Fall plantings

Last September I planted the seedlings for what was supposed to be my first Winter garden. I was starting out small- since I had no idea what I might get, and I made sure to pick seeds that the local gardening store assured me could be sustained throughout the "Winter" climate we would get.

I planted mesclun salad greens, spinach, and carrots. The salad greens were, of course, the fasted to sprout and grow- as I was expecting. We used the "cut-and-come" method with them and got three large harvests from them that made delicious accompaniments to our dinners.

With the spinach and carrots...well... I'm still waiting. The spinach was being eaten early on by something- so there were a lot of little chew holes in the leaves. I decided to wait and see what the colder weather did vs rushing out with a dose of some insecticidal soap. Turns out- the colder weather went VERY cold. Unseasonably cold for the Pacific Northwest. We had a weeks worth of daytime temperatures below freezing, and although I tried covering my dear plants to keep them from succumbing to Old Man Winter... it wasn't really enough.

Or so I thought. As of now, the spinach is still there- definitely looks dormant, and definitely looks weary- but it's not wilted, so I'll wait to see what happens. The carrots to my extreme happiness (cause we eat a lot of carrots and my 3yo has been dying to pull them up) appeared to have survived and although they have been INSANELY slow to grow- they are growing! Perhaps by Spring we'll actually have some to pull.

I think in the future I'll stick to planting things in late Summer for a Fall harvest, and then over-wintering some crops as well (like parsnips). There doesn't seem to be much harvesting that one can do in the Winter months here. But I'm still learning and there's always next year!