Winter Gardening

The garden in winter - from West Coast Seeds Fall/Winter Catalogue

I know it's only July, but it's time to start planning for the winter garden.  This isn't something I've consciously done in the past.  It's been more by accident that I've had carrots, lettuce, kale, etc. through the winter.  This year I plan on doing it "proper"!

West Coast Seeds has an excellent winter planting guide in their Fall/Winter Catalogue.  I think this catalogue is a first for them since it seems interest in providing food for ourselves through the winter months is a recent thing in modern times.  Along with listing plants that are winter hardy in the Pacific Northwest, there are clear instructions on when and how to plant them.  As a long time fan of West Coast Seeds, I can heartily recommend this free online resource.

Another source of winter plants is Saltspring Seeds.  I bought my garlic bulbs from them and from time to time, buy new bulbs to try out.  I've had particularly good results with Northern Quebec, Mountain, Susan Delafield and Porcelain.  When the fall catalogue comes out, I'll probably order something new to try out.

So what am I doing to prepare for the winter garden?

I've ordered more SeaSoil with a friend.  This will be added to the bed where the garlic will be planted in September.  It will also go generously into the new 4x4 beds, one of which will become a little winter garden.

This afternoon I seeded Siberian Kale, Super Gourmet Blend Lettuce, Mescalun Mix, Little Fingers and Bolero Carrots.  As soon as the SeaSoil arrives, I'll be planting a fall crop of Oregon Sugar Pod II Snow Peas.  In these days of skyrocketing prices for fresh produce, it's to our benefit to grow as much as we can.  I started my new adventure in winter gardening today.

Three Sisters - Part 3 (and another thing or two)

As it's nearly the end of April, I decided it's time to do the final seeding for the Three Sisters Garden.  The squash component of the garden has already been seeded and a couple of zucchini are thrusting through the soil of their pots.

Black Beauty Zucchini Seedling

Today I planted the corn and bean components of the garden.  35 Peaches and Cream Corn seeds were planted in a tray of small pots.  Since corn develops strong roots quickly, they won't be living in their pots for long.  I'm aiming for 30 plants, so 5 extras should allow me to choose the strongest plants.  The beans will mainly be the Italian heritage beans (of no name!) from a friend of my husband's with a few extra Fortex beans to take care of any that fail to sprout.

Corn and Beans Seeded

The Three Sisters Garden bed is prepared and I rake it from time to time to eliminate any weeds.  I won't be planting it until the 24th of May weekend unless my impatience gets the better of me.  Once the seedlings are planted, they'll be protected by remay cloth until the weather's reliably warm and the plants are well established.

The first harvest of radishes

Three Sisters taken care of, what else is going on in the garden?  We've already had one meal of asparagus and I'll have to pick more today.  Radishes are ready to start picking as well and along with arugula they'll go into the salad for tomorrow night's dinner.

Wild Arugula

The mescalun mix I planted is proving to be a disappointment.  It's mostly arugula and is already starting to bolt.  I grew a variety of arugula last year with the same results.  I won't be planting it again.  I much prefer the wild arugula a friend gave me a few years ago.  It's a perennial in the garden, doesn't take up nearly the space these other ones need and is good at seeding itself if I need more.  We live and learn!  However, the snow peas the mescalun mix is planted with are doing wonderfully as is the lettuce.

Too much arugula, but the snow peas are great

Japanese maples around the pond are leafing out

Iris Caesar's Brother

Three Sisters - Part 2 (and a few other things!)

Now that the Three Sisters bed has been prepared, I've been waiting patiently until I could take the next step.  Today I seeded the squash.  I've decided to plant Early Butternut Squash in the Three Sisters bed and zucchini in the tires at the back of the bed.  I seeded three pots with the squash and two pots of zucchini - one is Zucchini Black Beauty and the other Corgette Primula F1.  I put two seeds in each pot and will pinch off the weaker seedling.

The squash component of Three Sisters Garden is started.

Then I decided to try my hand at melons.  I purchased the seeds (Cantaloupe Tirreno) from West Coast Seeds a couple of years ago but hadn't been organized enough to try it, so I now planted three seeds in each of two pots.  I will grow the melons in one side of my compost bin.  This will give them a sheltered spot with rich soil.  I've tried this twice before; the first time with a tomato and the second with squash.  The results were incredible!  I have no doubt it will work again.

My saggy compost bin

A word or two about my compost bin.  My husband built the compost bin a number of years ago.  It has two sides so I can toss the compost from one side to the other and always have some ready to use.  It's on a concrete base so the cedar roots can't invade it and as you'll see from the photo, is starting to sag a bit.  For now it's just propped up but I imagine we'll have to replace it in the near future.  Many years ago when we moved to Thetis Island, a horsey friend gave me a small container of red wiggler worms.  My compost box is inhabited by a seething mass of them!  I also have a black plastic compost bin which I use for kitchen waste.  What with the two-sided bin and the plastic composter, I always have red wigglers to add to a new start - and some to give away to friends!  The side that the melons will go into has lots of uncomposted material but the red wigglers with their voracious appetites will make short work of that.

Red wigglers - the best composters ever!

Squashes planted, there was time to check on how the rest of the garden is doing.

A forest of tomato seedlings in the potting shed

Snow peas sprouting at the base of the zig zag fence, lettuces, mescalun

The garlic is right on schedule.

Asparagus is up - start the water boiling!

Lettuces, Mescalun, Kale

Hyacinths coming into bloom

A sunny morning made for another day in the garden and it's time to plant out some of the seedlings in the potting shed.

First on the agenda is preparing the beds.  The bed that was to be planted with a dozen kale seedlings had a barrow load of soil removed which was added to the Three Sisters bed.  Next I sprinkled on some dolomite lime.  Brassicas need the addition of liming to prevent club root which likes an acid soil.  Two barrow loads of SeaSoil went on next and the bed was spaded over and raked.  Six little Winter Blend and six Lacinato seedlings were pressed into the ground.  I'm not sure what varieties are in the Winter Blend and I'm really supposed to plant this mid-summer as it's a blend specifically for growing in the winter, but I'm giving it a try now anyway.  I know the Lacinato will be a tasty kale as well as being a beautiful addition to the garden as the leaves look like ostrich plumes.

Winter Blend kale seedling

The bed that has the zig zag pea fence was targeted for the lettuces and mescalun.  Again, SeaSoil was added and worked into the soil.  I decided to plant some of the lettuces in between the zigs of the fence.  The growing peas will give some shade protection to the lettuces and keep them sweet longer when the warm weather arrives.  Winter Density, a butterhead/romaine cross, was planted there.  West Coast Market Blend mescalun was planted on the other side - I guess you could say in the zags. This blend contains seeds of curly endive, oakleaf lettuce, escarole, chicory, arugula and chervil.  Since I only planted 6 seedlings this time, I have no way of knowing what my plants are! I'll seed some directly in the ground in a few weeks.  Finally Super Gourmet Salad Blend lettuces were planted at the end of the pea bed.  Again, I will seed more in the ground in a few weeks.  Nearly all my seeds come from West Coast Seeds.

Winter Density lettuce seedling

The tomato seedlings are doing well in the potting shed.  So far, all are surviving - and thriving.  I seeded more Principe Borghese as I don't think I have enough.  I also purchased another package of tomato seeds.  Buckerfields didn't have the Stiletz I was looking for so I decided to try Moneymaker.  This may have been a mistake.  When I got home I looked it up in a gorgeous book on tomatoes I have,  "The Heirloom Tomato" as I was sure I'd seen the name in there.  Yup!  Flavour - Fair and under comments, "a commercial favorite much derided by foodies and home growers as being tough enough to bounce off a wall." Oh dear.  Note to self:  research before you buy!

Sweet Baby Girl tomato seedling

Tomorrow afternoon, weather permitting, I'll get the onion bed ready.  There's just so much to do at this time of the year.  There's always, however, time to stop and check out the flowers.  Oh, and the first Rufous Hummingbird appeared today!

Self-seeded Anenome Blanda

Seeds Are Up!

This morning was beautiful and sunny - the kind of morning that you draws you outside.  And there were certainly no end of things that needed doing! First up, check the seedlings in the potting shed.

Seedlings - some potted up and others waiting to be planted outside

All my seedlings are currently in the potting shed.  A few days ago, I potted up some of the lettuce and mescalun seedlings.  Everything is doing fine.  Even the seedlings left in the original pots aren't wilted at all.  If you do it early enough, nothing suffers.  The extras will be potted up as well and go to my daughter and daughter-in-law.

Pots of carrot seeds

Then I filled some 4" pots with soil, wetted them down and carefully placed 9 seeds in each pot.  I learned this way of growing carrots at a workshop last year and it turned out so well, I'm definitely going to continue to grow carrots this way.  In my garden wood bugs eat the carrot seedlings as soon as they come out of the ground.  By seeding in pots and then planting the whole pot outside once the seeds have germinated and gotten a bit of growth, they survive the wood bugs.  I planted 3 varieties today - Bolero, Scarlet Nantes and Mokum, a new Imperator variety. It's a bit fiddly seeding this way, but there's no thinning later on and you can pull up the whole bunch for dinner.  I will be doing more carrot pots, of course.

We also created a new bed in our deer-proof fenced area so we can transplant a much-loved rose.  Abraham Darby is a truly wonderful David Austin rose.  The big, beautiful flowers are strongly scented and the plant itself was a parting gift from fellow staff members when I moved locations.

Abraham Darby Rose

We stripped away the sod from the target area below the pond where we will be able to see the rose from the house.  My husband dug a pit about 2' deep and we built up around the new bed with rocks - of which we have an abundance on our Gulf Island property!  I filled the hole with a mixture of garden soil and compost and then the rest of the bed was completed with sieved soil from the digging mixed with more garden soil.  Another day we'll move the rose.

After a few more chores - planting radishes in the garden and putting compost on a vegetable bed which I'd spaded over, there was time to check for more spring signs.

Fordhook Swiss Chard planted last year is sending up new growth

King Edward Flowering Currant buds bursting open - Rufous Hummingbirds will soon be here!

Coral Bark Maple branches flaming in the spring sunshine

Kale, Gai Lan, Onions

It's now early February and today I planted more seeds.  It's such a lovely day, sunny and a warm February 10 degrees C, that I just couldn't resist.

The Copra Onions and Apache Scallions went out the the potting shed as they're now well up.  Their place has been taken by more Copra Onions and Bandit Leeks as well as Lacinato and a winter blend of kale.  Lettuce and mescalun seedings are also under lights in the house.

Lacinato Kale

And it might be early, but I also put in 2 short rows of Green Pearl Gai Lan, which is a Chinese broccoli.  My husband is a broccoli-hater, but likes gai lan.

Green Pearl Gai Lan

In the next couple of weeks I'll be starting my tomato seeds indoors.  To that end, I have some well-watered dry seeding mix tied up in a plastic bag.

This year, I plan on planting a lot more members of the brassica family.  I didn't have nearly enough kale to satisfy the needs of our household and the family.  Hopefully the extra plants will do the job.  In addition to seeding now, I'll also seed the winter blend kale in mid-summer for winter production.

I know this seems awfully early and I do tend to jump the gun a bit, but winters on the west coast seem to be getting milder.  I'm not worried about starting plants too early.  Cool-hardy seedlings that are in the potting shed are under plastic domes.  Tomatoes need heat to germinate, but once they're up, they can take the cool and will be similarly protected.

The buds on the King Edward Currant are swelling and a viburnum has been in bloom all winter.  Any day now, the Rufous Hummingbirds will be arriving.  They'll join the 2 female Anna's Hummingbirds who have been visiting our feeder all winter long.  It truly feels as if spring is not far away!