Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Liz <liz@allslash.org>]

At 02:00 PM 8/28/2007, you wrote:
> >
> > We're learning what we can do to keep raising
> > production on part of our one acre, double cropping, starter plants in the
> > greenhouse, spring and fall crops like snow peas, vertical growing on the
> > fence lines, and so forth.    ~Paul
>
> I don't see any mention of winter crops from the greenhouse. Of course,
> your farmer's market is doubtless closed then, so maybe distribution
> gets to be an insuperable barrier. But please do experiment with winter
> greens--both "potherbs" like spinach and kale and Oriental greens; and
> lettuces and other salads. I especially recommend chicories for the
> winter greenhouse.

I grow lettuce (red leaf varieties) right through the winter in 
little plots protected by bales of hay with old window panes lying on 
top.  The sun coming through the glass warms the ground during the 
day and the hay keeps wind off the plants and probably supplies some 
small amount of heat as the hay slowly decomposes. We don't get a 
huge amount of snow here (southwest Virginia) so the ground freezes 
and heaves, everywhere but in the raised beds where I have the winter 
greens. The lettuce grows slowly during the winter, so I plant a lot 
of it and we harvest a bit here and a bit there. By spring, when it's 
ready to take off and grow, we have thinned the plants out to where 
we can eat enough to keep up with the production. Then I let the last 
of it go to seed, and harvest that for next winter's lettuce. Last 
year I was on the road so much during the cool weather that I didn't 
plant my lettuce, but this year I am going to do it no matter what. I 
have two envelopes of seed from previous years, and a couple of 
handfuls from volunteer plants that came up on their own this year.

Liz