Square foot garden for winter

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winter lettuce in the square foot gardenThis will be my second season growing this unbelievable lettuce for the winter.  It holds up well in the freeze/thaw cycles better than some of the others-as long as it doesn’t get too big.  In my experience the larger lettuce leaves turn into soup after 2 or 3 freeze and thaw cycles.  I think smaller lettuce leaves do much better than the larger ones in our zone(6B)during the winter months.

 

I’ve only got 3 more squares to plant for the winter, and those will be finished this week.  Everything else is the perfect size heading into mid-November.  There’s only about 3 more weeks of active growing before everything starts to slow down.  At that point even the smaller leaf crops almost hibernate until about the first of February, when they come back with a vengeance.  Either way, I like to get things going as fast as possible in late winter.  For those crops that are a little small right now-they will be the first up in the spring.  If you can plant in late-summer or early fall with the right crops you’ll be able to do the same thing in your square foot garden.  Or any garden for that matter.

 

For you visiting warm weather gardeners-you may not be interested in this variety of lettuce as its made to withstand more difficult weather-as the name implies.  You can learn more about this little lettuce gem here.  For you cold weather folks, you ought to consider this lettuce.  Sure, there’s other great tasting lettuces out there-and I do grow other varieties that I’ll share with you over time.  But you’ll not get a better performer than this for the winter garden.  If you’re too late to order and plant now, which you probably are, then keep it in mind for the late winter/early spring harvest.

 

Or even better, the holidays are around the corner.  My favorite gifts have always been certificates from the seed companies I advertise on my blog.  Why not take the stress out of the crazy holiday shopping season(unless you like that!)and buy your family/garden friends some seeds!  If you keep a close eye on my blog I’ll let you know when these companies are offering free shipping.  If you don’t want to wait for that you can buy anytime.  By the time you pay for a couple of seed packets and shipping, it will be about $12.  If you wait for free shipping, it might only be $7 for 2 packets.  That’s a pretty cheap gift-and one that will last for years!  Gardeners love to get great seeds.  And if one packet of lettuce can give you 500-750 heads, thats a pretty great gift[ois skin=”1″]

Bye bye tomatoes!!!

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IMG_1716The end of October and I’m about out of tomatoes. Very sad! For me it marks the end of the summer garden and I know that winter is around the corner. We’ve enjoyed more tomatoes this year than we ever have in the past. I grew 16 tomato plants using 5 different varieties. These varieties are the ones I”ll alway grow. Lots of cherry tomatoes, several Roma types, and then a standard tomato variety.

One evening I went out to find that a few of my cherry tomatoes had fallen to the ground. When that happens I know they’ve been on the vine too long and are over ripe. At that point I began pulling them off the vine-from the bottom-to put in the freezer for the winter. We enjoy delicious pasta sauce for months with these tomatoes. There’s little work and the taste-you would never know they were frozen. I simply don’t have the time(or money)to put all of these up for storage.

One thing I learned this year about all the different types of tomatoes: cherry tomatoes are definitely king! Folks enjoy the regular and paste type of tomatoes, but one mouthful of pure sugar from these cherry tomatoes make a believer out of anyone. Last week I offered a handful of Sun Gold cherry tomatoes to a neighbor. “I’m not a tomato fan but our son is-I’ll give them to him.” She then tasted one to make sure she didn’t like them: “Oh my! I’ve never tasted a tomato like this! What kind are these? It’s like a mini-sugar explosion in your mouth!” I think she’ll take all she can get next year.

Last point-don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t grow tomatoes in 1 square foot! I think it’s the only way to do it. [ois skin=”1″]

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″]