Winter Garden Warriors

As a long-time devotee of vegetable seeds ranging from the infinitesimal to huge bean seeds, and plants similarly ranging from frail to robust, largely in hopes of eventually savoring their mature gifts, I have at times entertained thoughts of expanding into winter-gardening.  Aside from the obvious challenges of the winter seasonal conditions and much-reduced fair-weather-daylight access to work the garden, a common impediment is that by August my gardening muse is commonly winding down.  Frankly a halfhearted garden cleanup is often my parting seasonal gesture.

Once in a while I am sufficiently inspired as to make an effort on low-effort items like bulbs.  This tends to happen in spurts, every third year or so an indulgence primarily in tulips and the narcissus family, often to the point where a few get left behind when adequate proper locations cannot be established prior to the human need to hibernate.

But we in general have been more ambitious this year, e.g., doing a vigorous cleanout early in the season of the equivalent of at least three full beds of our seven, with son-in-law Sean a significant inspiration and participant.  Most of this was in areas increasingly neglected in prior years and overrun by even desirable volunteers like parsley and leeks, but laced with nasty stolon-grass and really out of control.  So much so that a full workover seemed needed in the interests of purposely raising plants of our choice.  But our vigor inevitably broke up the shallow-soil environment.  This is not quite on the level of plowing up multiple feet of loam accumulated through centuries of undisturbed growth of grassland, but for me in hindsight I have some regrets.  Necessary perhaps but painful.  The consolation was that we were able to add a couple yards of primo topsoil/compost.  Probably something we should do almost every year given the area we are working with.

But the enthusiasm has carried through to the point that I have done a good deal more in the way of an attempt at a winter garden than ever before.  I have three different garlics out, including the Inchelium mentioned in an earlier post and planted out last Spring.  That came in pretty well considering the late planting, the bulbs not as large as I would have liked, but the yield probably something like tripling the amount planted.

I have enjoyed working with fava beans for several years now.  I've not moved beyond the original strain of seeds I bought probably at least four years ago.  I was intending to add at least another variety this year, but didn't get that done.  These are amazingly fecund beans.  It's rare to have any single bean not sprout.

I should admit that we have hardly eaten any fava beans!  That's mostly on me, and I hope to correct it.  I did cook up a few early favas-in-pod a while back and I enjoyed them; I don't recall any expressions of gusto by others.  I don't remember if I have been so brazen as to work up a dry bean-based offering, but I certainly think so, as I remember debating whether I was willing to go to the trouble of skinning the little bastards.  I'm pretty sure I did that once, pondering why one would go to such trouble to reduce the vegetable quantity.

But I find this a fascinating plant and will continue to plant it if just for the entertainment.  I was determined this year to take a shot at getting some of these hardy beasts in the ground before Winter.  My Spring-plants always seem pretty frail compared to the monsters I observe in proper P-patches.  I have fought off unknown but presumably mammalian predators that went after the starting pots I originally left outside.  A few beans were lost to those critters before I brought them inside, where perhaps they should have been from the start.  Indoors they thrived to the point of getting leggy before I got around to the painful chore of at tucking them into the ground, with inclement weather and dropping temps, but these are warriors.  No flinching on their part, despite mine.  They are standing tall (ok, with stakes).

In the meantime I also started in small pots over a month ago and have now set in the ground a variety of hardy greens, including a couple mustards, lettuce, arugula, and coriander (cilantro).  I was quite surprised to learn that the latter is a cold-hearty plant.  Given its' association with warm-climate foods, who'd have guessed it to be winter-hardy in Sunset Region 8 or whatever we in the Pacific NW are deemed these days.

My transplanting to earth of these greens has occurred over the last six weeks.  Sadly there is one particular specimen, a mustard I believe, that is especially attractive to some garden pest.  I have since started seed of a couple of alternative mustards in hopes of filling the gaps.

In the meantime, the champs seem to be the Italian lettuce, arugula, red-lace mustard, and coriander.  And one of the garlic types is already poking out, oblivious or defiant of the forecast of possible snow/sleet next week.