Slog

News & Arts

Line Out

Music & the City
at Night

« The Monday Morning News (and a Poll… | Today: Bike, March, or Bus to Occup… »

Monday, December 12, 2011

Chow / Life Mmm... Garden Greens

Posted by Goldy on Mon, Dec 12, 2011 at 9:05 AM

Goldy | The Stranger
Various kales, collards, and mustards ready to harvest from my backyard garden.

One of the pleasures of gardening in the gray, wet, but typically mild climate of the Pacific Northwest, is the winter garden. Weather permitting, and with proper preparations, hardy greens, herbs and root vegetables (and sometimes even lettuce) can be harvested year round, even during the darkest days of December and January. I'm only just now pulling up the last of my carrots (touched by the cold, they're the sweetest of the year), while late summer-sown kale, collards, and mustard should not only produce multiple servings a week all winter long, they'll also provide ground cover for my raised beds, shielding them from erosion, and crowding out weeds.

Barring a long, hard freeze, these snow peas should survive to produce pods as early as April

Goldy | The Stranger
Barring a long, hard freeze, these snow peas should survive to produce pods as early as April

I'm also experimenting for the first time with "overwintered" snow peas. If timed right, fall-sown peas only a few inches high can typically survive our mild winters to produce an early crop in mid spring. Mine seemed to grow too robustly too quickly, leaving them vulnerable to a hard freeze, but we'll see.

And if you didn't think ahead to plant a winter garden, it's not too early to plan for next year. I typically make my first sowing of lettuce, arugula, mustard, and peas as early as mid-February, a mere two months away, and many home gardeners start seeds indoors under grow lights even earlier than that. There's nothing quite as satisfying as eating—and sharing—food out of your own garden, and it's an experience I've learned to enjoy year round.

Comments (22) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

What? No Bright Lights Chard? Even the stems are sweeter this time of year.

Posted by Laurence Ballard

on December 12, 2011 at 9:11 AM

Installments of Gardening with the Geezer are some of your best posts.

When can we expect a post on holiday baking?

Posted by Ya Sure Ya Betcha on December 12, 2011 at 9:21 AM

Our carrots were freakin' epic this year. The winter squash too is crazy good. You're right...there's nothing like eating your own home grown stuff. It's amazing how much different the real specimen tastes compared to the high-production fare at the super market.

Posted by zombie eyes on December 12, 2011 at 9:23 AM

@1: I admit, I'm not a fan of chard. There's an earthy, beet-like taste that turns me off.

@2: I don't know... should I share my grandmother's recipes?

Posted by Goldy on December 12, 2011 at 9:24 AM

@4 Give Golden Beets an audition. They're beautiful to behold and have won over many a beet-abstainer among my friends. (The tops are the best of beet family; rather like kale.)

Also, see if you can find a relatively new variety of Brussels Sprouts, Trafalgar--after a frost they are literally sweet. As a PNW native, and once heavily invested in the P-Patch program, I dearly miss gardening. Can't figure out the Deep South yet... (In many more ways than one.)

Posted by Laurence Ballard

on December 12, 2011 at 9:36 AM

Is there any good recommendations for container gardening in the winter, for those of us stuck in apartments?

Posted by bgk on December 12, 2011 at 9:51 AM

@4 recipe postings are always fun.

Posted by Joe Szilagyi

on December 12, 2011 at 10:03 AM

@6 How's about an easy-peasy indoor apartment garden?

http://goo.gl/tj9Z

They're terrific!

Posted by Laurence Ballard

on December 12, 2011 at 10:04 AM

Still waiting for your weekly gardening column, Goldy. We should have a contest to find a sufficiently pithy name.

Posted by Luckier on December 12, 2011 at 10:08 AM

How much sunlight does your winter garden get? Unfortunately I only seem to get 3-4 hours of sun, in the winter, to hit my garden patch and things are growing, but incredibly slowly... Do you have a greenhouse or plastic covering?

Posted by nick9871 on December 12, 2011 at 10:20 AM

@7: The problem with container gardening during the winter is that space is limited, and things like greens don't produce a lot per square foot. Maybe things like parsley and chives, that you use in small quantities? (I mean, I feel stupid buying a bunch of parsley, when I only need a few sprigs.)

Posted by Goldy on December 12, 2011 at 10:21 AM

ia that your place, Goldy?
damn, I pissed in that box while on my morning walk.

Posted by pssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss..... on December 12, 2011 at 10:23 AM

Well if it looks like the peas won't make it through the winter you could just eat pea vines in January. Sometimes I think the vines are better than the (snow) peas themselves.

Posted by viiless on December 12, 2011 at 10:39 AM

My parsley & cilantro are still going strong after a few hard freezes here in Cincinnati. And they were volunteers/self-sown, meaning zero work by me.

Posted by emma's bee on December 12, 2011 at 11:09 AM

Do you have row covers on the bed or some kind of cold frame?

Posted by theInvisibleDick on December 12, 2011 at 12:06 PM

@12: You came into my yard to piss on my vegetable garden? Well that explains the severed penis I found in my dog's mouth this morning.

Posted by Goldy on December 12, 2011 at 12:07 PM

@15 I have a plastic cold frame that I'm keeping over my leaf lettuce (the romaine is being left to its own devices). But the collards, kale, and mustard usually get by fine without it.

Posted by Goldy on December 12, 2011 at 12:09 PM

I love organic kale. A little garlic and evoo saute' with white beans is a perfect winter meal.

Posted by Vince on December 12, 2011 at 1:05 PM

Not liking swiss chard is almost as weird as not liking cake. And it IS as weird as believing New Jersey does something magical to tomatoes.

Posted by Matt from Denver on December 12, 2011 at 1:15 PM

This winter I'm harvesting beets, parsnips, carrots, leeks, kale, collards, swiss chard, parsley, mustard greens, lettuces, French sorrel (perennial) and sunchokes. Roasted the roots the other day with garlic from the summer, so good.

I've grown garlic and onions successfully in containers through the winter.

Posted by elaineinballard on December 12, 2011 at 4:31 PM

Fun fact: Swiss chard and beets are the same species; the former is bred for its leaves, the latter for its roots.

Posted by elaineinballard on December 12, 2011 at 4:32 PM