Surprise! Greens! Alive and growing. Beedy's Camden Kale, Winterbor Kale, Olympia Spinach, Giant Winter Spinach, Tango Lettuce, Winter Marvel Lettuce, Krausa Parsley, and Rocket Arugula.
I had started these plants as seeds back in late September and they grew about an inch high before a foot of snow fell in late October. I chose these varieties because they are supposed to be cold-hardy. Theoretically, if cold-hardy greens grow big enough before winter starts and you keep them under a low hoop tunnel, you can harvest greens all winter long. Well, this didn't quite happen in my garden. The many feet of snow collapsed my row cover tunnel and buried the garden alive. There was so much snow and ice that I couldn't even lift the cover. Bozeman had fluctuating temperatures this winter; one week the temps would be steadily -20F at night and not above 0F during the day, and the next week the nightly lows would be about 0F with day highs up to 40F. There were about 5 cycles like this. The snow didn't melt off the garden until a few weeks ago and we're still getting occasional snow storms.I'm entirely shocked that these greens survived the winter. I thought that since my quick hoops collapsed and that the temperatures were so low, all of the greens would have died. What a wonderful Spring surprise! I'll probably be harvesting fresh greens in a few weeks, after we get some sunny days and the plants grow a little bigger.
Interestingly, the Bloomsdale Spinach that I started in September and covered with six inches of straw and leaves, was not alive when I uncovered it today. Another theory is that you can start spinach in the fall, cover it with mulch to insulate it during the winter, then uncover the mulch to find spinach growing in the Spring. I'm not sure if this method failed because the straw smothered the spinach or if Bloomsdale is not the right variety for this over-wintering method.
The other thing that I did at the garden today was snatch the pile of rabbit droppings that I'd been eying all winter and sprinkle it in my garden. There is a rabbit family that lives at the Community Garden and one rabbit had a spot this winter where it liked to sit and nibble on a dead sunflower stalk. It obviously sat in that spot quite a bit because it left a big pile. Rabbit feces is kinda neat: unlike other animal feces, it comes out of the rabbit completely composted and can be added straight to your garden.
P.S. I saw a gopher at the Community Garden today and it is living under the old house. Rabbits are one thing, but a gopher is bad news!
2 comments:
I've been wintering over spinach for about 5 years now, and it's WONDERFUL! The first year I did it by complete accident. I had attempted to plant a fall crop, but I got a late start, and then we had an early snow storm in September. I covered it with some black plastic to protect it from the storm, but winter just kept coming that year, and I got distracted. Then, we had a warm spell in January, so I decided to go clean up the garden. I pulled back the black plastic completely expecting the spinach to be dead, but it was happily growing under there! I was totally shocked! It hadn't had any sun in months!
Anyhow, since then, I have futzed with various systems and had great success. I now use frost cloth instead of plastic, but I don't bother with hoops or anything. The plants don't really grow to any height so the hoops don't really help much. This year I used a double layer of frost cloth, which worked great. The only time I added extra cover was if it was gonna get below zero without any snow to insulate it. The extra cover was a layer of plastic with a blanket on top (the plastic keeps the blanket from freezing to the frost cloth). I also scattered a bunch of old 2 liter bottles full of water throughout the garden bed. The water absorbs heat during the day and radiates it back at night. Even when it's super cold, it helps because it stays at the freezing point, which is much warmer than 20 below! Using this method, I was able to harvest small amounts throughout the winter. Not a bunch, but enough for a salad every week or so.
I'm in Denver, so I'm sure it's warmer and sunnier here throughout the winter, but that's what's worked for me. Glad I found your blog!
Welcome EcoCatLady. I love your name! I'm glad to hear from a fellow Rocky Mountain gardener.
I think you're right about the snow insulating the garden. If it hadn't snowed so much before the temperatures plummeted to -20, I think surely everything would have died.
Winter gardening is an exciting goal. I think it takes a lot of trial and error, but what have you got to lose?
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