The Savvy Gardening™ experts – Jessica, Niki, and Tara – now have a twice-monthly newsletter. Sign up below to receive savvy advice and inspiration about edibles, ornamentals, beneficial insects, budget gardening, and more! * Note: You should receive a confirmation email after signing up. If you don’t see one, check your spam filter, it could be hiding there!
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Can’t wait. Thanks Jessica et al….
Thanks, Paula. Hope you enjoy the newsletter!
can use all the advice i can get
Ha.. can’t we all Mark! 🙂
Hi Niki
I planted two hoop houses last September but figured I was too late with planting but was pleasantly surprised to find loads of greens mid-April and we’re still eating at the end of June here in Kitchener Ontario. Many thanks for the inspiration from your book. Can’t wait to plant earlier this year for a fall crop too.
John in Kitchener
Hi John – thanks so much for this! So glad late seeding worked for it – it’s just so easy! 🙂 What types of greens did you grow? I love late seeding mizuna, mustards, spinach, arugula and other Asian greens. I’m starting to plan for fall now (depressing, I know!), but have just seeded broccoli, cabbage, etc under my grow lights.. Thanks again! Niki
Hello Niki
Thanks for your reply. I planted arugula, kale and spinach as well as mizuna, mustard greens and asian greens. I had amazing results with the kale and spinach, in fact, I’m just finishing up with the spinach (it has bolted with the high temps here in Ontario) but the kale is still growing well. I also planted an early spring crop of mesculun mix and beets so have been enjoy more variety lately. The spinach that was late planted is very strange indeed – the leaves get quite large, about 5″ long by 3″ wide and yet stay tender when fully grown. The taste is quite mild, and the leaves are sort of triangular or spade-like. I haven’t seen anything quite like it in your book or any other references to cold-tolerant crops. The seed packet was just for ordinary spinach as I remember, nothing special. But any crop that lasts for 2 1/2 months is okay by me.
I am getting ready to plant for a late fall harvest as well as planning on trying to plant for winter harvesting (following your tips closely) and will again plant late for an early spring harvest. So I’ll be having 3 hoop houses this season and may be able to find space for a cold frame to try my hand at some of the suggestions you made.
I did have a comment on how I attached my poly to the hoops – using 3″ black plastic clamps from Lee Valley. I made a bunch of the 3/4″ conduit off-cuts but found them hard to pry off in the cold weather whereas the clamps are easy to move without tearing the plastic. I’ve even had enough interest that I prepared a short tutorial on how to make a hoop house and have shared it with clients and friends. Many thanks again for your inspiration.
John in Kitchener
Thanks John – this is amazing! Your spinach is probably Bloomsdale which has large triangular leaves and is great for spring/fall, but is also quite heat-tolerant for summer growing. And I will have to check out your clamps.. when I first started using mini hoops, I would often pop in to Lee Valley to see what type of clamps they had.. Between Lee Valley and the dollar store, I’m sure I’ve tried over 50 different ones!! but these sound new to me.. will have to give them a whirl! This year, my garden has been full of crops for my next book (for photography) and I’m hoping to harvest most of them before Sept so I can get some greens started for winter.. my fall/winter carrots will go in the next week – they need plenty of time to grow before the cold weather.. Chat soon! Niki
It’s been years since I have been able to garden. I’m looking forward to this newsletter for ideas how to do it without having to bend over. If I bend over, I fall, and if I fall, I can’t get back up.
As a Horticulturist myself, I truly support cleaning in spring.
Another insect that needs winter protection and is getting scarce due to habitat loss and city lights, is the Lightning bug. I mulch my leaves with a lawnmower, rake and disburse them in my perennial beds for them, I now get Lightning bugs !!!
Looking forward to your newsletter. I have a small raised vegtable garden and flower beds.