Garden Surprise

Last week we were surprised and happy to find a row of kale that has popped up.  I planted it last fall and am pleased to have it show up for a spring finish.   In my experience, kale does much better outside of a cold frame or hoop house.   At the end of the season last year, I dumped a whole lot of leaves on this garden.  The kale sheltered very well there during this mild winter. 

Row Covers

We have never been able to grow anything in the cabbage family here.   We have a multitude of cabbage moths just waiting to pounce and as soon as things are planted, they are covered with cabbage worms.

Early this spring, Eric got me this handy dandy quick hoop row cover to see if we could actually grow brassicas without also growing a million cabbage worms, too.  

It totally worked.    Kept all the cabbage moths away and I now have cauliflower, broccoli, chard and cabbages growing like gangbusters under that protective cover.

Eric got this one at Menard's.   It's the 12-18" high version, 10' long - just long enough for one of my raised beds. [I'm hoping to find a taller version next year so the broccoli isn't so crowded.]  It was easy for me to set out all by myself.   The black net is reasonably strong and I expect it will last for several years. 

That is a real live cauliflower in there - almost ready to eat.   I'm so excited!

I'm definitely going to try to get at least one more for next year.  Then I can separate the short stuff and the tall stuff. 

Arugula

Arugula is one of our favorite greens.   It grows like crazy here and self seeds readily.   In mild winters, it stays good enough to harvest through the whole cold season.  

We planted this in the fall in a cold frame and it died way back when the temps fell to the minus teens.   However, once the days start to lengthen and the temps warm up a bit, it greens right up and soon will be big enough to start harvesting.

In the meantime, now's a great time to plant a few more rows for harvesting later in the spring.  If it bolts in the heat, let it go to seed and you'll find another row of it when the weather cools in August and September.

More Cold Frame Goodies

I planted a row of fennel in September in the small coldframe.   It is growing and looks quite happy.     We're planning another fennel gratin for Christmas dinner.   

A much faster growing winter veg is the radishes.   I got HUGE ones this fall - bigger than eggs.   Some are bigger than duck eggs.   They're a handful.   Cool weather radishes are less spicy than ones grown in the summer garden.   We've been enjoying radish sandwiches made with leftover natural yeast pancakes.   Mmmmm.

Peas

It took forever for the peas to take off this year.   By the middle of June they were producing and now we've got a decent harvest every couple of days.  Not a great one, but a decent one. 

The kids like these raw right off the vine.   I like them in a fast stir fry with carrots, onions and maybe a bit of cabbage.  

Carrots

 After last year's attempt at carrots, I swore I was done growing carrots.

Then over the winter, I read The Winter Harvest Handbook, by Eliot Coleman and realized that carrots are a cool weather veg.  As in COOL weather.  Not summer. 

So I picked up some mixed-color carrot seed from Rural King or Menard's or somewhere like that and sowed a row in the hoop house on Valentine's Day.

And look what I grew!    I harvested early this month and was pleasantly surprised at the size of some of them. 

I noticed that the white ones were tiny and not very tasty - but those purple ones!  Mmmm.  

I'll be planting another row of carrots this fall for overwintering.