I put up some plastic last year and made a little hoop house to
protect winter greens. It was hastily built just in time for a
surprise snow storm around Halloween.
This year, I just picked the greens down as low as I could, and
mulched them with old straw over a layer of very dry, aged horse
manure. I know the spinach will come back in the spring, and I
suppose the mustard, mizuna, collards, kale, onions, radishes, and
other cold hearty vegies will survive as well.
If not, whatever dies will compost under all that straw, which is
now under a few inches of snow. It stays pretty warm under that
white blanket--warm enough for things to decompose if not actually
live.
This spring, or late winter, if I have any money, I pl...
Good looking and inexpensive hoop houses are the focus of this White House Blog post by Sam Kass, assistant chef and Food Initiative Coordinator for the WH.
Glad to see they're growing all my favorites, especially mustard greens! I wish I'd had the time to put in some hoops over my greens. Too busy of a year-end for us to get out there and do much.
I'm looking forward to seeing what lives through being mulched, buried under a blanket of snow for a few months, and then uncovered in the spring. I know the spinach plants will start up again, but I also mulched some small mustard, collards, mizuna, and miner's leaf lettuce.
So, I'll just think of not having hoops out there as an experiment into what survives the winter up...
Snow.
This whole cold thing is new to me. Last year, we moved in too late to have a real garden. This yea...
What a great story. Nothing helps the planet more than people growing their own food, so teaching youngsters about it makes sense for their future. And learning first hand about science and work is great!
in reference to:"Pupils should be encouraged to grow vegetables and tend flowerbeds because gardening boosts a child’s development and improve standards in other subjects."
- Gardening ‘Can Boost Literacy and Numeracy’ | Cornucopia Institute (The NY Times reports more problems with organic certification from China (surprise, surprise), this time a case of conflict of interest by the Organic Crop Improvement Association, which used employees of a Chinese government agency to inspect state controlled farms.
As demand for organic food rises, and supplies become more questionable (China, the Bush administration, corrupt corporations, farmers who just lie to get higher prices), the answer is in our own backyards. My organic seeds come from reputable organic companies like Seeds of Change and Johnny's. My soil has never been treated with fumigants (not since I've been living here anyway) or herbicides. My fertilizer is manure from organical...
