The Modern Victory Garden

It's the first day of the New Year and I started it off right by spending a couple of hours outside in the garden.  The snow has largely melted from the storms that pummeled us in December.  With the snows retreat I was able to get out and take care of a few garden tasks that had been on the back burner.   The tray of seedlings in the shop needed watering and I gave them a drench of weak fish emulsion tea while I was at it.   I then did the same for the containers in the greenhouse.   The kale, Chinese cabbages, and lettuces planted out last week in the greenhouse are doing very well.  They survived the stress of transplanting and the shock of being in a colder environment.   Here's a picture of the inside of the greenhouse. 

The large whiskey barrel containers have the recently transplanted kale and Chinese cabbage plants.  The rectangular containers to the left have the lettuces and the square containers in front of them are my herb pots that I moved in for the winter months (rosemary, thyme, oregano, and chives).   The round pots on the right have my winter crop of swiss chard.   The other containers are currently empty - waiting for the seedlings that are currently in the shop (under grow lights) to be ready for transplanting out.    

I took the grow tunnel cover off of the large bed of spinach this afternoon so that I could do some weeding and give them a drink of weak fish emulsion tea as well.   This bed has not been watered since I covered it in the late fall.   Despite that the soil is still pretty moist because it was very wet when I covered the bed and because the cool damp conditions do not result in a lot of transpiration occurring from the plants.   Enough time has gone by though that they were due for a drink and were in need of a shot of nutrition too - because the cold soil does not permit good uptake of nutrients by the plants.    Watering them with a fish emulsion tea accomplished both objectives.   The spinach plants are doing fine despite the nasty weather we have had.  They were young enough going into it that they were able to survive just fine.   The baby swiss chard plants that were at the top end of that bed however, did not do well - I ended up just pulling all of those out and cultivating that bed section.  Here's a picture of the spinach bed before I put the grow tunnel cover back on it.

 The spinach plants in this bed will launch into fast growth when the sun strength begins increasing, providing some very early spring greens.   The rest of the time spent in the garden was devoted to doing some weeding, removing the broccoli plants that were spent, cultivating newly opened beds, and layering on some compost.   Here is a picture of the section that had the late fall broccoli in it. 

After the picture was taken, I layered 1 inch of compost onto the bed so that it would be ready to go in early spring.   Behind that section you can see the short rows of corn salad.   Like the spinach, the corn salad plants will take off when the sun strength begins to increase again, providing much needed fresh greens during the months of February and March.    

It was a nice change to get outside and work in the garden.   Before I went in for the afternoon, I harvested some carrots and parsnips to sautee in butter for dinner tonight.  My daughter recently declared that this combo was her "most favorite" vegetable mix - and I have to say I definitely agree!    The sweetness of the carrots and parsnips this time of year is remarkable.  They are one of the real joys of keeping a winter garden.   

Happy New Year Everyone!