our maine home – zone 5b
Yesterday, from the hoophouse.
I’m happy with this year’s overwintered greens. Clockwise from lower left: Bloomsdale spinach, escarole, arugula, baby kale. And plenty of self-seeded claytonia.
We’ve been eating homegrown greens for a few weeks now. It’s amazing that they survive the cold winter nights (under row cover).
I planted these in mid-September. This year, the electric fence did its job and kept out voles.
I am appreciating these fall greens in the hoophouse. They are looking about the right size going into winter. No vole damage for a while now.
I spread more hay mulch today. The ground was too frozen to rake the raised beds in the fruit yard. Tomorrow I think I’ll have to harvest leeks. I’ve put it off too long. I also have to remove the asparagus stalks which have dried up and fallen over. And mulch those beds too.
Peas and spinach are up! And enjoying today’s sunshine. So happy to see them. And the favas are poking through.
However, almost all the broccoli and most of the kale has been eaten by critters. Brokenhearted.
You win some, you lose some.
This gardening season I hope to post more often and focus on individual crops. We have had a big breakthrough this past year with one of our favorite crops: spinach. It seems we are finally getting a handle on what it takes to supply (almost) our year-round craving for spinach.
August 23, 2019: planted two rows of leaf spinach in hoophouse, Red Kitten and Space. We ate these all winter, sparingly, and the plants are just starting to give out. I pulled up all the Red Kitten yesterday and will probably pull up the Space shortly. Next August: double (or triple?) the amount of leaf spinach.
September 12, 2019: planted 5 rows of winter spinach in hoophouse. September 19, planted two more rows after hot peppers were harvested. Varieties: mostly Olympia, some Winter Bloomsdale. These grew slightly, then stopped. They really took off in March though, providing an abundance of huge delicious leaves. Next time: plant 7 or more rows again, maybe earlier depending on space available.
Eventually these will bolt, I’m surprised they haven’t yet. (The lone Winter Bloomsdale in the back bed, upper left in photo, has bolted.) Today I scratched 5 rows between them and planted basil seeds for summer. The plantings can intermingle for awhile.
Note: I tried the same planting outdoors in a row in the main garden. Planted October 18, 2019, and applied a heavy layer of hay mulch. I got nothing. Not sure what happened, maybe planted too late or maybe not enough protection outside. In any case, the hoophouse planting was sufficient. I won’t bother trying to overwinter spinach outdoors as long as I have a hoophouse or greenhouse.
March 12, 2020: planted all the remaining Space seeds in the hoophouse. We had to remove some dead plants from the winter so there was space for the Space! This gave us some nice fresh looking leaf spinach during the spring months and still looks good. One row in the back of the back bed was stunted and didn’t produce. Maybe it got too cold?
March 26, 2020: planted a short row of Red Kitten outdoors next to the peas. This early planting has done well and is ready to start eating. Next time: plant more in late March.
April 14, 2020: planted a square of Red Kitten under the corner trellis. The idea is that it will be shaded here during the heat of summer by the climbing vines of cucumbers and green beans. Maybe I’ll plant more soon because flea beetle have attacked the rabe and arugula I planted under here.
So I have satisfied our desire for spinach all winter and spring! We have eaten pounds of it this week! So pleased.
Now I just need to keep it going through summer and fall. I still have plenty of seeds for Red Kitten, Winter Bloomsdale, and Olympia. Need to buy more Space, which has been really a good performer.
And we are no longer buying those plastic tubs of spinach leaves from the grocery store!
Is it still mid-August? A lot has happened. We harvested the fava beans on August 11. Had a big party, the third annual, to shuck the beans. I have three small freezer bags of leftovers, which is good. I didn’t take any pictures, unfortunately.
We have picked over 20 pounds of blueberries, all in the orchard except for two containers harvested atop Schoodic. I know that should be quarts, next year I’ll switch to the more typical measurement.
We are still waiting for the Reliance peaches to ripen. Last year they were all taken, probably by squirrels. This year we took more precautions (netting around the trunk). Sam propped up the heavy branches. They have great color, but are still quite hard.
Sam’s working on improving the orchard fencing. Too many deer are getting in there.
He also added two more raised beds in the hoophouse. Over the next few days I’ll plant some fall and winter greens in them. The peppers and eggplants in the older beds are growing but not exuberantly, but the basil in there is doing great. We had to protect those beds from deer who came to munch one variety of pepper when we opened the roof to the sun and rain.
I’m picking green beans almost daily in the main garden. Also sowed some fall seeds in empty spots.
The fava bean area freed up, so we put up a pea trellis there. Also planted cilantro, broccoli rabe, and spinach in that area.
Harvesting lots of food: beets, cucumbers, a few ripe tomatoes, lettuce, escarole, radicchio, carrots, costata romanesca zucchini, kale, chard, dill, artichokes, broccoli, Savoy cabbage, fingerlings, strawberries, blackberries. Coming along: squashes, a few ears of corn, cabbage, soybeans, pattypan squash, lots of tomatoes!
We covered up the seedlings in the garden in anticipation of cold temps over the next few nights. This is an experimental bed. I don’t think they’ll all make it, maybe none of them will. Cilantro, lacinato kale, red lettuce, spinach. They are under a layer of plastic, a layer of agribon, and a few inches of hay mulch.