September interest

 A few topics this month to figure out:

1. We needed to figure out our crop rotation plans for the spring to come, so that we know which beds are free for overwintering crops.

Saturday morning we planted two kinds of spinach; one very fast one called Yukon that is a 45 day harvest timeline, and the old Savoy (crinkly kind) variety called Bloomsdale, which is 50 days to harvest. Both spinach varieties will stay pretty stunted as the light fades in the late fall, then burst back to life in early March. They may or may not get poly-tunnels in December-February as the consensus was, from last year, that spinach does fine here in this microclimate/zone without needing physical protection from winter weather.

But we will need to cover the lettuce (Barilla) which is also ready to transplant; perhaps by next week. We will need re-bar supports purchased as 12" pegs, and plastic piping to be used as the frame. Alternatively, this cattle fencing idea (video) is also good. You cover lettuce with a hoop frame and poly when temperatures are expected to drop to 4 degrees Celsius.

See diagram below. Currently edible crops are in medium-green text.

click on the jpg above to enlarge.

2. Winter Veg!! This farmer is using the same Eliot Coleman method as we have been researching at DIGS (double covered crops for warmth). This farmer is in Kentucky in Zone 6b and to compare, we're much warmer in Zone 8 here ourselves, which is a minimum temperature that falls within the -12 to -7 degrees Celsius range in winter. This video quickly goes through food to eat during winter harvests:

Easy winter crops to grow for eating with no heat required (video)

3. Also: Why didn't the beets thrive in Bed 1 this past (hot/dry) summer? About 50% were undersized and fibrous. Most folk agree that since it was SO hot and dry and the soil was very parched, that the beets were likely needing shading and moisture. Here's a good video that gives the gist of this crop's life cycle demands (video):

We do have beetgreens being grown in bed 17 (left side front of DIGS) that are being grown just for greens, by the way, if anybody needs a few beetgreens (use like spinach.) Just to mention it. We could be planting beets to overwinter if we had some seed, that's something to plan ahead for maybe.

4. The cucumber frame in bed 9 is going to wait til next June when cucumbers will be planted in that bed again. It was complicated to set up. But it looks a little forlorn, and may not withstand any giant snow storms, so I went hunting for good frames for cucumbers online and found this interesting A-frame made of agricultural fencing (video is set to begin at a good spot for short viewing time):

As mentioned above, you can also use these panels of cattle fencing to make strong hoops to hold netting, row cover cloth or poly in the winter. (video)

5. Finally harvestable leaf lettuce is available to Saturday work party participants all over the garden, if you take the outer leaves from mature heads and leave the center of the lettuce to grow on. There is also pak choi in bed 17 that you can take outer leaves with a long stem on each one for stir fry. Enjoy!

Jen