Square foot gardening-prepping for winter

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IMG_0050One month to go before the garden comes to a screeching halt! November 14-15 is the day us northern Utah gardeners dip below that magical 10 hours of daily sunlight. At that point everything almost goes into hibernation mode. I think I may have waited a little too long to plant some of my crops but we’ll see.

This weekend I’m hosting a low tunnel class. It’s short-only 30 minutes-but it will show the participants how to build a structure that will protect their gardens in the winter. Even if you don’t have a winter garden I think it’s a good idea to have it in place for the early spring garden. You will be the first in your neighborhood to start harvesting delicious salad greens and veggies. The cost of these tunnels are significantly less than the permanent, expensive, and costly structure we know as greenhouses. From start to finish the entire setup for my 4X16′ garden was slightly less than $100. And that will last me for several years. The only thing needing replacement is the most expensive item of the low tunnel-the plastic. Buy the UV protected 6-mil plastic. It will last at least 4 years if you take care of it. At least mine has. When I’m finished using it, I clean it off, roll it up, and place it in a location that gets no light. This will help preserve your plastic for as long as possible.

The picture is a crop called mache, or corn salad. It’s a weed that originally grew in the corn fields of Europe. Learn more about this crop here. The square foot gardening spacing for this is usually 16, but this particular variety says ‘thin to 4 inches.”  There’s a great picture of it fully grown on the left sidebar of my blog. It tastes a little different than the salad greens you’re used to but its a great crop to grow in the winter. And, it even germinates in the cold winter temperatures we experience. [ois skin=”1″]

My favorite cilantro variety

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calypso cilantroCilantro is one of those herbs you wish could stay around a little longer. It’s great for the cooler weather but bolts and goes to seed as soon as the weather warms. Is there a variety that goes deeper into the summer? Up until this year I had little success lengthening the harvest into the summer months. I had experience with this variety from Cooks Garden this spring and summer. It called calypso. Besides being delicious, it made it’s way fairly well into the summer months. It eventually went to seed but it lasted about an extra 6 weeks, which is significant for us.

After direct seeding it came up within a week, was easy to grow, and tasted absolutely delicious! I’m pretty sure I’ve now found my go-to cilantro. You can click on the Cooks Garden icon in the sidebar to learn more about it. It looks like there’s some other happy calypso fans as well-check out the customer reviews.

I was able to sneak some calypso in two squares of my square foot garden for the winter. It’s doing very well and I can’t wait to use it through the winter. Spacing for cilantro in the square foot gardening method is one plant per square. The other great thing about cilantro is that it’s virtually pest free. I’m trying to remember the first time I had any problem with bugs and nothing comes to mind. If you’re a warm weather gardener and you love cilantro, you should try this. If you’re a cool weather gardener and love cilantro try this for the flavor alone. You won’t be disappointed.[ois skin=”1″]

Winter square foot garden spacing

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IMG_1686I break the basic rules of spacing for my winter square foot garden. Why? The reason is that once the second week of November gets here my plant growth comes to a screeching halt. I try hard to get the timing down so that each crop I grow gets to be about 90% of its normal size. Sometimes I’m off a little bit. Then nothing really grows again until about the first of February. For 10 weeks I’ve got to have enough in the garden to take our family through the entire winter.

The standard spacing of 1, 4, 9, and 16 change for me. During this time of season I increase everything I grow with either a 9 or 16 inch spacing. Lettuce would typically be planted 4 plants per square. For the winter square foot garden, I will plant 9 lettuce seeds in each square. Spinach normal calls for a spacing of 9 per square. For this crop I still plant 9 because if I went with 16 it would simply be too much.

It’s been a lot of fun learning the specific crops that do the best in our cold winters, many of which I’ve just begun to grow. There might be 15-18 different crops growing back in my garden right now. And I’ve only got about 6 more weeks to grow until things come to a stand still.

One of those crops is mizuna. It’s a mild Asian green that goes well when mixed with other salad greens. It’s easy to grow and is very productive. It provides a good yield of multiple cuttings through the winter. Give it a try if you still have a few weeks of decent weather left.[ois skin=”1″]

My newly planted fall square foot garden

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fall garden 091315I’ve finished planting this 4X8′ square foot garden about 10 days ago. I can find seeds emerging in every square and in 6 weeks this will look very similar to my spring gardens. This particular box was planted to feed 4 people for a 6 week block of time. You can see that lettuce will be the first crop to be harvested. At about the same time will be spinach, chard, and mizuna. These are all easy to grow, they come up quickly, and they taste great. I think I’ve added some arugula in there. I found a variety that’s advertised as “much milder” than regular arugula so I’m giving it a try. All these make for a perfect mix-and-match mesclun salad. Add to this the cherry tomatoes that are still very productive and cucumbers and you’ve got something really good.

This weekend I continued planting for the winter garden. Over the course of the next 6 weeks I’ll be done with that. It takes a bit of planning but with the right crops, the right planting dates, and a layer of plastic and floating row cover you can easily enjoy fresh produce and veggies all winter long. At least, that’s the goal. We’ve got a few extra people living with us so we might run out a little earlier than we have in the past. Thats okay, it will be deep into the winter months if/when that happens. [ois skin=”1″]

Planting your fall square foot garden

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kale 090715I’ve been working pretty hard the last 2 weeks in the last effort to plant for fall and winter.  Today I planted 200 carrot seeds which will take us through the spring. Why that many?  Because that’s the amount our family will use though the winter months.  Certified Square Foot Gardening instructors always stress the point that you only grow what you need, what your family eats, and nothing more.

My fall garden is just about all planted now.  I’m waiting on one specialty packet of arugula seeds to finish.  This particular variety grows quickly-like most arugula plants do-but it’s got a milder pepper flavor.  That’s how it’s advertised.  We’ll see if that’s accurate.  In the meantime, I’ve just got a couple of square open for radishes(30 days till harvest), and a couple more for lettuce.  Combined with my huge bounty of cherry tomatoes, chard, spinach, and cucumbers, we are set to have a fantastic fall season of salads.  I’m trying not to boast but nobody can beat the taste of the lettuces I grow.  It’s more than just the varieties, although I think that’s important.  I think the soil is the other very important factor.

All my crops are grown in homemade compost made for free with items coming out of the kitchen and yard.  I have no weeds.  I use no commercial fertilizer.  I have no pests.  I have no use for chemicals of any kind.  Everything is watered just the right amount and harvested at the right time of day.  If you don’t have a garden you’re really missing out on some of the most tasty things in life.  You can beat any farm, CSA, or farmers market by growing lettuce yourself once you learn how.  Last night we had family over for margherita pizza on the grill, cheese bread, and salad.  This particular salad was Paris Cos, pepper jack cheese, homemade croutons, craisins, sunflower seeds, candied walnuts, cucumbers(the best ever!), and my cherry tomatoes(which taste like pure sugar!).  I combined blue cheese and poppy seed for the dressing.  Our guests raved.  So simple.  So good.  Done for pennies.  All from a trip to your garden.

This picture is a kale variety.  I initially ordered winterbor but the seed company was out for the entire year.  The substitute they sent me was starbor, and I’m not sure I’ll grow any other kale variety in the future.  It performed very well with heavy yields and excellent taste.  And it was magic through the hot summer months of July and August[ois skin=”1″]