get them under a grow tunnel cover to protect them from any further rabbit damage and to give them a warmer, more protected environment to encourage new growth.   If you look closely at the next picture, you can actually see the small spinach seedlings in the area that has the PVC hoops set up over it.                          

Over the hoops, some plastic sheeting was then put in place.   I reuse the plastic sheeting over and over again, so it is not always very clean looking.   When it is not in current use, I fold them up like blankets and store them in the shop on a shelf.   The plastic is anchored to the PVC hoops using “A” type clamps that I keep on hand for that purpose.   They are inexpensive and last for years and years.   Occasionally using a little 3 in 1 oil on the springs is a good idea, as they get rusty over time and with exposure to the elements.   These clamps are about due for a little oil treatment.               

Now the bed is under cover and should hopefully be able to rejuvenate and grow on more successfully.                              

In the older section of the garden, I have another grow tunnel cover in place – this one protects the main bed of over wintered parsnips and carrots.        

I opened it up this afternoon long enough to dig up some carrots and parsnips for tonight’s dinner menu.                              

I trimmed the tops and root tips off while still in the garden so I could just toss them directly into the compost pile.   A rinse under the spigot and they were ready to go inside - where they will be peeled and/or scrubbed and then roasted with nothing more than just a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt.   

The January King cabbages looked pretty ragged right after our period of deep freezes in December but now they have really bounced back.   The cabbage heads are starting to get some good size on them.                       

Did not get to my shop project this weekend at all.   Decided instead to wait until next weekend to get going with it - since it is a three-day weekend for me and I will have a little more time to devote to it.   Next weekend I will also be getting the first of the 2010 seed starting efforts underway.           

Did a general walk through of the entire garden making a mental note about items that will need some attention in the next several months.

• I have several beds that will need to have compost added to them this spring but unfortunately, I am not going to have enough finished compost to cover all of it.   We expanded the garden fairly significantly last year and I need to increase my compost production to provide for the extra amount of growing beds.
• Around the end of January, I need to turn over the green manure crops of crimson clover to let them have sufficient time to decompose before the beds are needed for planting.
• I have decided to construct some grow beds in the greenhouse – using up leftover timbers from last year’s garden expansion project.   I just barely have enough materials on hand  to do this, and only if I continue using the 3 half whiskey barrels I already have in the greenhouse.  However, going this route will help me avoid the expense of buying 4 more half whiskey barrel planters.

By steadily working on these items over the coming weeks and months, the garden will be ready for the big rush of spring planting without undue wear and tear on me.    I much prefer to pace myself through the various garden chores that need doing each season.     Do you have some "pre season" chores lined up to do this year?

There are many of us who have limited space availability for food production gardening and yet still manage to produce a tremendous amount of our own food supply.   This post is part of a blog series devoted to exploring the many techniques available to optimize food production gardening. There are quite a few topics that relate to this pursuit - including (among others):

• Crop Selection
• Intensive Planting Practices
• Season Extension
• Soil Management & Fertility

Focusing on Crop Selection kicked off the blog series, which was then followed by a four-part exploration of Intensive Planting Practices - including the topics of Raised Beds, Closely Spaced Planting, Intercropping & Succession Planting, and Vertical Growing.   This week let’s talk about Season Extension.

Season extending is essentially the practice of using various tools and techniques to allow for a much earlier start and a much later ending to the growing season.   There are three primary reasons to go to the trouble and effort of extending the garden season:

1. It allows you to grow crops that require more growing days than your area would naturally provide;
2. It provides enough additional growing days that you can plant crops in succession that otherwise would not have sufficient time for the second crop to mature; and
3. It lets you harvest fresh greens and vegetables for much longer than the traditional growing season would allow – throughout the entire year for really cold hardy crops.

My own experience with season extending is that it is most efficient and effective if I work with nature rather than against her.   In addition, I think that you have to be able to accept that there will be losses periodically.   A wise gentleman once told me that if you are not occasionally losing some crops in the early spring and late fall – you are probably not living close enough to the edge on your season extending practices to be getting full value from it.      

Season extension generally uses various forms of protective covers or structures to increase soil and air temperature, protect plants from wind and frost, and reduce moisture loss.   Of these benefits, I believe the greatest value comes from the warming of the soil.   The Rodale Research Center has conducted experiments that show temperatures at the plant’s root zone is more important to growth than air temperature surrounding the leaves.   The ability to provide a warmer environment and soil comes from passive solar heating that is then (in some part) captured by a heat sink (dark soil surface or dark plastic mulch) that absorbs the solar heat more than a light or reflective surface would.   Some folks move beyond passive solar options and actually use a hot bed or greenhouse that has an energy consuming heat source.   While this certainly will yield good results, it is also fuel intensive and can be quite expensive.   For the purposes of getting optimal production and value out of our home vegetable and fruit gardens, I think it is impractical to consider regularly using anything but passive solar options.                                     

The real trick to using unheated season extension is to capture and hold as much solar heat as possible and to grow crops that are by nature already very tolerant of cold conditions.   Cold hardy crops like spinach, kale, corn salad (mache), root crops (beets, parsnips, carrots), brussel sprouts, green onions, leeks, certain cold hardy cabbages, and a variety of less common greens are all really good candidates to be grown late in the season or overwintered with protection.   Similarly in very early spring, you can use protective covers to thaw and warm up garden soil long before the last average frost for your area - so that you can get an extremely early start for hardy vegetables such as peas, onions, Chinese cabbage, lettuce, spinach and kale.   These vegetables will germinate and grow in relatively cool soil temperatures (at least 40 degrees or greater) and often have planting instructions to “sow as soon as you can work the soil”.   I mentioned in another recent blog post that I think there are two simple tools most gardeners should have in their garden shed – one is a PH meter, and the other was a good soil thermometer.  

During the early spring if you are going to push the start of the growing season you really need to be able to monitor the soil temperature to know when it is ready for planting up.   As noted before, the soil temperature is much more important to pay attention to than the ambient air temperature.   Soil temperature should be measured 1 to 3 inches below the surface of the soil and the best time to take the measurement is between noon and 3 pm.   Remember to shake the thermometer back down before you use it again.   If you place a season extending cover over a growing area it will take a while for the soil to warm (days), and it is important to measure the progress with your thermometer periodically so you know when you it is ready for planting up.    

There are many season extending protective covers that can be used ranging from a cloche, cold frame, grow tunnels (also known as portable hoop houses), full size hoop houses, or greenhouses.   Each of these examples of season extending protections provides the benefits previously described - with varying degrees of success.   In general (assuming an equivalent sunlight exposure), the larger the volume of air in the protected area and the more dark surface area available and/or insulating materials used – the greater the warmth will be for the growing area protected.         

I generally use three types of season protecting covers. The first is a simple plastic sheeting cover raised just enough off of the surface of the soil to provide solar heating of the soil for the purposes of warming up a seedbed for a very early planting.   The cover can be left in place after the germination has occurred until the plants get tall enough to push up close to it. Usually by that point the weather has continued to improve enough that they are safe anyway and ready to grow on without the protection of the cover.               

You may recognize my tomato ladders in the preceding picture being used as the support structure for the plastic cover - just laid on their side over the bed edging boards.                       

The second type of protective covers I regularly use are grow tunnels.   I use 10 foot sticks of electrician’s PVC conduit (connector end cut off) inserted into brackets placed on the edge my beds or directly pushed into the soil (inside of the bed edging) to create support hoops.   Over the support hoops I place clear plastic (4 or 6 mil) that you can purchase at any hardware store (usually in the painting supplies area).   I use inexpensive “A” or spring clamps to hold the plastic securely to the hoops.   They last an incredibly long time and make quick removal and access to the growing beds possible.   These same hoop tunnels can also be used during the summer growing season to hold protective bird netting over the grow beds.  This is useful to keep birds and other creatures out of the garden (like bunnies, cats, and dogs).   I use netting regularly to protect my beds from my dog who seems to walk through every newly seeded bed that exists unless protected in this manner!     

I generally use grow tunnels to either protect an overwintered crop (such as a large bed of spinach), protect newly planted seedlings during the early months of the growing season when weather is unstable and the plants are very young and tender, and to warm up large areas of growing bed for early crop starting.                

The third protective cover I regularly use is my unheated green house. During the late fall and winter months, I use it to grow cold hardy crops in large containers.   I generally grow mostly greens in the greenhouse because the larger air volume and greater surface area captures solar energy better and increases the odds of semi-hardy crops like swiss chard, Chinese cabbages, and lettuces of surviving.           

In the spring, I use the unheated greenhouse to grow on the semi-hardy crops that I started under the grow lights very early in the year.   This allows me to move them out of the seed starting area - making room for the next big round of seed starting (usually the summer crops of tomatoes and peppers etc) but protects them from the erratic and unpredictable very early spring weather conditions.             

Using season extension techniques can increase your garden’s production but as much as 25% just by adding 1 to 2 months of growing time at each end of the growing season.   Do you use season extending tools in your garden and if so, what kinds?

Got a good start on the annual gutter-cleaning project today.   Managed to finish all of the shop building and the entire front side of the house.   Still have the back of the house to finish, but I ran out of energy and was getting chilled.   Hopefully I will be able to do the last stretch next weekend and have this big project completed for yet another year.   November is historically our wettest month of the year, so I really want to get this attended to as soon as possible.                                                      

We had a windstorm last week and the yard and garden areas are littered with leaves, small branches, and evergreen tree needles.   The Japanese Maple trees in the front of the house are ablaze with color and began losing their leaves with the windstorm – leaving a floor and a ceiling of brilliant red.

 The garden is thoroughly into the fall/winter mode now and looks a little disheveled and unkempt.                                       

The parsnips and carrot tops are getting beat down from a combination of heavy rains, wind, and their own weight and are laying over into the walkways.   While a bit untidy, it is perfectly normal.   The crimson clover planted in several beds is getting a good stand of vegetation developed which will feed the soil early next spring when I turned it all over with a garden spade.                                        

The fall crops are slowing down to almost a complete stop in growth now.    They will continue to grow at a snails pace during November but will be all but stopped by the winter solstice in December.   Luckily, they are pretty much at maturity at this point and do not need more growth to be harvestable.   The brussel sprouts are one of those crops that has to be far enough along by the time the growing process grinds to a halt that it is ready for harvesting.   My 2009 brussel sprout crop is looking good and we already harvested our first bunch from these plants.   

The kale crop is also doing well.   I have yet to harvest from these plants but they are ready.                             

I have been using the loose-leaf cabbage (Beira Tronchuda) in the same manner I typically use kale.                      

They are quite similar to each other in taste and texture but the Beira Tronchuda produces a greater amount of harvest per square foot of bed space.    I am going to grow some more of these early next spring.          

A slow cooking, oven roasted beef and vegetable stew is prepped and cooking in the oven and a fire is glowing in the wood stove. It's damp and chill outside this afternoon and it feels good to come inside and get out of my grubby and wet clothes.    I am worn out tired from the gutter cleaning efforts and intend to watch a movie for the rest of the afternoon - sitting next to the fire with my cat in my lap.   Lazy Sunday afternoons do not get much better than that.

I have not always been a fan of cabbage.   Probably because my mother did not cook it much and when she did - it was boiled to death as part of a “corned beef and cabbages” dinner that left the cabbage in a slimy overcooked state.   As an adult keeping my own household, I grew lots of vegetables and fruits in my garden but avoided growing cabbages altogether.   I certainly grew other cole crops, (cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts and kohlrabi) but I focused on other crops to the complete exclusion of cabbages.                     

That all changed in 2005.   That was the year we moved from central Washington state to our current location near Poulsbo Washington.   I had to really adapt as a gardener because the growing climates were almost completely opposite of one another.   I went from long sunny/hot summers that were generous to tomatoes and melon growing that were then followed by bitter cold winters that required a complete garden shut down by late October - to our current location with it’s relatively mild, cool, and damp environment that offers the potential for year round growing.   I quickly learned that this new climate did not favor the traditional heat loving crops but was ideal for the cultivation of spinach, lettuces, peas, broccoli, and yes… cabbages.   In fact, if I wanted to take advantage of that year round growing potential, cabbages were my best candidate crop.   Cabbages love this climate, produce a variety of textures and colors, and are very hardy.   In fact, some varieties are so hardy that they can grow right through the winter here with just a little protection from the worst freeze periods.   It’s an amazing crop, and one I grow more appreciative of with each passing year.   It turns out it is actually really good eating too!   Who knew?   Once I began preparing it for my family using methods that were kinder to the cabbage than the "boiled to death" versions of my youth, I found it was a versatile green that was much enjoyed at the dinner table.

Generally, there are three main types of true cabbages - green, red, and savoy.   Green is the most common and can be used either raw or cooked.  Savoys are the "curly" cabbage with leaves that are ruffled or ridged.   Savoy cabbages have a milder flavor and softer texture, making them particularly good for salads or wraps.   Red cabbage is quite similar in characteristics to green cabbage but obviously has the added visual appeal of color and also has more than twice as much Vitamin C as green cabbage.   Cabbages are also grouped according to the season of their harvest and the shape of their heads.   These range from loose-leaf varieties, pointed or conical shape heads, to rounded ball shaped heads with varying degrees of densely packed leaves.                                

I grew a loose leaf cabbage variety for the first time this year (Beira Tronchuda) and am quite happy with it.                             

Some other personal favorites are Ruby Ball red cabbage which is beautiful to look at, densely packed with a small core, and oh so tasty …                

…. and Steins Late Flat Dutch. A dense late season green cabbage that is mild in flavor and a heavy producer per square foot of planting area.              

For over wintering in the maritime Pacific Northwest, January King is a great variety.  This is some I grew last winter and the picture does not do them justice.   They are ruffled, colored beautifully, and hold up to the dark cold days of winter.  They are a refreshing addition to the dinner table menu when all the other fresh greens are either already over harvested or done in by the coldest weather.            

I have a patch of this variety growing in this year’s fall/winter garden and am looking forward to seeing the cheery/colorful heads in the garden during the darkest days of winter.                                 

What I have not grown much of to date and need to add to the mix is more Savoy varieties.   I will be on the look out this seed-purchasing season for a good variety to try.   Do you have some recommendations for me?

According to the weather forecasts, today offered up the best opportunity to get outside for the entire weekend.   Even at that, it was gloomy and damp all day and by the time I came inside this afternoon - it was threatening to rain again.   It has been quite rainy of late and root rot and mildews now represent one of the biggest threats to the fall crops, second only to slug attacks.   The danger of damp increases as I begin buttoning up the greenhouse more regularly.   Some crops are more resilient to cool and damp conditions then others.   Peppers are not one of them!  They require some careful attention to keep them going late into the fall.   In fact, the one remaining Mini Bell pepper plant was showing signs it was succumbing to the cool and damp (leaves were wilting and stems drooping) so I went ahead and harvested all of the remaining fruits and then pulled the plant.   The two large Early Jalapeno plants are still going strong but could easily deteriorate too if allowed to get too cold or if subjected to really damp conditions.   They have a lot of fruit still on them so it is worth the effort to keep them healthy as long as possible.   It is getting cold at night and the daytime temps are barely getting above 55 degrees.   To keep the pepper plants going I need to start shutting the greenhouse up most of the time from here on out, and run the ventilation fan to keep the damp at bay as much as possible.         

I spent some time today getting the greenhouse ready for the winter season.   I removed the empty planting containers and put them outside - making room to bring in the containers of swiss chard that have been residing out on the deck.   The swiss chard was given a trim (removing leaves that had been chewed on by slugs) and then side dressed with some bone meal and blood meal.           

All of the swiss chard container plantings were given this treatment and then placed in the greenhouse where they will be more protected from root rot and hard freezes.   I usually manage to keep swiss chard going through the entire winter with the protection of the greenhouse.      

Since I do not have any starts of lettuce going (seemed to have missed getting some started per my schedule!), I opted instead to just transplant some of the young lettuces growing in the outdoor beds.   If they survive the transplanting process, they will provide some fresh salad greens long after the outside bed of lettuces have been frozen out.   The last thing I attended to this afternoon was to plant two of the large containers in the greenhouse with red onion sets. With that completed, the greenhouse is basically prepped to go into the winter.           

You can see the large tree-like Early Jalepeno peppers at the back of the greenhouse with the transplanted lettuces in the container next to them.   The two larger empty looking containers have the onion sets in them.   You can see the white ventilation fan in the lower right hand corner and the swiss chard plants on the lower left.         

Before I came in, I harvested some broccoli florets and a couple of carrots to go with the peppers I picked earlier.                          

Are you buttoning things up in your garden too?

While there are many opinions about what constitutes a healthy diet, there seems to be a general consensus that a diet that includes a high proportion of plants (fruits and vegetables) is generally a good thing to strive for. In fact, Michael Pollan in his book "In Defense of Food" showed a wonderful economy of words with his cryptic observation that we should - "Eat food.   Not too much.   Mostly plants."   The "eat food" is further explained to mean we should eat food that our great grandparents would recognize.   The "not too much" is self-explanatory.   The "mostly plants" part is where we (as food production gardeners) have a real advantage.   Our gardens provide a ready supply of the freshest, most nutritious, and ... (I'll be so bold as to say) ... the best tasting produce we could ask for!   There really is great deal of satisfaction to be had in eating tender young vegetables grown and harvested from our own gardens.          

From my perspective there are a couple of important secrets to really enjoying vegetables and having them become a regular and significant part of the family diet. To begin with, I firmly believe that vegetables should be:   

• Picked Young;
• Harvested Frequently;
• and Cooked With as Little Delay as Possible

Also, while I definitely preserve the summer garden's bounty for later use, I also make sure that there is fresh garden produce available year round to supplement the preserved supply - even during the leanest months of the year. Preserved is good, but fresh is best!                             

Picking your vegetables while they are young and tender has many advantages.

• They have prime flavor (people pay a premium for baby/young veggies!)
• They generally take less time to prep and cook
• They do not have time to form mature seeds - encouraging the plant to keep producing

Harvesting your produce while young and picking often, increases the garden's yield and actually extends the harvest.  Plants such as zucchini that are picked before the seeds have formed are forced to produce more fruit if it is to achieve its sole purpose in life, producing mature fruit with fully developed seeds.   The same principle is true of beans and peas too.   And most greens (such as lettuce pictured below)  will produce many cuttings if you do not allow the plants a chance to get too mature and begin flower development.             

Of course, we all know that this is the ideal.   Too often the garden overwhelms us with too many types of items that mature all at the same time and in too great a quantity to use up with normal meal preparation - but for me, that just represents an opportunity to preserve the extra for future use when the garden is producing less bountifully.        

So enjoy your garden's produce by picking young, picking often, and cooking them with as little delay as possible and above all else - eat your veggies!

Probably the most frequent question I receive has to do with when to plant fall and winter harvest items. Usually I get the question in mid to late September when folks are realizing fall is fast upon them. With the exception of some lettuces, by that point in time they have long passed the opportunity to plant a fall/winter harvest garden. It would be better if the question were posed in May or June, because that is when you need to begin thinking about your fall and winter garden. Some fall/winter crops (such as parsnips. leeks, and some varieties of brussel sprouts) need four or five months of growth on them before they will be at a harvestable state. That growth needs to occur in the summer months while the sun strength and day length are adequate to provide the photosynthesis energy necessary to achieve that growth. The key is to think about your fall and winter garden at the same time that you are planning and implementing your summer season garden. Once you know what you want in your fall/winter garden, then you work backwards to determine when the plants or seeds need to go into the ground in order to be mature by the time the solar strength has diminished dramatically. A fall/winter harvest garden needs to be essentially matured going into the cold dark days of winter at which point they are just in a holding pattern - providing fresh produce for harvest as you need it during the late fall and early winter months. Because they will not grow in the dark cold months, it is also important to grow a big enough crop of each item that you have a good supply to harvest from over a long period of time.                            

I have already got several items planted in the garden that are fall/winter crops. Recently I direct seeded a big patch of parsnips. In addition, several weeks ago I transplanted a late maturing crop of brussel sprouts. The last patch of carrots I planted will be maturing in late summer and will be an early fall harvest. Now (looking ahead) I have another large planting of carrots I will need to do around the first part of July.  In addition, I am beginning the process of starting seedlings for transplants that will go into the garden over the course of July and first part of August. As early summer crops finish up (such as the peas and spinach) they free up garden bed space necessary for these fall/winter garden transplants and direct seeding. Today I started 24 broccoli and 12 kohlrabi plants which will be the first of the fall crops of these two items.   These were placed in the greenhouse where they will receive adequate light and warmth to germinate and grow on.   In the absence of a ventilated greenhouse, they can also just be set outside in a sunny location.

In about 3 or 4 weeks, I will begin even more broccoli as well as late season cabbages, kale, chinese cabbage, swiss chard, and the beginnings of several succession plantings of lettuces. In mid to late August, I will direct seed a very large bed of spinach. Obviously, by mid to late September when many folks are just beginning to wonder about what to do for a fall garden - mine is almost entirely planted and most crops are getting close to maturity!

While I am doing things to ensure that the fall/winter garden is productive, the summer garden is starting to really come on strong.           

The peas are blooming profusely and have the first pods formed.                

The zucchini plants are forming flowers, including female ones with immature fruit at their base.                                                                               

The first clusters of "Stupice" early tomatoes are starting to ripen.              

And, the strawberries are forming and will be ripening very soon.             

Preparing for fall and winter has to be done just as the excitement of the summer production season takes hold. It's important to be thinking at least one season ahead of where your current garden is at  -  in order to enjoy fresh garden produce all through the year.