Cool Season Crops

Spring is such a busy time here at our urban farm. There is such a flurry of activity between tilling, planting, chicks, blooms, and trips around beautiful Portland.

Yesterday we planted 3 "Hood" Strawberry plants. They are a medium growing spreading perennial. They will get about 8-10" tall with bright red berries. They like acidic soils, to they will do quite nicely near our blueberry bushes under the fir tree.

Having a freshly turned garden, I got to plant most of our cool season- direct sow crops this weekend and today. In addition to all that I planted (and wrote about in the last posts), I put more in tonight as soon as I got home form work. Here's what went in tonight:

Heirloom and/or Open Pollinated Varieties:

Alaska Nasturtium (6" bush)

Jewel Blend Nasturtium (12" bush)

Tall Single Blend Nasturium (6' vine)

Giant Winter Spinach

Winter Stem Bok Choy

Bright Lights Swiss Chard

Shiraz Tall Top Beet

Flat of Egypt Beet

Amaranth Een Chot Hiyu (edible red leaf)

Wando Shelling Pea (bush type, 68 days)

Mesclun Lettuce Mix

-Rocket Arugula

-4 Season Lettuce

-Romaine Cas Lettuce

-Red Salad Bowl Lettuce

-Tango Lettuce

-Blackseeded Simpson Lettuce

-Lolla Rossa Lettuce

-Oakleaf Lettuce

-Romane Cimmaron Lettuce

-Ruby Lettuce

-Bloomsdale Spinach

-Tatsoi

-Golden Swiss Chard

-Magenta Swiss Chard

-Broadleaf Batavia Endive

-Mizuna Mustard

-Red Giant Mustard

Red Crisphead Lettuce

Hybrid Varieties:

Carnival Blend Carrot

We've decided to sow the chicken run with a mix of fava bean, dutch clover, crimson clover, and "broomcorn" sorghum, and buckwheat. We'll be seeding it down soon and covering it with a remay-type ground cover to prevent squirrels and the chickens from eating all the seed before it can germinate.

Flora and I are very excited about the entire garden this year and have just recently reached the realization that aside from fruits, dairy, grains, and baking supplies we won't be buying any groceries this summer! Further, we're excited about being able to can as much as possible. We are working closer and closer to our goal of growing as much, if not all, of our own produce!

Expect pictures of it all as soon as things start sprouting!!

-Fauna

Winter Gardening Results

So this past year we made a valiant effort at attempting some winter gardening. Here in the Pacific Northwest we are blessed with fairly mild, albeit rainy, winters. This means a couple of things for the home gardener. 1st it is possible to grow greens right into the depths of winter and root vegetables through into spring again. 2nd with the help of some kind of cold frame or Remay covers, gardeners can get and early start with seedlings for the summer. And 3rd it is possible to grow some vegetables through the winter where they begin to fruit in the spring well before anything else.

The picture above is a case in point. Here we have a purple sprouting broccoli. This plants requires about 120 days before it fruits. It is a hardy winter annual. The best thing is to plant it early in the fall so it has time to put on some vegetative growth. Through the winter it will lie dormant, and in the spring as we can see Purple Broccoli Head! Overwintering vegetables, including many brassicaes and root vegetables, allows for an early harvest in the spring.

This year was an experiment. We did not have cold frames or Remay, planted late in the fall, and did not actively tend to the plants over the winter (Both Fauna and I had some wicked SAD this winter(Oh Portland)). And despite many losses still have a few plants of cabbage, broccoli, and quite possibly kohlrabi. Only time will tell how big our spring harvest will be.

Lessons Learned:
1. If you are under a pine tree either be diligent in clearing needles on have the garden covered. Pine needles suffocate the plants, retains excess moisture during wet winters, raises the soil acidity as they decompose, and provide excellent habitats for slugs over the winter.
2. Plant early in the fall to overwinter. Greens will not survive the winter, uncovered, if it is really snowy but will grow through the fall providing fresh leaves. Plants meant to overwinter need time to put on vegetative growth to survive the cold.
3. Take care of the plot. Sure winter is a hard time to have much energy to go outside into the cold, but annual vegetables still need some care. Make sure they have adequate water if they are covered, keep pests (especially slugs) at bay, and harvest when applicable.

~Flora

It's Raining, It's Pouring...

It seems the rains have finally settled in for the winter... our garden has pretty much wrapped up for this season, save for the winter bed. This works out well, as our soil here is still lacking in the nice loamy materials. We've added lots of composts and such but it still isn't perfect. (Read, with all the clay drainage isn't optimal.) This presents a challenge with the winter bed, however. Too little drainage combined with too much rain equals rot and wilting of plants. To combat this, we've put up a cover. It's nothing fancy, just a piece of plastic stretched over some slats that are framed over the bed to form a peak. It works well, and so far our greens are doing quite well.

About that winter bed- we've planted leeks, onions, chives, kale, lettuce, rainbow chard, spinach, carrots, broccoli sprouts, brussel sprouts, beets, fava, and scallions. The greens will all grow slowly and get eaten as the winter comes on and progresses. The others will be ready to start harvesting once things start going in the spring. Yay for 4 season gardening and for early spring produce!

-Fauna