Things doing well in my winter garden right now. If you’ve never tried to have a 4 season garden you should reconsider-especially you northern climate gardeners. It’s one of the most enjoyable times of all. You end up harvesting crops that you can’t grow in the summer months because it’s too warm for them. It forces you to eat seasonally. This is mache, or corn salad depending on where you’re from. The winter garden-no work. I’ve begun harvesting this square which will last for a week. I’ll snip some of this, and maybe some radicchio, and a little tatsoi for a delicious salad. To increase your chances for success for the winter garden it’s important get the soil right by amending with quality compost and the right crop selection to match the season.[ois skin=”1″]
Tag Archives: mache
Love this
Another delicious winter crop-Mache, or better known as corn salad in the states, is easy to grow and it comes up quickly. This will be ready to start cutting in about 2 weeks. In Europe it’s harvested as a whole plant and served in fancy salads. If you find it in high end restaurants in America it’s served the same way. But for the home gardener, you can use it as a cut-and-come again crop. This lengthens the availability of mache significantly for home use. It’s got a different taste-almost a nutty flavor, but it’s something that you’ll love for winter and spring salads. You won’t find it in summer salads because it doesn’t grow in warm weather. It’s categorized as a winter annual.
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In 148 square feet?
We’ve had 3 or 4 significant frosts already. I’m getting ready to cover this structure with greenhouse plastic. I’ll only then be using a weighted floating row cover to put over the crops. As we head into winter, this is what’s growing in just 148 square feet of garden space: 20 pounds of potatoes, 108 heads of lettuce, 8 arugula plants, 320 carrots, 117 spinach plants, 36 mizuna plants, 45 claytonia plants, 4 minutina, 24 komatsuna, 27 mache, 80 radishes, 36 beets, 48 turnips, 44 Swissl chard, 9 onions, 36 chives, 16 radicchio, 63 leeks, 2 kale plants, 20 poc choi, 2 parsley plants, 1 rosemary plant, 45 tatsoi, 36 kohlrabi, and 4 plants of cilantro. We’re ready.
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The square foot garden winter harvest
Here in zone 6 it’s time to fill all your empty squares with things you like to eat during the winter. Most of us try to avoid our gardens during this usually bleak time of year, but you don’t have to. By using the right crops that love cool or cold weather and providing the minimal amount of protection, you can be eating out of your garden all winter. And the eats are good too!! The varieties are a little different than many are used to, but my guess is you’ll love the taste of virtually all of them. If you don’t have your garden filled up yet, you still have a couple of weeks to get many of the crops in that will thrive during the winter months. Leeks, turnips, parsnips, lettuce, spinach, mache, claytonia, mizuna, minutina, arugula, pak choi, raddichio, carrots, etc. are some of the things I grew successfully last winter. I’ll be having my last gardening workshop of the season this weekend if you live locally. Bring a friend and come on out. Visit my website for more information. I’ll be having a one of a kind class during the first week of December. You’ll be hooked when you see it then…[ois skin=”below post”]
So easy
The SFG method is so easy. You can take all sorts of classes, become a certified instructor, read a lot of books on it(a great thing), teach others how to do it, etc. But it’s all just this simple: build a box, fill it with Mel’s mix, put a grid on it, and then start planting with the 1, 4, 9, 16 spacing. Keep your gardens watered correctly and bingo-that’s it! I’ve been harvesting all year at this point with no break and now the efforts are starting to pay off. I’ll keep my gardens covered at night just in case it gets a little too cold, but the hard work of covering and uncovering every day is coming to an end very soon. Several of the summer crops are already in-tomatoes, cucumbers squash, and peppers. If you live in the Salt Lake City area, keep an eye out for the upcoming SFG “Lite” classes. You can find more information about them on the site. Can’t wait for the summer gardening season…
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