PEACHWOOD PROVIDENT LIVING
SEPTEMBER 2013
GOAL: Plant something
in your winter garden
If you need help call
the Burrells, they are our gardening specialists
Or call Brother Duran
Why Plant a Winter Garden?
There are many reasons
to plant a winter garden in these areas. Often, it's the only time to really be
able to get cool season crops such as broccoli, spinach, lettuce, and carrots
to grow properly. Plus, there's less work involved.
October is a great time to plant in these mild areas because the heat
of summer has passed, but the soil is still warm. The days are shorter, the
sun's intensity less, and there are fewer insects and diseases around to attack
your plants. This allows cool weather seedlings and transplants the luxury of
growing slow and strong to maturity. For the gardener, there's less weeding,
watering and care involved and more comfortable weather to work in. Weeds will
germinate, but they will not grow strongly during the short days and are easy
to remove. Moisture holds in the soil longer in fall so the garden requires
less watering. There's time to harvest plants as needed, knowing they will hold
in the garden longer than if growing under high heat conditions.
Preparing the Winter Garden
Start your winter
garden by turning the soil, removing perennial weeds and grasses, and amending
it with compost. While winter rains are welcome in most mild winter areas, in
cool damp winter areas such as Seattle, cool rains can mean plants rotting.
Consider growing plants in raised beds. This will keep the soil well drained
and help avoid water logging. Amend the soil before planting and add an organic
fertilizer at or just after planting time. That's usually enough to carry your
plants through the winter.
What to plant and harvest in the winter
vegetable garden
You might be ready for a break from your flower beds once winter
arrives, but why not grow some delicious edibles while the rest of your garden
is snoring? It doesn’t take much work or much space, it’s a lot more
interesting than pruning roses, and the rewards are great. Chances are pretty
good that you have room in your garden to tuck in a few Swiss chard starts or
leafy braising greens. These types of edibles remind us that in our gentle
climate we can have beauty – and food – in our gardens year round.
There are plenty of edibles that you can plant in wintertime,
including garlic, leeks, onions, radishes, lettuce, peas, potatoes, chard,
spinach, rhubarb, and other leafy greens such as bok choy and kale. If you've
already planted these yummy treats, then you can harvest them straight through
winter. If you're looking do a little wintertime planting, here are some
tips.
Garlic – Set out nursery-purchased bulbs (separated but unpeeled)
four inches apart. Don’t water them in. It’s best to wait until shoots poke up
before watering for the first time. Better yet, let the rain water them for
you. Garlic takes up very little room and needs little attention.
Leeks – Nursery starts are inexpensive and plentiful. They can be
harvested throughout the year and are unfazed by our mild winters.
Onions – This is where your well-amended soil is important. Onions
love rich soil – not too sandy or clayey. And they like regular water. You can
sow onion seeds, but it’s easier to buy bulbs (called “sets”) from a nursery or
online source. Don’t try to plant grocery store onions because it’s unlikely to
work. The best time to plant onion sets is January and February. (For green
onions, or scallions, pull up the plants when they are about six weeks
old.)
Radishes – Forget about those starchy red rocks called radishes at
the grocery store. Search online to discover a long list of gorgeous radish
seeds including French Breakfast, White Icicle and Pink Beauties. Easter Eggs
is a particularly beautiful variety that produces radishes of varying purples,
pinks and whites. Radishes grow easily and quickly, with some small-rooted
varieties ready in a month or less from the day of seeding.
Lettuce – Like onions, lettuce appreciates fertile soil and regular
water. Some are more suitable for warmer months, some for cooler. There are
dozens of varieties, including heirloom and redleaf. Mesclun – a combination of
several lettuces such as arugula, chervil, chicory and cress – grows
beautifully in our climate. Sow seeds in January or February or check your
local nursery for starts.
Peas – November and February are the best months to plant peas.
Poke shelling or snap pea seeds an inch or two deep directly into rich soil and
give them something tall to climb up and wind their tendrils around. Pea shoots
are delicacies for birds, so you may need to cover your sprouts with a floating
row cover or anything that keeps birds at bay but that lets sunshine and rain
in.
Potatoes – Like peas, a good time to plant potatoes is in February,
with the satisfying potato harvest around three months later. Potatoes are a
joy to harvest for adults and kids alike. Depending on the variety, potatoes
are usually grown from pieces of tubers that have at least one eye or from
whole small tubers.
Swiss chard and other greens – Swiss chard is like an exclamation
point in the winter vegetable garden, lighting up beds with bright pink, yellow
and red stalks. It’s one of the easiest greens to grow either from seed or from
starts, and it grows all year. Other greens, such as spinach, kale and bok
choy, are also easy. These greens can be used for salads or can be braised in
stir-fries or thrown into soups. Most greens relish cool temperatures and go to
seed in warm weather. Give them rich soil, keep them cool and you’ll be
rewarded with fresh salad greens throughout the year.
