Last weekend we were fighting row covers on over the hoops in the wind (an operation that always leaves me feeling like Snoopy fighting the lawn chair) in preparation for 20-degree temps; this weekend we were peeling them all off again and basking in 70-degree sunshine! You'll never hear me complain about having to work outside in sunny 70s, but I do hope it won't last for too long. Plants don't tend to grow too much through the short days and chilly temperatures in the winter. Your winter crops are almost all planted in late summer, grow up through the fall, aiming to have most of it close to full-grown by December. Then we hope it stays relatively chilly, because we're banking on the cold to keep all those crops "refrigerated" right where they grew until you want to eat it.
I've been cutting the chard and broccoli back pretty hard the last few weeks. Neither one will be gone forever; they just need a week or two to regrow a bit, which shouldn't take long in this spring-like weather. But bulb fennel is back, and the first crop of spinach is finally ready! I usually have spinach now through about May, but you may notice that it seems to change a bit over the course of the next five to six months. I use several different varieties to get through that whole harvest period, some is planted outdoors, some in the greenhouse, some under row covers. Some of those varieties are a baby smooth-leafed spinach, others are larger crinkly-leaved varieties. The baby spinach seems to be more popular and grows better through the winter months, and depending on what sort of winter we're in for, eventually we switch over to the savoyed spinach for spring.
I've been cutting the chard and broccoli back pretty hard the last few weeks. Neither one will be gone forever; they just need a week or two to regrow a bit, which shouldn't take long in this spring-like weather. But bulb fennel is back, and the first crop of spinach is finally ready! I usually have spinach now through about May, but you may notice that it seems to change a bit over the course of the next five to six months. I use several different varieties to get through that whole harvest period, some is planted outdoors, some in the greenhouse, some under row covers. Some of those varieties are a baby smooth-leafed spinach, others are larger crinkly-leaved varieties. The baby spinach seems to be more popular and grows better through the winter months, and depending on what sort of winter we're in for, eventually we switch over to the savoyed spinach for spring.
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