The Snarky Gardener shows you that some food plants love the cold.
Corn Salad or Mache
I first heard of corn salad (aka mache) while reading Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long, 2nd Edition by Eliot Coleman. He discusses how some food vegetables can handle cool and cold weather. Many of these are greens, like spinach, Swiss chard, arugula, and parsley. The one that stuck out to me was corn salad. This green was originally cultivated by European peasants who would forage for them in their spent wheat fields (corn is a common term for staple crops). It seems to me this plant thrives in the cold, which is counter how many people see garden vegetables.
Corn salad – 12/22/2013
Two years ago I naturalized corn salad in my garden so now it grows as a self seeding “weed”. It starts to grow from previously dropped seed in August or September when we get a bout of cooler weather. Once it grows up to a decent size, its edible in salads right up until the temperatures drop below freezing for highs (usually after Christmas in Ohio). Then instead of dying, the corn salad will hold its own (without any cover). Once the weather warms up in March, growth begins again and by May it’s sending out flowers and going to seed. Of course, with protection (be it row covers or cold frames), the corn salad would be even more productive with the ability to reap any time over the winter.
Purple Top Turnips and Corn Salad – 12/22/2013Corn Salad – 12/22/2013
On 12/22/2013, we had a Winter Solstice miracle with temperatures in the 60’s with just a little rain. This allowed the Snarky Gardener to check out his garden to see what had survived. The mustard was a dried out brown, as the previous week’s lows in the teens killed it off (as expected). Next year’s potato patch will appreciate the extra biomass, fumigation and sulfur the mustard will provide. What did survive was the purple top turnips and the corn salad (pictured above) plus onions, leeks, and thyme. I picked through the turnip greens to thin them out then covered the remainder with leaf mulch to protect them until mid-March (like I did earlier this fall for the spinach, rosemary, and peas). Leeks and thyme were also pulled before the weather turned nasty again the next day.
Even though I’ve been fall gardening the last few years, I’m always amazed at what survives through the cold. This winter has been early and often with plenty of ice and snow. But out in the garden the greenness and deliciousness continues. And March is just around the corner.
Washing the corn salad – 12/22/2013Thyme and leeks – 12/22/2013
This fall we’ve had serious snow twice so far (several inches each time) here in Northeastern Ohio. While most people have not even thought about their gardens since the first freeze back in October, the early snow had me worried. Many of my fall duties were incomplete, including digging up and bringing in my rosemary herbs (they died out there last winter – sniff). Also, the fall leaves I gathered into big honking piles did not get as distributed as I would have liked. I found out this summer that some plants (lettuce, spinach, kale, turnips, peas, corn salad) could be covered with mulch 5 or 6 inches deep in the fall to “overwinter” them. Then in mid-March, you just pull off the leaves and viola, they will start growing again. Nifty trick having food producing plants when other unsnarky gardeners are still planning for the summer. Anyways, I was finally able to finish these tasks on 12/4/2013 with most of my fall babies no worse for wear.
If you look at the pictures below, you will notice some of my plants didn’t do as well by December (especially the sad Swiss chard in the middle foreground). In the back left, my mustard is going to seed, which is good because I needed more for cooking and next year’s crop. But you will also see that there’s quite a bit of green considering it’s December in Ohio. On the right foreground, my purple top turnips are looking great. I will thin these out (yum) and mulch the rest in the next week or so. Also, near the Swiss chard, you should be able to make out bright green areas near the ground. That’s my corn salad and onions, all ready to eat. We used them plus mustard greens, carrots, and kale to make a wonderfully fresh salad (again, in December in Ohio).
P.S. I don’t think “unsnarky” is a word, but with use it will soon become one.
Snow on 11/12/2013Snow on 11/12/2013Melted snow on 11/16/2013Snow melted on 11/16/2013Snow again on 11/30/2013Snow again on 11/30/2013Melted snow again on 12/04/2013Snow melted again on 12/04/2013
Succession planting is the process of planting one crop after another. This sometimes means planting something every two weeks (like bush green beans or lettuce) so that you can have a continuous supply. Other times it means the gardener (snarky or not) will plant something in the spring (like spinach or peas) and then when it peters out with the warming weather, put in something else (like corn or squash), then when summer comes to a close, grow fall crops (like turnips or mustard or spinach). For my garden, I do both with a preference for the spring/summer/fall system, as I like to grow as much as possible for as long as possible (insert smugness here).
Here’s an example with my summer potatoes and then my fall turnips, peas, and corn salad.
Potatoes in early Summer 2013Turnips, peas, and corn salad in Fall 2013
Here is my monthly garden progression so you get the idea of succession over a whole season.
March 2013
In April, I decided to use Cascade bush peas to get my Three Sisters corn/beans/squash mounds started. They make a good spring time filler while the gardener waits for the temperatures to stabilize above freezing.
April 2013
By the way, this was the first time I coerced my Three Sisters garden to actually work out in three years, with the beans going up the corn like they were supposed to instead not growing at all. Persistence pays off this time – yeah me.
May 2013June 2013
The turnips in the top middle near the potatoes were totally accidental as I let one of my Purple Top turnips go to seed. I’ll try to use the same technique next year by moving some of my overwintered turnips (bottom left quadrant in September) to other parts of my garden. I planted the upper row of Tendergreen bush beans first and then the second row about 2 or 3 weeks later. I would have done a third row in August but the pumpkins ended up taking over from the west. This area will be planted with Roma tomatoes next year. (Yes, I’m already neurotically planning next year’s garden, including a new one in my front yard next to my tree line).
July 2013
The Ho Mi Z mustard in the upper right corner is currently going to seed as of this November post. I’m going to collect as much as I can, but there will definitely be random mustard all over the place next year. Again, I love to have edible weeds (or volunteers as they are sometimes called). The mustard was planted as a “cover crop” as I knew I was putting in potatoes in that area next year. Mustard is supposed to help potatoes by countering nematodes and weeds. Plus you get delicious greens for salads, etc and seeds for cooking and making mustard. I picked Ho Mi Z (aka Dragon Tongue) because it was on sale at Johnny’s Seeds last year.
Mustard going to seed – Fall 2013August 2013
The Tyee spinach, New Zealand spinach (Tetragonia), and Cascade peas will be covered with leaf mulch this fall and uncovered in the middle of next March. This will allow them to overwinter and be ready to go in the spring, saving a month or two of potential growth. This will be my first year trying this, so I’ll post my findings for your enjoyment and knowledge.
This year we got lucky here in Northeast Ohio and didn’t get our below freezing weather until late October. But I wasn’t worried about it (OK, maybe a little) because I already had my fall gardening plan in play. Back in August and September, I prepped several areas (including my summertime potato/pumpkin patch) and planted some fall crops, including purple top turnips, peas, onions, carrots, mustard, spinach, and corn salad (aka mache). All of these can handle and even thrive in cool temperatures and occasional frosts. When you add in my already growing Swiss chard, Jerusalem artichokes, leeks, and various herbs, this fall will be delicious right up to Christmas and beyond. Makes me feel a little sorry for those gardeners who till up their gardens in the fall and wait until next May to plant again (like my next door neighbors).
Garden as of November 1, 2013Garden as of 7/29/2013Turnips, Peas, and Corn Salad – 11/4/2013Dragon Tongue Mustard going to seed – 11/4/2013
This spring, I let my overwintered corn salad go to seed, spreading some of the spent plants all around my garden during May (call me Snarky Mache Seed). This August, I noticed little corn salad plants growing all over, as some chillier weather woke up the seeds just as my summer plants were winding down. Corn salad is probably the most cold weather adapted crop I have in my garden and will be available for eating all the way into January. My evil plan this year was to get it established so it would just come up on it’s own year after year. I just love perennials (even when they aren’t technically considered as such). My logic is that if I’m going to have “weeds” come up in my garden, they should be edible.
Nice examples of corn salad in my garden – April 2013Corn salad spontaneously growing around corn – 11/4/2013
Besides the planting and harvesting, I also have one other major garden activity – leaf mulching. I bought a lawn sweeper last year so I could fill my garden with them (including some new areas that had previously been lawn). The effort was quite the success as my weeds were down (except in the back where the leaves were scarce) and my soil seemed to get better. This year I’m making concerted effort to pile the leaves around as evenly as possible so I can spread the wealth, so to speak. I even piled them up on my new garlic bed, located outside the fence to the west of my garden. Even the groundhogs won’t bother garlic so it made no sense to grow it inside like I did this past year. And of course, unlike last year, I remembered to split up the bulbs into cloves and only planted the biggest.
Fall leaves soon to be garden mulch – 11/4/2013Lawn Sweeping on 11/9/2013
It’s been an eventful 2013 spring for the Snarky Gardener. He has learned humility and patience, especially since it’s taking forever for everyone to know how wonderful he truly is. Mother nature has given many lessons this year, and it’s possible the Snarky Gardener won’t make the same mistakes next year. Here’s the summary of highlights and lowlights (is that really a word?) for this spring.
Fenced Back Yard Garden – 6/13/2013
Starting my own plants
This year started with much (probably too much) enthusiasm as January can make a gardener in Ohio a little nuts. Overall it went well, with lots of tomatoes, and basil plants to plant and trade. I do need to improve on starting dates, labeling, and hardening off. All of these issues come down to one thing – patience. I tend to want to start seeds earlier than they should be, forget to label and/or record properly, and to rush plants outside too soon.
Spinach was a little hard to get germinated (maybe one in two seeds actually sprouted). I used the AeroGarden starter kit, so maybe spinach just doesn’t do very well with that system. I’ve done some research on soil cubes and could go that direction for spinach and others next year.
Frosts and freezes
Last year we in Northeast Ohio got spoiled with an early spring with warm weather in March and April. This year we had freezes and frosts into late May and I lost quite a few tomatoes and peppers. I’ll make a concerted effort not put out the majority of my frost intolerant plant until late May next year.
Frosted tomatoes – 5/25/2013
Groundhogs
This is the second year I’ve had issues with groundhogs in my garden. Last year in July, a little guy (named him Woody) terrorized my garden for a week or two until I finally caught him in the act of trespassing and theft. He took out half my early corn and green beans before I was able to finally capture him. Let’s just say that he’s in a better place now.
Woody – 7/15/2012
This year the fun started earlier in late May as a momma and her little one moved into Woody’s old house, which is a burrow under a stacked pile of pine trees 5 feet behind my garden. It began with a few carrot tops missing and culminated with the loss of spinach, peas, kale, broccoli, and even Jerusalem artichokes. I called in the experts this time as my own trapping efforts were getting me nowhere. First morning we had a raccoon, who had been stealing my trap bait of corn and apples. My trap is obviously cheap and worthless. Since the raccoon, we caught two more raccoons, Mama and another baby groundhog. On July 4th, I added some 3 foot chicken fencing to the north side with 1 1/2 feet on the ground and 1 1/2 feet attached to the current fence. This will keep future groundhogs (there will be more) from digging under (crossing my fingers).
Bucky – 6/20/2013Mama caught fleeing the scene outside my garden – 6/21/2013
My long-term plan is to remove the wood either by having the landlord move it or by acquiring a chain saw. The cleared area will make a good place to expand my composting efforts.
Overwintering and collecting seeds
I overwintered several different plants this year, mostly because I wanted early spring produce. Carrots, kale, onions, mache, and turnips all made it back for 2013. I let the kale, mache, and turnips go to seed with a concerted effort to collect the Seven Top turnip green seeds. I ended up with a giant bag of turnip green seeds on 7/14 (more than I’ll ever use), so if you want some, just let me know and I’ll figure out a way to get them to you. I’m still planning to collect tomato and bean seeds for sure, with a possibility of collecting peppers and eggplants this year too.
Seven Top turnip greens flowering with plans to go to seed later.
Last year I signed up for GrowVeg.com Garden Planner (“The smart way to plan your garden.”) It was $40 for two years and let’s me play “SimGarden” as much as I want, moving my virtual plants around and adding new ones. I just discovered a feature that publishes one garden plan at a time. The Fenced Back Yard garden plan (which is my primary garden) is located at http://www.growveg.com/garden-plan.aspx?p=312234 and also appears in the Garden Plan links to the right. My goal is to republish every month so everyone can see the current state of my gardens (yes, there are more than one). I will also post plans and pictures each month so each garden’s evolution can be tracked.
As you can see from the pictures below, the fence is laying (or is that lying?) down on the southern side as I’m increasing my garden size from 50’x20′ to 50’x30′ this spring. I will be tilling the new area in March or April (weather permitting) because it’s currently lawn, but not the rest as I’m going no-till as much as possible. Also, in the foreground, you can see the mounds of leaves that I piled up during the fall (thanks to my John Deere lawn sweeper). All these leaves from my lawn (oak and maple mostly) will be used as garden mulch throughout this year.
North Facing View of Back Yard Garden – 2/9/2013East Facing View of Back Yard Garden – 2/9/2013
The plants you see in the garden plan below are those I wintered over. The top of the plan is to the north with a big sugar maple tree to the north west. That means I can’t plant anything that needs full sun in that corner (where the “Vit” corn salad/mache and “Seven Top” turnip greens are currently). I found this out the hard way in 2011 when I planted corn and cucumbers over there and they grew poorly (micro corn anyone?).
Back yard garden plan for February 2013 (North is at the top)Corn Salad (or Mache) – 1/29/2013
