tasty compact vegetables to grow

See my post at the National Garden Bureau! It's all about Tasty Compact Vegetable Seeds to Grow. These are old and new varieties that I discovered while on my California tour of vegetable breeders with the AAS and NGB last summer.

today's harvest

This lettuce is Rouxai. I have no idea how to pronounce that, but I think this is my favorite lettuce. A beautiful deep red oakleaf with bright green interior. It tastes great and grows great in every season.

snowy day

We have a foot of snow on the ground now, very early for us. It's still coming down. Very pretty.

getting the garden ready for snow

Last Sunday morning, before the Big Snow Storm hit, I spend a couple hours in my vegetable garden getting things set.

My husband removed the plastic outer layer from my winter tunnel and then taped on a cross bar onto the top of the hoops for extra support.



I opened up the lower fabric cover to check the greens. I wanted to harvest the heads of lettuce at the edges of the bed. These tend to get chilly and freeze. I picked a nice bucket full. Some pretty heads for our salads and some not so pretty heads for my chickens.





When I was covering up the tunnel again I realized I'd forgotten to put in place the low metal hoops I use for support of the inner layer of cold weather garden fabric. They are flexible wire, I think nine gauge. I put these in and then layered on my row cover. In past years I have used a double layer, but since I've been reusing it at least five years now the fabric is ratty. It has many small holes and only makes one layer. But its layered on and looks OK.

Finally I pulled the big sheet of greenhouse plastic over the top and secured it at the base. All set for snow!

today's harvest