Last seen planting garlic in November as we headed into winter, Lynn is BACK IN THE FIELD, getting a head start on spring. It was great to see her again and…continue! We headed out to the greenhouse and spent three hours or so, bagging the last of the grass mulch, pulling weeds, forking beds, chatting and basking in the sunshiny, 25°C (80°F) greenhouse weather! I also brought out a tray of arugula, couldn’t resist posing it in the snow… It felt excellent to get started out there. Fun!
arugula
Two arugulas
The arugula, about a month from seeding, is looking lush and…TASTY. While fiddling with macro focus and tripod (I’ve been using a borrowed one lately for indoor pics), I reached around to pluck a leaf. And another… I’ve been wandering back all morning for quick tastes. You either like arugula, or you don’t (can you be MADE to?)… It’s an easy, not subtle, veggie rush: first the familiar arugula flavor with that hint of mustard, slowly building as you begin to chew, and suddenly—wait for it—BAM, a little peppery explosion. I’m fairly new to this treat, it’s only since tiny farming that I paid attention, though I knew the taste, and only last season that I grew it out of salad mix, as a separate crop. It’s still a bit of a novelty. Here, the two varieties, somewhat generically named Rocket (smoother-edged), and Skyrocket, have quite different leaf shapes, but so far, I don’t think I could tell the tastes apart. These are two to a cell, and heading out to the greenhouse in the next week or so… (I should note, arugula grows fast, you can usually start harvesting 30-35 days from seeding, so planting this early indoors wasn’t exactly necessary, just a pre-season experiment.)
First cuts
Time to thin out the lettuce and arugula. Between the seven varieties, some of the seed I used was up to four years old, so to be safe, I was quite generous, maybe 4-5 seeds per cell for the arugula, and a bit more for the lettuce (that tiny seed can get away from you, though with new seed, I try to go lighter). Germination was good, and the little seedlings are already shading out each other as they push for the light. I’m still getting used to timely, to-the-point thinning, both in the trays and in the field. I usually have the urge to leave ’em a while longer, but almost always, this ends up being not the best thing to’ve done. Give the best ones the biggest break as early on as possible, which means, kill off the rest. This also takes some timing experience, but in general, it’s hard to go wrong by not waiting around. Sounds brutal, but that’s about it! The lettuce will eventually be one per cell, although for now I’ll leave a couple per. Starting arugula indoors is a first for me, I usually direct-seed, so I’m figuring things out this time around. I’ll leave two per cell, and plant them out two together at 6″ (15cm) spacing and see how that works out. Here, I’m snipping arugula at the soil level with wickedly pointy little shears…
Arugula emerges
That was quick! Early morning, and the arugula (and Granada lettuce) has popped up in barely two days. Air temperature in the Milkhouse where the grow racks are stays mostly in the 60-65°F (15-17°C) range. Around the plugsheets, the close fluorescents warm things up an extra 5°F or so, and the clear plastic over the trays creates a little greenhouse effect that adds at least a couple more degrees. Altogether, ideal germination temperature! It’s kinda fun to think you’re in control of precisely what’s going on, but in any case, however they pulled it off, the first seedlings of the year are good to see! :)
Getting started
Started the first seeds of the year today: lettuce and arugula. At night, the grow racks remind me of a lab experiment, with the plugsheets in trays, carefully labelled and sheathed in plastic under the intense white light (fluorescents up close are pretty bright). And there’s the digital min/max thermometer, keeping score. The whole set-up looks like what it is. It’s great! In the beginning, I kind of obsessively (and largely unnecessarily) check every few hours to make sure the soil mix is sufficiently moist, the temperature is above 60°F, to see if anything’s emerged and it’s time to take off the plastic. Maybe after another five or 10 years, it will become simply routine, but for now, every single plant to emerge is still cool and exciting… For this, the earliest lettuce attempt yet, I’ve started five varieties, all with maturity dates of 50 days or less. There’s Simpson Elite (a really fast 40-day) and Two Stars, both green leaf, Granada and Red Salad Bowl, both red, and Sierra, which is red tinged. As a salad mix in any combination or all together, they’re a great blend of colors, textures and tastes. The arugula, Rocket and Skyrocket, intended for the mix, is faster growing than lettuce, but I felt like starting some now (I’ll start some more, later). If all goes well, these will hit the unheated greenhouse in the beginning of March, a good three weeks ahead of last year!
Spicy greens
Although we haven’t had frost and the weather’s been overall incredibly mild, it’s still the fall cool season crops that’re doing best. Here, a mix of spicy brassicas, grown entirely in the post-flea beetle season—no row cover and no holes! There’s arugula, mizuna, tatsoi (a kind of bok choi), and red mustard. It’s a zesty, peppy salad on its own, or mix with lettuce. The leaves are a little past the baby greens stage—they’re growing so fast—so just tear ’em up! (That’s what I say at the farmers’ market… :) Oh, and while the weeds have slowed down dramatically, they’re still around: can you spot the mallow?
Wheel turning
Life moves fast through our short growing season. Lushness and abundance peak and fade quickly into decline. The garlic, so green and promising only a few weeks ago, is already dying back, ready for harvest by month’s end. (Here, we’re splurging on a watering by sprinkler; I’m not sure of effectiveness of this exact timing, but a nice soaking round about now should give those garlic bulbs an extra growing boost during their last days.) In front of the garlic, more crops past their prime. The third planting of mesclun (we’re already harvesting the fifth) has started to bolt, ready to be plowed under. And a bed of arugula that, despite row cover, had been invaded by flea beetles, was chopped down and now lies brown and overdue for tilling in. Wheel keeps on turning…! (LATER NOTE: Watering garlic during its last few weeks is not considered a great idea, but in this case, it didn’t hurt.)