The ground is flooded, the days are short and grey, and the threat of winter freezes still looms in Seattle. Still, I’m happy to say that my 2009 vegetable garden is already starting to take form!
Organic Cabbage Grown at Home
This year I’ve made a commitment to:
- Grow as many edibles as possible to feed us
- Grow as many edibles as possible from seed
- Grow as many edibles as I can year-round
Those are some big changes. I’ve always grown edibles. As a kid, I was either weeding, picking or preserving some sort of edible from our farm garden. As an adult and professional horticulturist, I continue to grow food and preserve it. But, I’ve found myself behind the curve in past years in getting the edible planning and orders made in time to grow my garden from seed. I’ve also been less-than-perfect at keeping my winter garden going. And, here in Seattle, we really can keep quite a bit of food growing throughout the year, especially if we have cold frames, hoop houses and greenhouses to fill.
Freshly Picked Rainbow Chard and Delicata Squash
This year, despite losing my easily-destroyed greenhouse to our harsh winter weather (okay, let’s be honest, it might have fared better if I had gotten out sooner to remove the snow, but I gave into my fever and cough and didn’t go outside in 16F weather) I’m still ahead of the game! My seed order is placed and should be shipped shortly. It will be batched out to me so that I’m able to plant and amend at the appropriate times. The seeds, which won’t freeze in shipping, should be on the way in the next couple of weeks. Potatoes and beneficial nematodes (more on those will be posted in future articles) will follow later in spring when the risk of freezing in shipping is past and soil has begun to warm. As well, the garlic I planted last fall, continues to do just fine, despite the snow, so I have that to look forward to as well. My raspberry canes need pruning, but that’s a chore for late February/early March. My blueberries look fantastic with lovely red winter stems, and my strawberries have hunkered down to tight little bundles after the snow. Even some of my fava bean covercrop has bounced back along side lettuce and chard, so my 2008-2009 winter garden isn’t a complete loss.
So, what’s the plan for the 2009 vegetable garden? Well, the mapping is still underway for location and rotation, but here’s what’s on tap to plant (unless otherwise indicated these are all organic seed):
- Cilantro
- Large Leaf Basil
- Saucy Paste Tomato
- Gold Nugget Cherry Tomato
- Long Keeper Tomato (not organic)
- Siberia Tomato
- Stupice Tomato
- Oregon Spring Tomato
- Early Jalapeno (not organic)
- Pink Beauty Radish
- French Breakfast Radish
- Bright Lights Chard
- Early Butternut Squash
- Early Summer Yellow Crookneck Squash
- Bloomsdale Longstanding Spinach
- Early Bountiful Organic Heirloom Flat Beans
- Red Deer Tongue Lettuce
- Orgeon Sugar Pod Peas
- Blushed Butter Lettuce
- Buttercrunch Lettuce
- Red Winter Kale
- Lacinato Kale
- Birdhouse Gourd
- Tendergreen Cucumber
- Muncher Cucumber
- Snowball Cauliflower
- Red Express Cabbage
- Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans
- Goldrush Bush Beans
- Yukon Gold potatoes
- Rose Finn Apple Fingerling potatoes
- French Fingerling potatoes
- Yellow Finn potatoes
Properly Divided & Planted Cauliflower
So, why did I put in my order in January? Well, first I want to be sure I can get the seed that I really want. I buy from a relatively local, organic supplier in Washington — Irish Eyes. And, they can sell out early in the season. Many of the local farmers buy from Irish Eyes — that’s a selling point as well as a potential to lose out on the items they buy up early. Another reason I buy early is that many of these crops can be set out in the garden by mid-to-late February in Seattle. Kale, chard, radish, snowpeas, cabbage, cauliflower and others are cool season crops. If I get my seed by early February and have seedlings started indoors right away, I’ll be ready to put them out in the hoop house (or dare I hope — my new greenhouse) before the end of winter. As well, I can get my late spring and summer plants started up indoors early as well.
So, wish me luck! In the past I’ve found that working from starts is all I can seem to handle with my busy garden coaching business taking up so much of my gardening time and energy. In mid-winter it is easy to imagine loads of time and enthusiasm to garden intensely come spring and summer, but when the weeds pop up, work wears out my hands, and my work days extend from early morning sunrise to late evening sunset, reality can become something very different from today’s mid-winter dreams.
