Overwintered Beets

I planted beets in my hoop house in the early fall.  They grew for about a month until it got cold, they they stopped growing but just kind of hung out waiting for the next few months for it to warm back up again.  They have started growing pretty well again, and the leaves are bigger than any beets I’ve ever grown before.  (I have lot’s of gardening failures!)

The interesting thing is that the leaves that overwintered are a dark purple color and the new leaves are a bright green.  They are very interesting to look at.

The chard and kale did great in the hoop house–they might even survive fine out in the open–we’ve gone out and harvested a few leaves here and there as we need them and they just keep growing more.

The last thing I put in the ground last fall (outside the hoop house) was garlic.  Once in Salt Lake City I attended a community garden workshop all about hoop houses and fall gardening, and one of the presenters was a garlic farmer.  Just. Garlic.  But the interesting thing about garlic is that you plant in the fall and cover with mulch or leaves and it just starts growing automatically when it’s the perfect time and temperature–that is my kind of gardening.

Each clove you plant will grow a whole new bulb.

I’ve heard people talk about using the greens or “scapes” as they call them, like chives to give a fresh flavor to food.  Have you tried it?  My real question is does cutting the scapes to cook with stunt or halt the growth of the garlic, or can you cut them a few times and still harvest a large bulb of garlic?

This is one thing I love about gardening. . . There’s always something new to learn.

Backyard Carrot Harvest

We decided to pull up all the carrots from our hoop house on Tuesday. It’s been so unseasonably warm and dry that they weren’t doing very well. The tops were starting to look depressed so we just harvested them.

Normally we would wait until early March when the ground thawed out and we were getting ready for spring planting–However, our ground is currently not anywhere near frozen–such strange weather. . .

I was amazed by how long some of the carrot roots got with these long stringy roots on the tips that went deep into the ground.

This was a yellow carrot variety which you could see better once we got the dirt hosed off. We also planted a purple carrot variety, but they didn’t grow at all for us.

Jonas was ready to eat the carrots fresh, and we chopped up more to steam and add to pasta that night. We still have more to use and we are loving doing so.

Hoop House Gardening

For the last few years I have been trying to successfully extend my gardening season beyond the normal summertime garden.

I still don’t know that “successfully” would be one of the words I would use to describe my results, but I have enjoyed myself and learned a lot.

The main method I’ve been working with is a hoop house. Since I only have one hoop house I practice my own version of compact planting, based on the spacing requirements of the Square Foot Garden method.

When we installed the plants it wasn’t cold enough to need the cover yet–I was trying to plant earlier than previous years for better success.

But the warmer weather meant I definitely had to keep it fenced, to keep out the domesticated chickens, as well as the wild bunnies and squirrels.

Work is good for children.  (But don’t be fooled into thinking this work wasn’t accompanied by pouting and grumbles.)

A month later the cover is on and the plants are growing happily.  At the bottom are little beet greens that I need to thin out.  Then going clockwise are two chard plants, little brussel sprouts cabbages, some purple kale, and the rest of the carrots we planted in the spring.  Those carrots did hardly a thing all summer but have loved the fall weather.

I planted some lettuce from seed and so far have 2 little sprouts of four leaves up–I’m not quite sure what the failure was there, but oh well.  Each year I learn a little more, and (hopefully) produce a little more food.