Late October
It's a funny time in the garden.
Cool nights and warm days (at least in the Southern U.S.) tempt us to try last plantings of mesclun mix and arugula, in open spots (without protection).
I sowed beets and spinach on Sunday. Hmm.... The calendar says we're nuts, but the weather is hopeful, and who knows -- maybe the first hard freeze won't be until mid-December.
But thinking about season extension and winter gardening in unheated hoop houses, well, I'm really feeling optimistic, if I can figure out an attractive, inexpensive, and easy way to create salad/greens gardens in our unheated teaching greenhouse. We had great success last year. (Currently I'm favoring willow plant boxes).
Uh, planting directly in bags of potting mix, although it works quite nicely, is not particularly attractive. Grow bags are too colorful, actually, and black plastic bags, yuck. Black plastic pots aren't too bad, but they're not actually that good-looking.
Cool nights and warm days (at least in the Southern U.S.) tempt us to try last plantings of mesclun mix and arugula, in open spots (without protection).
I sowed beets and spinach on Sunday. Hmm.... The calendar says we're nuts, but the weather is hopeful, and who knows -- maybe the first hard freeze won't be until mid-December.
But thinking about season extension and winter gardening in unheated hoop houses, well, I'm really feeling optimistic, if I can figure out an attractive, inexpensive, and easy way to create salad/greens gardens in our unheated teaching greenhouse. We had great success last year. (Currently I'm favoring willow plant boxes).
Uh, planting directly in bags of potting mix, although it works quite nicely, is not particularly attractive. Grow bags are too colorful, actually, and black plastic bags, yuck. Black plastic pots aren't too bad, but they're not actually that good-looking.
Has the 'gardening without peat' movement reached you yet? If so, what have you replaced peat with Lisa?
ReplyDeleteRob,
ReplyDeleteWe haven't embraced it with enthusiasm on this side of the pond, probably because the Canadian peat industry (with their vast bog production capacity) has had a big lobbying effort to convince the 'green industry' -- think garden writers, gardeners, etc. that their product is sustainable. Maybe over 500 years.
However, I've used rehydrated coir successfully as a base for a potting mix as an experiment, although don't use it exclusively, I'm afraid.
You've encouraged me to trial a coir mix, though, in my hoophouse vegetable plantings later this fall! Stay tuned...
Lisa