Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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My Rocky Mountain Winter Garden
By Clara Coleman
http://www.motherearthnews.com/rec/og/2098/

In the following story, Clara Coleman reports on her first experience using
a low-tech method developed by her father, Eliot Coleman, for growing salad
greens in wintertime. In a companion piece, Eliot outlines the evolution of
his method, now being adopted by gardeners and farmers throughout North
America. — Mother

On a cold and rainy mid-September day last year, I planted tiny seeds in a
patch of muddy earth and embarked on a seemingly contradictory journey of
winter gardening in the Rocky Mountains, in Woody Creek, Colorado. Crouched
over my new garden — a 6-by-24-foot raised bed surrounded by 24 bales of
musty hay, I felt skeptical that it would succeed, despite reassurances
from my father, Eliot Coleman. A long-time proponent of winter food
production, he assured me that my winter garden would not only work but
would amaze me with the simplicity of its care and the perseverance of its
plants.

“The simpler, the better,” he always says, so I used spoiled bales from
a nearby horse farm, perfect for making a well-insulated base, and a few
old 2-by-4s to set across the top. Dad furnished a 20-by-30-foot sheet of
still-usable greenhouse plastic sheeting, and that took care of my
materials.

Even though the mid-September planting date seemed a little late for some
varieties, given the cold mountain climate of my location, my dad says all
of the cold-hardy crops we chose were worth planting. I did have the
advantage of being on the 38th parallel of latitude, which means I get
longer days and more winter sun than he does on the 44th parallel in Maine,
or than his Dutch gardening friends and mentors do way up on the 52nd
parallel in Holland.

We chose spinach, mâche (also called corn salad), arugula, tatsoi and a
few other greens to plant. Spinach, Dad says, will germinate and grow at
temperatures only slightly above freezing; cold temperatures and short days
keep it in prime condition. Mâche, which grows in a small rosette of
tender leaves about the size of a thumb, is another winter wonder green
because of its incredible resistance to cold. Historically, Dad says,
mâche was a staple of French winter salads and was harvested wild in
Europe for salads long before it was domesticated.

I found that cold weather actually enhances arugula’s distinctive flavor,
making it mild and complex to the taste, as opposed to strong and coarse
— the common effect of summer heat. In Dad’s Maine garden, September
plantings of arugula under protection are productive until really cold
weather hits; after that, he says, September plantings of arugula’s
hardier wild relative, sylvetta (Diplotaxis tenuifolia), can be harvested
through the winter months. From Zone 6 south, the regular arugula should be
adequately hardy all winter under protection. Tatsoi, an oriental leaf
vegetable, is very hardy and has become a particular favorite in the United
States because its shiny, dark-green leaves are as delicious as they are
beautiful.

Two weeks after planting, I discovered very little seed was germinating.
Frequent cold weather combined with limited exposure to the sun did not
encourage the seeds to sprout, and my impatience probably didn’t help
either. Each night I would cover the garden with the plastic sheet for
protection and warmth, and each morning I would roll it back to prevent any
tiny seedlings from overheating.

All autumn, as the tree leaves were turning yellow and falling to the
ground, I was covering and uncovering my growing number of seedlings and
wishing with all my might that they would grow large enough to make viable
plants before the long, dark winter arrived.

It wasn’t until late November, though, after a number of snowstorms and
freezing nights, that I finally was convinced of the tenacity of my greens.
By then, I had to brush the snow off the plastic covering to peek inside
this quiet refuge, and every time I did, I would see a veritable sea of
greens — a welcome sight to my skeptical eyes. The spinach, arugula,
tatsoi and mâche all appeared like green sentinels standing up to Old Man
Winter’s blanket of white snow. I was amazed to think that common hay
bales and a thin sheet of plastic were enough to protect them from what
would be their inevitable fate outside this “garden wall.” Excitedly, I
harvested my first delicious salad from the snowbound patch to share with
friends and family for Thanksgiving dinner.

As winter progressed and snowstorms rushed through the mountains, I often
would leave my garden covered, with snow piling up on top, for several days
between pickings. Each time I brushed off the snow and uncovered the
garden, I was met with such a green reward. The spinach (‘Space’ and
‘Hector’ varieties) and the mâche never faltered, proving themselves
the hardiest of the 10 greens I grew. The arugula and tatsoi withered a bit
in subzero temperatures, but kept on producing, and the pak choi (‘Joi
Choi’ variety), by far my favorite, was similar to the tatsoi but
didn’t bolt as early. The baby leaves are the tastiest of all, and very
beautiful, too.

I also tried a red oak leaf lettuce (‘Dano’), claytonia (in the
purslane family), Swiss chard, parsley and a mesclun mix. All were less
successful during the winter than those my dad helped select, but as spring
progressed, all produced healthy crops except for the Swiss chard. I have
not had much luck with Swiss chard during any season.

By March, my winter gardening journey was nearing its end. After their
four-month-long hibernation, my little garden greens appreciated every bit
of the increasing warmth and sunlight. I removed their plastic cover and
continued to enjoy abundant harvests from the plants throughout the spring.

My dad’s cold-frame advice worked so well that I decided to build a
walk-in greenhouse to make growing my own greens in winter even easier in
the future.