How about that garden?

Well, today marks the end of the “Persephone months” as Eliot Coleman calls them, the days of less than 10 hours of daylight. Things tend not to grow in those months. So, to celebrate, over the weekend I planted my garden! Sure, its snowing now and they predict 10-18 inches :) But, I have a hoop house with cold frames in it (right about now I wish I had a bigger one with more frames, but its probably just as well that I don't).

Anyway, on Sunday, I planted carrots, lettuce (Romaine), radishes, spinach, and green onions (from seed) in the garden and watered them. Then, I started broccoli and Roma tomatoes inside for setting out in March. Last night when I got home, I propped up the middle of the hoop house with a 2x2 and added a few reinforcing clips to the plastic to protect against the wind. We'll see how it does...if we really do get that snow! Then I came in and had a nice hot bowl of chili made from last year's tomatoes, peppers, and onions. Nothing like a nice hot bowl of chili to warm you up—it was 16º F out with a strong wind, but it hadn't started snowing yet.

After that, I decided I might just as well plant a few green peppers as well. They will be ready to go out at the end of March. By then I should be able to move the cold frames out of the hoop house and use them to plant early peas, potatoes, and some other items yet to be decided. The peppers and tomatoes will go in the hoop house, but the broccoli will go in a bed with only row cover over it; the row cover protects down to about 29º F, so I might need to add some more covering on colder days. Again, we'll see how it does. This is all just one big experiment, so come on along for the ride and avoid making the same mistakes I do :)