New growth

Today is the spring equinox! Time for a hoophouse update. Yes, there are living plants in there that were planted last fall and overwintered.

I don’t want to jinx it. A lot could still happen. In prior years we have lost everything to voles during the winter. This year we had an electric wire around the beds and cleaned up all hiding places in there. We also lost a lot of kale to worms last fall.

First bed has winter lettuce and – surprise – poppies. No spinach germinated. The poppy seed originally came from the Harborside Farm of Helen and Scott Nearing (“Living the Good Life”). We toured their farm and received some packets of seeds. I planted poppies in the back row of the big garden. Over a few years, they have migrated everywhere. They seem to especially like the hoophouse. These poppy plants are big and growing fast. Soon I will have pink poppies. The lettuce is strange and coarse, but greens are greens. There is also claytonia (little shovel shaped leaves) in the upper right.

The next bed has mixed kale in it. It’s second generation – or maybe third? Last summer I let a few plants mature there and form seeds. When the seeds are dried, I cut down the plant and lay the top of it down in the bed. This nice happy community happens in the fall and stays this way all winter. It should take off and start to grow big now that there’s more light. It’s too cold yet for caterpillars or flea beetle to bother it.

There are a couple of plants in the third bed. This escarole was planted September 6 and got enough growth on it to survive the winter. It looks a little burned around the edges but it will also grow fast. I’ve tried a few varieties of escarole but the most reliable by far has been from Franchi Di Sementi – seedsofitaly.com. The packet comes with a lot of seeds and they don’t seem to deteriorate in quality over several years. We like to eat escarole and beans.

The claytonia volunteers. There’s no stopping it. It’s known as one of the few winter-friendly greens around here. I’ve experimented enough that I’ve found a few others that we like better, but the claytonia just keeps coming.

This Dazzling Blue (lacinato) kale is the only survivor of a planting on June 29, 2023. Caterpillars ate the rest of it. Now it’s starting to grow!

Last but not least, the spinach looks great. I don’t know what variety this is – my notes show multiple plantings last fall with no germination, so this was a last ditch attempt that I didn’t even make note of. There is nothing I like better than a healthy bed of spinach. Time to start eating it. I’ve been weeding it a little. There’s a little bit of arugula hiding in there.

The fourth bed was empty except for one very bedraggled looking old kale. I planted some lettuce, some broccoli rabe and some more spinach. Sam planted peas in the big garden. It’s early but it’s been a very mild winter here. Gardening season begins!

Happy first day of Spring!