Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Harvey Ussery <huboxwood@earthlink.net>]

> I'm making a listing of vegetables that can be left in the ground for
> winter eating, and the earliest spring varieties to plant, including
> sources and culture. What root crops do you have in the ground now, and
> what will you plant early spring in your climate? 
>
>
> paul 

In the ground now:

*Carrots - I'll just leave them where they are until the ground freezing 
weather is imminent, then pull and put in a "clamp," a protected hole in 
the ground. I prefer to leave them in the ground all winter protected 
under a thick enough mulch to protect from freezing, usually do that, 
works great--but germination was a bit spotty this year, so the carrots 
more spread out over the bed, mulching whole bed heavily wd be wasteful.

*Mangels (mangel wurzels, fodder beets): I raise these for the chickens 
(also good fresh winter fodder for pigs, lactating stock like goats & 
cows). Said to be okay as people food as well, I haven't eaten them, 
raise a winter beet instead (Lutz highly recommended).

*Chard - Still green and lush in the garden, can keep harvesting until 
it gets seriously cold. Have planted more in the greenhouse, they're 
coming on real good.

*Fall alliums: You inquired earlier, Paul, about whether it was too late 
to get these in. Hope you did. Early this month I planted 2 types garlic 
(softneck & rocambole), 2 var's shallots, yellow potatoes, Egyptian 
walking onions.

*I rarely grow them, but there are a number of more unusual root crops 
that are great overwinter. Unlike most root crops, which turn to mush if 
they freeze, parsnips, salsify, and scorzonera can go thru any number of 
freeze/thaw cycles and be just fine when you dig them out in the spring. 
(Of course, you can't dig them when the ground is frozen.) A similar 
root I'm interested in is skirret (Sium sisarum), some of which I 
planted this spring in our emerging "forest garden." Didn't get a 
harvest yet, but it is perennial (and can be propagated vegetatively), 
and so I hope to multiply it next year and get a taste. Skirret also is 
a good generalist nectary plant--it has a flower something like that of 
yarrow.

As for earliest spring var's to plant:

*I like to grow chicories in the early spring. Start them in the 
basement under grow lights and/or in the greenhouse, transplant them 
early spring, quite cold hardy, great salad greens. (I prefer to lettuce.)

*Spinach. Cold hardy.

*Various cooking greens - raab, hon tsai tai, mustard are favorites

*Have any onions you stored over winter, starting to sprout as they end 
their storage life? Assuming they haven't turned mushy, plant them out, 
harvest the green tops.

I'm just rambling here, so many possibilities.

~Harvey