Tag Archives: spinach

Square foot gardening-Winter planning

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arugulaWith day length shortening, temperatures beginning to cool, and precipitation shortly to follow now is the perfect time to plan your winter garden. It’s a lot easier if you live in zones 8 and higher, but for zone 6 and below, we have some thinking to do.

The first step that I like to take is to simply list the items I want to grow. There’s information floating around on the internet that show 30+ different crops that can be grown in our zones and lower during winter. I’ve tried virtually all of them over that past 5 years and have had a great experience. But I’ve also found that many of those crops were things we didn’t enjoy eating. Maybe I should say we didn’t enjoy eating them as much as other tested and tried things. It’s a thrill to know that you’re able to go out and harvest minutina, but it didn’t do much for out taste buds.

Here’s a short list of things that I’ll be getting ready very soon. Spinach, lettuce, swiss chard, mache, beet greens, radishes, tatsoi, carrots, claytonia, and mizuna. We love simple salads just harvested in January from the garden. There’s other items that I may grow if I decide I want to stir-fry a few dishes. Things like bok choi, mustards, turnips, and leeks would be good choices.

I came across a really fun blog a year ago. I’m not a subscriber but I check in every once in a while to see what she’s doing. And, she’s doing the same thing as I am! But she’s much better at showing it. Take a look at her winter garden-you can find it here.  I love what she does.  You’ll also notice that’s she’s kept a record of the amount of produce and veggies harvested during the winter months.  Think about that quantity.  Although there’s a lot of money to be saved-for sure-the real reason to winter garden is the taste!  And with virtually no work, it’s the most enjoyable of all gardening season.  Or, at least it can be.

Fall square foot gardens

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muirThis is a great time of year to begin direct seeding your lettuce. All the things that loved the spring season can be done one more time before the gardening year ends-at least for those living in zones 4-7. Lettuce, radishes, chard, spinach, arugula, bok choi, and cilantro are some of the things that can be started right now. But, don’t wait too much longer!

Why don’t you try a variety of lettuces this fall? I’ll be planting 8 or so varieties that all taste and look different. The fall gardner is one of the easiest and rewarding to grow-the pests are leaving, temperatures are cooling, and we get more rain to lessen our workload in the garden. If you have a brussel sprout transplant now would be the time to put that it too. It’s got to be a pretty good sized transplant but you’ll be rewarded with some delicious treats come the end of October or mid-November.

I’ll be hosting a guest post shortly on the topic of pest management. Keep an eye out and tell me what you think about some of the ideas.[ois skin=”1″]

Thinking fall in your square foot garden

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cherokee and concept lettuceI say square foot garden but it could be any garden. This is the perfect time to put in your entire fall crop. Everything planted now will be harvested by mid to late October-and you’ll be so glad you attempted to grow during this season. Because it’s been a long summer of pulling weeds, watering, etc. many gardeners think about ending their growing season around the Labor Day weekend. It’s the official end of summer and things are winding down.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact for me, this is coming up on the best time of year to garden. Why? First, most of the pests have headed south or will be soon. Second, the season usually gives us water from Mother Nature so this cuts back on your watering time. Third, all the great crops of spring are now back!

In the next couple of weeks I will be emptying squares and replanting with the following crops: lettuce, spinach, red ace beets(for the greens), arugula, bok choi, carrots(for winter as well), leeks(for winter), swiss chard, radishes, tokyo bekana, and mizuna. Some of these will be harvested at once but others will be left to continue through the winter months. And there’s a whole other bunch of fun crops that can be planted in a few weeks that do best during the winter months. More on that later.

I hope you give the fall garden a try. You’ll find it’s a lot easier and a lot less work than spring and summer gardening. When you harvest your first head of lettuce along with some spinach and swiss chard for an evening salad you’ll be so glad you did[ois skin=”1″]

Fall garden heading into winter

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91414 fall gardenThe gardens have been spectacular this year! It’s certainly slowing down but it’s starting to transition to the full winter garden. The main 4X16′ bed will be all I do this winter. Last year I also winter gardened in the 2X16′ next to it. I’ll be using that bed to overwinter 4 or 5 different things to get a quick jump on spring. To date I’ve planted kale, tatsoi, beets, scallions, leeks, spinach, claytonia, cilantro, lettuce, chard, mache, minutina, and turnips for the winter harvest. I’ll be doing a repeat planting of many of those next week. Arugula, mizuna, and radishes will finish off the planting season and will be completed by October 20th. It’s going to be a great winter.[ois skin=”below post”]

Tonights dinner

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A great mesclun mixIt’s a great mesclun mix of red sails and allstar lettuce, radicchio, butter chard, and spinach. I’m a little surprised at the spinach this late in the season after two harvests already. It’s grown back very nicely and we’ve got at least enough for another week. Top it off with some minicor carrots, mozzarella cheese, freshly grated pepper, and then a nice vinaigrette. My entire summer garden is almost completely planted. I’ve left a few squares open for a second planting of zucchini and for summer lettuce. But I’ll soon be emptying out squares of red ace beets, spinach, radicchio, and carrots. This should leave me plenty of open squares for my summer lettuce-which are the greatest to go along with those vine-ripened tomatoes. All my herbs are in-rosemary, cilantro, chives, parsley, garlic, and basil. And I’ve just planted 2 additional squares of red pontiac potatoes. Now’s the time to put your entire summer garden in for zone 6. Tomatoes, peppers, squash, zucchini, corn, all your herbs, chard, lettuce varieties, beets, beans, scallions. And then get ready for a great harvest in a few weeks.[ois skin=”below post”]