Category Archives: Winter gardening

Prepare now for a successful 2017 gardening season

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img_0434As the actual work finishes up for me in late fall, I’ve always used this time to prepare for the next growing season. It’s an easy process and will reap huge dividends next spring.  

I like to gather as many bags of leaves from my property as I can. I’ll end up with 10-12 bags by the time I’m done raking, which is perfect for my gardening needs. The majority are use in the composting process as a great brown material, but some will be used as a mulch to keep the soil cooler when growing summer lettuces. Some will be used to amend the existing soil. I keep my bags closed off for the winter storage. I don’t want any moisture getting into the bags because it makes a soggy mess come spring. I end up putting all my bagged leaves under a plastic cover so I don’t have to worry about it. When I need a bag of leaves during the growing season they’re in perfect shape for my uses. They are completely dried out and crumble into pieces very easily.

In each of my square foot garden boxes I will push over about 3 inches of soil. I then spread a layer of fall leaves over the entire surface, and then cover up the leaves with the soil I originally moved over. By the time spring arrives you’ll usually find no leaves at all when you dig down. The reason? Earthworms. You end up adding a great ingredient to your soil that will set you up for success next year.

Years ago, when I didn’t have any trees or leaves produced on my property, I ended up asking the neighbors for theirs. They always said yes. There’s always a way to get free leaves if you can’t produce enough from your property.     &nbsp[ois skin=”3″]

Tatsoi-a great winter garden crop

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img_0421This is tatsoi-a very tasty and fairly easy to grow Asian green. I’ve tried very hard to get the timing down so that all my winter crops will be about 75-80% of full size by November 14th. On this date in zone 6 the sunlight hours dip below 10 hours a day and everything stops growing and hibernates until about the first week of February.
This green can be stir-fried but I like to use it as is in a mesclun mix during the winter months. I would describe the taste as firm and a little on the sweet side. One thing for sure-it doesn’t do well in warm weather.
With the holidays just around the corner isn’t it time to start thinking about some great gardening gifts? I’m going to put up an ad for grow-bags.  I used the GardenMate brand shown on the side of my blog.   This is the first year I’ve used them and I was very impressed. With two side handles they can be moved around because they aren’t too heavy. The crops don’t dry out like plastic containers. They can be cleaned at the end of the season(don’t put them in the dryer), and reused the following spring. I’ve used the 15 gallon, the 5 gallon, and the 1 gallon grow bags. Right now I’ve got a very successful brussel sprout plant growing in a 5 gallon grow bag. I’ve got about 25 pounds, maybe more, of red pontiac potatoes being stored in a 15 gallon bag.
Using grow bags saves me a lot of room in my square foot gardens. It opens up needed space to use for crops that are sold during the normal growing season.  Though I’ve normally grown potatoes in my square foot gardens, I now can use grow bags and not tie up squares for 4 months.
Go ahead-give them a look. Buy them for family members who want to garden but simply don’t have the room. They will love these. And you can buy 3 of them packaged together for a ridiculously low price. I’ll be talking more about grow bags during the winter months. It’s been a lot of fun experimenting with them this year.

Square foot gardening for the winter

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imageOkay, it’s the first week of September and the weather has definitely changed!  No more 100’s, and probably no more 90’s.  Nights are getting into the mid 50’s.  Here is zone 6 it’s time to begin planting for the winter garden.

This week I’ve planted several squares of lettuce, and I will follow that up with another batch of lettuce plantings next week.  This is called succession planting.  It helps you prolong the harvest period during a time when plants virtually stop growing.

I’ve got my favorite lettuces for winter gardening.  One of the best is Queensland.  It’s virtually impossible to find in the U.S.  Other varieties that I grow successfully are Prize Head, EZ serve, Nevada, four seasons, gourmet mix, and black seeded Simpson.  There’s been a lot written about Salanova-a fairly new lettuce that, when harvested,  gives you equal pieces of beautiful lettuce leaves.  It’s a bit on the pricey side, but it sure looks good, tastes great, and it stores for a longer time.

Try a winter garden this year.  It’s the best time to garden.  No pests, hardly any watering, and it’s delicious.[ois skin=”3″]

For those who have no room for a garden-grow bags!

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I’ve been experimenting with these for the first time this year.  All I can say is: wow! They are just spectacular!  I tried one for potatoes in the spring because I didn’t have any room left in my square foot gardens.   I haven’t harvested those yet but I can tell you, it looks like its grown a massive amount.  I also grew on deck corn successfully-a special container variety from Burpee.

These grow bags come in many sizes.  The one pictured is 5 gallons.  I’m growing my brussel sprout plant in it and I think it’s going to do well.  I’m hoping it will.  Brussel sprouts can be a challenge around here with aphids in late spring and summer.  So, I’m now trying-again-to grow them in the cooler season and use floating row cover over it in a couple of weeks.

These grow bags are solid.  Because of the nifty side handles they can be moved wherever you want them. For folks who want to have a garden but have no room, these are perfect!  You could have several of them on the patio, move them around, and grow many different crops in them.  You can look at the different sizes and colors here.  Garden Supply is having a great year end summer blow out with items up to 80% off.  You might find some items you’ll use next spring at huge discounts.  Give it a look.

If you’re lucky and have a kale transplant around, plop it in one of these and place it next to your backdoor.  It will perfect for winter use and you can’t kill kale.  You won’t even have to cover it!    For those who took my winter harvest gardening class this morning, their floating row cover looks pretty good[ois skin=”3″]

New potatoes

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new potatoes 081816Today I decided to dig up all of my new potatoes in preparation to have my cold frame planted for fall/winter. I’ve been harvesting from the cold frame-functioning as storage for potatoes since spring-all summer long. This is what’s left and they’re just delicious. I’ve got 2 or three different kinds of potatoes-but the favorite around here is red pontiacs

My cold frame is as simple as you can get. Two by fours and a two by six placed directly on existing soil. I’ll place a $5 window that I bought from ReStore on top for protection. That’s it. The wood is leftovers that I’ve had for a long time. I did empty out several inches of the existing soil and filled it with homemade compost. Its performed perfectly. Because it’s not very big-2X6′-there’s not a lot that can be grown inside of it. I’ve planted 4 rows of late fall/early winter greens.

All star gourmet, rainbow swiss chard, spinach, and sweet repeat are all planted as of today. The timing should be perfect. The greens will be established and not too large so they’ll be able to survive the freezing temperatures without damage.

For those close by and interested, I’ll be teaching a winter low tunnel class next week. Details are listed here. It’s only 90 minutes long but you leave with the knowledge of how to build a tunnel, what plants to grow during this time, and when to plant them for a full harvest through the winter. It’s the easiest time to garden, and we talk about why in class[ois skin=”3″]