Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["John D'hondt" <dhondt@eircom.net>]

> I can't get dandelion to germinate. Maybe seeds too old, an Italian
> cultivated variety.

We had a French cultivated variety 20 years ago and just let it self seed. 
There is a good bit of variety these days in leaf size and shape. But we can 
easily find out whether you can grow dandelion if I send you some of our 
seeds. Will probably be at least April or May but I won't forget. Some here 
are very partial to fried dandelion flowers especially earlier in the year. 
Just mail me your postal address some time Paul.

> That Red Russian kale is really a dependable seller
> for us. I think they push kale on Food Channel. Not that it's worth
> watching. BTW our Viroflay spinach survives winter uncovered and grows
> great in early spring. And I'm curious, which Asian greens work for u
> thru winter?

Never heard of this spinach variety until now. We have a few open pollinated 
varieties but they are fast to bolt if the temperature is not high enough. 
Our best variety is probably prickly seeded spinach.
As to Asian Greens : green in snow best outside, mizuna best in tunnel, also 
mibuna which does not grow that big but is better able to survive real cold. 
Pak-choi, bok-choi and tsoi-sim are strictly summer crops here.
And oh yes, I still have a bed of chinese cabbage- lettuce outside doing 
well for now. (forget Chinese name right now)

I noticed that I made a mistake yesterday in saying summer crops could not 
be goten in before October while I meant we could not harvest them/ take 
them out before October with everything being a month or two delayed with 
the cold Spring.
And I forgot many other species that are still doing well such as leeks, 
beetroot, rutabagas and black, white Japanese and pink chinese radishes. 
Also red cabages, perennial kale and russian onions.
John

> On 12/4/2013 12:41 PM, John D'hondt wrote:
> > Our main problem is very low light intensity in winter. It is usually a
> > matter of getting suitable species in the ground by the end of September 
> > and
> > then they will slowly keep on growing until Spring and usually produce
> > greens for picking in the worst of conditions. This year we could not get
> > the summer crops in before the end of October. And I now have all sorts 
> > of
> > seedlings about 3 inches high. Much too small to do much before next 
> > Spring.
> > Turnips, kale (especially red Russian), some Asian greens but not all,
> > miners lettuce are otherwise quite reliable.
> > Spinach and arugula would be a waste of time here even when planted in 
> > time.
> > What thrives best here at the moment are dandelion leaves. Some of the
> > plants are even flowering now. Some of the traditional summer crops are
> > hanging on well for now even when we had a good bit of night frost.
> > John
>
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