Tag: overwinter

A blanket of fresh new snow

20 Apr 202217 Jan 2022 by Mike (tfb)

The weather app was right: more snow! Fresh new snow piled high never fails to make me wonder what it must be like to see this stuff for the very first time…

On a snowed-under mid-winter day, pictures of veggies growing in the field don’t come to mind. Except, I do like thinking about the fall-planted garlic, tucked under a layer of straw, biding its time.

The only other overwintering crop out there is Jerusalem artichoke. Rather than dig it all up in fall and replant in spring, lately I’ve been leaving a good amount to come back on its own. The chokes can fend for themselves.

Won’t give in to the cold

4 Dec 202123 Jan 2017 by Mike (tfb)

Lettuce overwintering in unheated greenhouse

Lettuce, under a hoop-supported layer of medium weight row cover in the unheated greenhouse, is crisp, colorful, and fresh as daisies. This lettuce mix was planted in October, and some of it cut once in December, and now it’s waiting out the winter. Outside low so far: not bad, around -22°C. Kind of the same picture every time – dead or alive – but still always exciting when you’re there… (:

Post-winter greens

14 Mar 201611 Mar 2016 by Mike (tfb)

The covers are off and it’s all shades of green! That’s about three months, left to their own devices, living through freezing nights, often around -20°C (-4°F), and a low of -32°C (-25.6°F), under a couple of layers of medium-weight row cover, which means, little light (with the plastic added in, somewhere around 50% of already weak winter sun). Inside, at ground level outside the row cover, the lowest it got on the coldest night was an amazingly not-so-chilly-at-all -13°C (8.6°F). As a simple survival test…excellent!

Winter storage

10 Feb 202414 Dec 2009 by Mike (tfb)

Snow’s here—it’s definitely overwinter storage time! Winter storage is a little different every year, as needs, facilities, and plans change. This time around, a fair bit of gear is in the 20’x32′ (~6×10 m) hoophouse, with its full sun exposure and fairly extreme temperature spread (from double-digit subzero at night, to 80-100°F/25-38°C on a sunny day!). Sooo, you don’t want to be storing just anything in there. Anything that’s damaged by freezing isn’t a good idea. And plastics that aren’t UV-resistant will break down, fading and weakening (really, most plastics not meant for constant outdoor use should probably be kept out of the sun whenever possible). Here, it’s mostly wood—extra rough cut cedar from a project a couple of years back, tomato stakes, tables, farmers’ market display trays—which is OK, and I’ll get the plastic items under cover. Except for checking the snow load on the hoophouse after big storms, that’s all she wrote until early spring. The outdoor part of veggie farming in our growing zone will now take a bit of a snooze…

Found: chives, spinach, rhubarb…

30 May 200823 May 2008 by Mike (tfb)

Harvest for the second farmers’ market of the season was OK, but still what I think of as kinda found crops. There’s the first market harvest ever of rhubarb, a binful (20 bundles or so) from the fairly giant patch (about 60 divisions) planted three years ago—kinda stubby, compared to the more sheltered rhubarb behind the farmhouse, but tasty all the same. There’s also 15 lbs (6.8kg) of all-lettuce mesclun from the greenhouse, around 10lbs (4.5kg) of new-growth spinach from a few beds planted last fall, 15 pounds of Jerusalem artichoke, some chives, overwintered and in full return in the herb garden, and a few bags of arugula. Enough to keep our hand in at the market, but I’m really waiting on new stuff from the field…!

First harvest 2008!

18 May 200816 May 2008 by Mike (tfb)

Tomorrow’s farmers’ market, the third of the season, will be the my first. This is the usual timing, although I made it on the second market day last year (our market starts on the first Saturday of May). The earliest harvest for field crops will probably be all-lettuce mesclun in a couple of weeks. But I do have the mesclun in the unheated greenhouse, a small quantity grown specifically for getting to the market as early as possible. So, today’s harvest-for-show: around 20 lbs (9kg) of lettuces-and-arugula mesclun. Not much. But, we also gathered about 10lbs (4.5kg) of “found” spinach (tasty new growth from spinach that made it to baby-leaf stage last year, overwintered, and started again this spring; green onion was last year’s early market found crop). Spinach and salad mixes are sold by the bag, and weight varies slightly depending on what and when: for this round, it was all 400g bags (just under a pound), around 35 units total. Also, collected an assortment from the herb garden: sage, thyme, oregano and chives. Plus, around 20 lbs (9kg) of Jerusalem artichoke. Enough to for a tiny spread! I love the market, for me, it’s as much part of veggie gardening as anything that happens in the field, certainly not a tacked on “business” end… Although cold, rainy weather is in the forecast, people always come out, and tomorrow should be fun!

Checking on rye

26 Apr 202314 Nov 2007 by Mike (tfb)

The fall rye has stayed low and not gotten too dense, but filled out nicely. As a cover crop/green manure experiment, I guess it’s doing fine. It’ll be there overwinter, and we’ll see how it does come spring. My only concern is that it gets too established and turns into a weed—it’s supposed to be potentially invasive—and that we’ll find out when the time comes!