Early Summer Greens

These are some of the greens I planted on Valentine's Day in the hoop house.  When the weather got warm, we took the plastic off the hoop house and set up that trellis to keep shade on the lettuce.

Worked like a charm.  The lettuce has stayed sweet and been a lot slower to bolt.   We're eating a lot of salads and my goal is to eat it up before it gets bitter.

That's a renegade kale plant in the center.   I need to try making kale chips.  I hear they're delicious.

The square metal things are from old political signs that were abandoned after elections.   I put them in to hold up a row cover, but that didn't really work.  They did work brilliantly as a place to grab when I'm leaning over to weed the bed.   I'll use them that way again next year. 

Hoop House Progress

When the weather got hot, the hoop house was like a blast furnace inside.   Time to roll up the sides.  I'm keeping them rolled up as long as the nights are in the 40s.  To keep them up, I bunched the corners and wrapped a little bungee around them. So far it's working great - and it's something I can do by myself if I need to.


In the center of the hoop house are the jugs I start tomatoes and things in.   They work fabulously. 

On the far side of the jugs is a bed of mixed greens.  It went from seedling to seeding in just a couple of weeks.  I didn't harvest fast enough.   Good thing the flowers are tasty, too.

I had a row of radishes next to them - delicious! and done in time for the heat.  I won't plant radishes again until August - our summer heat is fierce and makes for very spicy and woody summer radishes.   

On the front side is a bed of bib lettuce.  Still delicious and slow to bolt.  We're thinning like crazy.

In the fall, I'll plant another bed of this stuff, plus a bed of arugula (our favorite!).  Plus a bed of carrots and another of radishes.  I'm going to need at least two hoop houses this fall.  

Hoop House Goodies

These pics were taken a couple of weeks ago, but they're proof that stuff is coming up in the hoop house.   I'll post current pics soon.

I planted a bunch of bib lettuce and it's happy.  I have baby carrots coming up and a few seedlings of fennel.   Also, radishes and a bunch of other greens.

We happened to put the hoop house over the bed that had a lot of cilantro last year.

I love cilantro and it's a good thing because it self sows like crazy.   We'll probably never have to plant it again.

I think the seedlings are cute.

Winter Cold Frame

This is the inside of one of the cold frames on Christmas day.    To the front of the pic are a couple of rows of radishes.  

You'll notice that I didn't plant them too close together this year, so they actually had room to grow nice radishes.    Yay, Robin!    

In the center is a row of cilantro and in the back of the pic are a couple of rows of arugula.    All doing very nicely.   


Here's a view of one of those gorgeous radishes that had enough room to grow this year because I was smart enough [finally!] to only plant the seeds every 2 inches.  

Pretty!

What you don't see is the row of fennel that I pulled up and made into a fennel gratin for Christmas dinner.   Mmmmm.