Garden Updates Archives

What I Found Under the Hoop House After a Deep Freeze in My Vegetable Garden

photo of several varieties of home grown lettuce

Some of you may have been at the talk I gave last Saturday on growing great lettuces, where we explored how to grow lettuce successfully all year round.

I shared photos from my garden—lots of them—because lettuce has become one of those crops I keep uncovering new varieties to try.

Growing Lettuce Year-Round in a Vegetable Garden

I grow around 50 different lettuce varieties each year. Some are best suited for spring, others can handle more summer heat, and still others truly shine in the fall and overwinter.

When you are buying your lettuce seed, note if they say they are heat or bolt tolerant. which gives you the clue they are better for warm weather.

All lettuce are generally cold hardy, so noting the ones that can take more heat will clarify which ones to plant for warm and cold seasons.

Choosing seasonal varieties is one way to grow lettuces all year in your veggie garden.

This photo gives you an idea of my love of growing lots of varieties of lettuce.

lettuce display of over twenty varieties of lettuce in a vegetable garden

During the talk, I mentioned how much I wanted to show real-time photos of the lettuces currently growing under hoop houses in my garden in February. Those would have been photos of lettuces I seeded at the end of summer and into the fall.

But here’s the thing. – We’ve been in a serious cold snap.🥶 A couple of weeks of it. And honestly?

I wasn’t willing to risk opening those hoop houses to take a photo of my lettuce to show off in the presentation. I didn’t want to disturb whatever fragile balance might still be sustaining life inside.

Until today. – I couldn’t resist. 😁

Opening the Hoop House After Days of Freezing Temperatures

I carefully lifted one flap of one hoophouse — just enough to slide my phone inside — snapped a quick photo, and closed it back up without even looking to see if the lettuces were alive in there.

And you know what?

A Winter Garden Moment I Didn’t Expect

When I zoomed in on the photo I took – The lettuces are alive. ⬇️

lettuces in a hoop house that lived through below zero temperatures

The Lettuce Lived—Even Below Zero

They survived temperatures down to minus 5 degrees and colder wind chills. I think that’s the coldest we’ve had to date, and there they were—still alive, still hanging on and simply waiting for it to be a bit warmer so they can start growing bigger again – amazing – happy dance!💃😀

I was genuinely surprised. I knew lettuce could tolerate down to 24° F but this? In Zone 7, under a hoop house, below zero? That shifted something for me.

What This Taught Me About Lettuce and Winter Gardening

This reminded me of the resilience of plants, which is a good reminder for us.

Lettuce has a way of teaching you to allow a slow down occasionally, observe, and respond—qualities that transform not just your garden, but your relationship with it and ourselves. – Plus you can get loads of yummy food.

It also clarified just how hardy and forgiving lettuces are.

Starting Lettuce Seeds for a Spring and Summer Vegetable Garden

Because I wasn’t sure the lettuces (and other crops in the hoop houses) would make it, I had already started a whole new round of lettuce indoors.

Those seedlings are now in trays, have been transplanted once, and will be transplanted again before heading into the garden—or being shared with friends or sold to clients.

Along with that surprise hoop house photo, I’m also sharing images of the seedlings on my home-built seed starting rack, glowing under those pink full-spectrum grow lights.

They look a little wild—almost psycho🤪 —but they work beautifully.

spring greens of lettuce, kale cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, chard, leeks and petunias under full spectrum lights

And that’s part of the beauty of lettuce. It invites abundance. There’s almost always enough to share.

Lettuce harvest from winter vegetable garden

Debby Ward, professional vegetable garden coach, speaker, designer and teacher

I wanted to pop in here to offer a wholehearted plug for lettuce—especially if you’re starting seeds for your spring and summer vegetable garden.

Lettuce is far more resilient than many of us expect, and it rewards even modest effort with beauty, nourishment, and confidence.

Three Insights for Growing Great Lettuce

These come straight from the talk I gave last Saturday:

Growing in hoop house microclimates simplifies harvesting lettuces in cold and hot temperatures.
Choosing seasonal varieties unlocks your ability to harvest lettuce all year.
By being strategic, instead of guessing how to do it, you grow great lettuce.

Lettuce has a way of showing us what’s possible when we tend with curiosity instead of assumptions.

May your garden be abundant and bring you joy, beauty, and food so it becomes you sanctuary—a place where you flourish alongside what you grow.

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Brassica Varieties to Try & Not Try – What I have been Trialing

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Some of you might be ready to try a new variety you haven’t grown before, but are not sure what to try.

Others of you might want to try and grow a different crop, but are unsure about doing so.

I realized in the last few days it has been a while since I passed on info on varieties I have been trialing. Each year I try new varieties along with ones I have loved to grow for years.

So in this blog post series I’ll pass on some varieties that I’ve fallen in love with and some I don’t ever want to grow again.

Both perspectives are important because the descriptions you’ll get from seed companies put every variety in a good light. We can get some idea from those descriptions what we might want to try, but there is nothing like growing them yourself to see if you like them.

I like to try a variety for at least two years before I make a decision about it. Each year the weather is different and can affect their growth. To give each variety a fair shot, I grow them in different beds each time, because each has a bit different soil or light. Plus, it may have had a different type of crop preceding it in crop rotation.

Today lets go through some brassica family plants. I start here because for some of us, it will soon be time to start spring plants indoors.

Lets Talk Broccoli

For years I have grown the same open pollinated varieties and they did okay. I kept reading descriptions of hybrids as being more uniform and the last three years I broke down and decided to try some.

Okay, as you know, I am a champion for seed sovereignty and preserving genetic diversity in seeds, so historically I have tended not to grow that many hybrids. It has been interesting to start growing some to make comparisons.

So at this point both Fiesta and Belstar broccolis have outperformed my standard open pollinated varieties. They are both hybrids, both organic and both available from both High Mowing Organic Seeds and Territorial Seeds. The germination rates are higher, the plants are stronger and they head more reliably and hold up over winter better. Want to know why I choose those seed companies, get my free 15 seed company criteria here.

Cabbage Rocks

Another cool season crop that gives you loads of food is cabbage.

The best new cabbage I have been growing is Caraflex, another hybrid. I admit I was pretty darn skeptical about growing a hybrid cabbage, but my rep at High Mowing Seeds convinced me to try it and I am thrilled she did!

One late spring, after I have harvest the last Caraflex head, I left the roots in the ground and it kept growing other heads. We ate from it all summer.

I tend to get 100% germination, the cabbage heads well, holds better in the garden through heat and cold better than any cabbage I have ever grown, and I have grown over 25 varieties.

One cabbage listed for short season is Red Express. It seems to be the only short season offering in red cabbages. I have tried to get a decent head out of it for over five years and it just doesn’t happen. It takes about 120 days to get a head the size of a gold ball for me, so I’d say, don’t bother trying this one.

Kales – King of Winter Greens

*Dazzling blue kale grown with peas in spring*

A kale I have kept trying to grow for years is Scarlett, red-purple curly kale that continually has very low germination rates. I have tried seed from four companies I trust, tried starting it indoors in winter for spring and again in summer for winter and tried seeding it directly outdoors in spring and fall and in all these scenarios, I get maybe 25% germination, so I quit and can’t recommend it.

But I can highly recommend Dazzling Blue kale, which is a lacinato type. Great germination, hardly plants in both cold and heat, they taste great and color is just awesome. Bluish leaves with purple/red veins in hot weather and deep purple when overwintered. I have gotten my seed from Territorial Seeds, but many good companies carry it.

Lookout for the next post on varieties I have been testing .. until then, have an awesome day!

Debby

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More trials of spring crops

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Let’s talk roots.

I was talking with a fellow gardener last spring about root crops and she told me, “I am not going to try and grow roots crops anymore, they just don’t seem to do well for me.”

This got me thinking about my adventure over the years with root crops and how I have really seen how much variety matters. Matching varieties with your soil type can make a big difference.

My friend Jean kept trying to plant long thin carrot varieties in our mostly clay soil. Even though she has been building her garden soil for many years, she wasn’t getting good carrots.

This got me thinking about root crops I have had success with and those I have not. For me, the carrot thing has been a germination or taste disappointment. There are only four varieties I grow anymore: Danvers 126; Yaya; Black Nebula and Amarillo.

After trying a good 10 orange varieties, the Danvers 126, and older open pollinated and Yaya a newer hybrid are the ones I recommend. Both are widely available. Yaya’s germination is more reliable. They are both easy to harvest and both have outstanding flavor.

With our hot summer, carrots that get to full size tend to get bitter and fibrous and skip the sweet stage, but not these two.

Purple! Who doesn’t love the idea of a purple carrot. I have tried: Cosmic Purple; Purple Sun and Dragon and frankly they tasted pretty horrid. Then I found Black Nubula from Baker Creek. This is one beautiful and yummy carrot. Even when I let a few stay in the garden into our blistering heat of mid-summer, they were still sweet, and huge.

And when it comes to color, I grew Yellowstone for years to have a yellow carrot in the mix, but never liked the flavor, so I always gave them away. Then, again, thank you Baker Creek for Amarillo – woo hoo .. a super yummy sweet yellow carrot.

Helios, Purple Plum and Cherry Belle Radishes

I love radishes, always have since I was a kid and my two new favorites are Purple Plum and Helios.

Several companies have Purple Plum which has white flesh and pretty purple skin. I find it reliable and it doesn’t tend to split.

You may not know there is a yellow skinned radish called Helios. I found it from John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds but now I see other folks starting to carry it. I have never had one split, they just get bigger and even at 3” they don’t tend to get pithy. They don’t taste as good when they get that big, but they are edible, unlike some other of the smaller class of European radishes when they get larger.

That’s it for now. Look for my next installment soon ..

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Autumn Musings – What worked & didn’t this year – part 4 of 4

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As I continue reflecting on the garden year so far we did have some great harvests …

Eggplants, no water, no problem.

Love the white eggplants. They look like large duck eggs so not too big and not too small. We got loads, made dishes with them all summer and into fall. Have some cooked and frozen too. If you have a place with loads of sun and little water, your eggplants will be happy.

If you have an area that gets loads of sun and not much water, consider putting eggplants there. I did water them occasionally, but not that often and they were super happy.

over witnered fiesta broccoli — Overwintered Fiesta Broccoli

Overwintered broccoli, hardier than expected.

Wow, just didn’t protect the broccoli plants we got in late. Yet got a super early broccoli harvest, even with temps down into the single digits off and on for a couple weeks.

Hardier than I expected.. check out Fiesta Broccoli from High Mowing Seeds.

We also grow Belstar and De Ciccio green heading types.

Melons, melons, melons!

lots of melons — But when we looked under the leaves, we had about 8 per plant.

Remember when I didn’t water the potatoes and got no harvest. Well, the opposite happened with the melons this year. Both melon patches were in places that got watered allot and we had loads of melons. Water folks, plants love it.

That is all my Autumn musings for now. Get Free Compost Tips to boost your garden soil.

Autumn Musings – What worked & didn’t this year – part 3 of 4

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Okay, folks, here are some things that did work this year.

dried christmas lima beans — Dried christmas lima beans. The bowl of beans in the photo is about 1/16^th of the number we have gotten.

Lets go back to those pole beans, they were Christmas Limas, one of our favorites. We got LOADS, I am seriously so many beans. We have had five means from them, have enough for another 8 or so meals of them fresh and a half gallon dried for winter. So .. eve thought we had to repair the deer fence – we got load of luscious beans!

fresh lima beans — Freadh Christmas lima beans

colors of christmas limas — Ripening progression of Christmas lima beans. Left are the youngest. Right are dried.

Tomatoes! Have you ever been sick of too many fresh tomatoes? I didn’t think it was possible, but it is. Gratefully, everyone loves them, so they are easy to give away.

Have been experimenting with pruning the last few years and have gotten it to keeping two to three leaders and pinching out the suckers. One leader – they were too tall to harvest. Not pruning enough suckers and they didn’t get enough air flow so we got diseases.

Speaking of tomatoes – Check out my Grow Great Tomatoes Master Class

Autumn Musings – What worked & didn’t this year – part 2 of 4

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Hi everyone,

Continuing my consideration on what didn’t work so well this year. There were a couple things I really did know, but life and laziness can sometimes happen to not such good outcomes. A couple of these lessons are:

3.Blowing off watering potatoes. Okay, they were in the back, the farthest away from the water and I just got lazy, didn’t want to drag a hose back there, my bad since we got no potatoes. They have always been a super simple crop, but like other plants, when it doesn’t rain for a month, they need water.

Lesson: Water, duh, don’t get lazy about it if you want potatoes.

Was so bad, there was nothing to photo, but here is an inspirational one from a normal harvest..

4.Getting plants in late. So this year, it took a long time to get some of the garden beds cleaned out and so some of the pepper plants went in super late. They were just getting going pumping out peppers when it was time to pull them out to make room for fall and winter crops. Granted, lack of rain for a month didn’t help.

Lesson: If life happens and it gets late, if you have your plants already, perhaps have grown them yourself like I have, then you’ll want to plant to leave them as long as possible and potentially forgo using that bed for fall and winter, or know you’ll get less of a crop. If you don’t have your plants yet, consider short days-to-maturity varieties to get your fall and winter garden in on time.

More musings to come .. have a great day .. Debby

Speaking of growing great potatoes, how about growing great soil to grow those potatoes in?

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Autumn Musings – What worked & didn’t this year – part 1 of 4

Debby WardLeave a comment

Hi folks,

Sitting in my office on a Tuesday in autumn, I begin reflecting on the passing gardening year. As I consider what worked and what didn’t, it occurred to me there are lessons here that may be useful for you so here you go …

What didn’t work:

1.Pole beans too close to the deer fence. Yikes, the pole beans grew over 15 feet and jumped onto the deer fence, seems okay, until a big wind storm came. The weight of the beans took down a section of deer fence in a big wind.

deer fence down inside garden — Deer fence caved in toward the garden

deer fence down outside — Bent deer fence from outside the garden

Lesson: keep space between your pole beans and fence, or trim pole beans away from fence.

2. Watch the last day of school. If your garden is accessible, hang out there the last day of school. Had someone/s throw spring cabbages around the garden the evening of the last of school at a display garden I manage. It was heartbreaking to see them all over the garden, such a waste of food. There was vandalism all over the area, which is normally very safe and benign. Several folks said it was Jr. High boys. This is a good reason to get your children and grandchildren involved in growing food and understanding what goes into food production, so they have respect and don’t waste.

Vandalized cabbage were all over the garden …

cabbage on top of 12 foot tomato cage — They even threw them on top of the 10′ cage we have to protect tomatoes from birds

Lesson: If your garden is accessible on known potential vandalism days, like the last day of school, schedule a pot luck, or hang out there, or rotate folks being in the garden into the evening.

Subscribe for the more organic gardening tips and have an awesome day! Debby

Why Growing Dry Beans is So Awesome

Debby WardLeave a comment

Do you love soups in the winter? I sure do, a pot of soup on the stove heating up the house with its yummy smells filling the air. Dried beans are a must have for winter soups.

Today is a pleasantly cool rainy fall day, perfect for listening to some favorite tunes, enjoying a cup of tea and shelling beans, humming and dancing while the shelled beans pile up in a bowl, ready to be planted next spring and eaten this winter.

When I shell dried beans, I keep some of the biggest, plumpest out for planting the following year. The rest are put into jars for eating.

There are literally hundreds of varieties of dried beans, so choose the ones you like to eat. Are you into Minestrone soup, then grow Cannellini beans. Into nachos, then grow pinto or black beans. Love making chili, grow some Kidney beans. Beyond these pretty well known favorites there are loads of other types to try to make you own unique winter soup.

A couple lesser known of favorites I like to grow are Vermont Cranberry and Christmas Limas. Vermont Cranberry is a bush bean, where Christmas Limas are pole beans. They are both beautiful and both make your soup broth a rich warm burgundy color.

You can find lots of varieties of dried beans that grow as bush beans or pole beans, depending on which you prefer to grow. I like a bit of both. Bush beans yield faster, but I get a larger harvest from pole beans. Check the Days to Maturity on the varieties that look interesting to you. This will tell you if you’ll have enough time to grow them until they dry on the plant. If you are in the south, this is usually not an issue. Northern gardeners whose number of hot summer days are shorter may want to stick to shorter days to maturity bush types.

When looking at seed catalogs for bean varieties, note that some beans are good both fresh and dried. This can be a good use of garden space, as you can have a round or two of fresh green beans, then let the rest go for dried beans. This way you get two types of beans from one plant!

Bon Appetit, I’m off to enjoy my first cool weather soup made with home grown beans.

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Why Grow Your Health?

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For three years now I have been honored to be a part of the team who put on the Grow Your Health, Gardening, Local Food and Wellness Festival.

There are several reasons for our participation in this local annual event:

First off, we are passionate about spreading the word of growing your own food. Gardening is a great way to get outside, off our computers for a few, and get back to our roots – sometimes literally – in the case of carrots and radishes. Grow Your Health is a great venue to talk gardens and empower people to garden.

The festival is also about local food. This local festival gets community members together with local farms and healthy food providers in a fun environment. Connecting folks with our local farmers and practitioners enriches our local economy. It also allows each to expand their community support system. Families supporting family farms was part of how this country was built and these relationship nurture the heart of everyone involved.

The third focus of the festival is wellness, not only of our bodies through various support systems, but also the wellness of the planet that supports us all. The movie we are showing this year, GMO OMG talks primarily about the potential effects of genetically modified organisms in our food, but the business of growing these has major impacts on the wellness of planet earth.

Helping the next generations learn about healthy practices for themselves and their planet, how to connect with the planet through gardening and knowing where their food comes from is part of the family value this festival can provide. Each year we strive to make the event better for families to attend, more fun for children and provide everyone who attends an enriching community event.

Come out and join us, Saturday, March 28, 10:00 am – 5:30 pm.

Stop by the Prior Unity Garden Booth and sign up for the raffle to win some prizes.

As part of the class lineup, Russell will be part of a Gardening Q&A at 11:00 am and Debby will be teaching Small Space Gardening at 1:30 pm.

We’ll also have spring plants and other cool stuff.

MORE EVENT INFO

GET TICKETS – Adults $10 in advance, $15 at the door – Children under 16 FREE

– Debby Ward,Founder & Owner of Prior Unity Garden & Management Team Member, Grow Your Health – Gardening, Local Food & Wellness Festival

Grow Your Health Festival 2015

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We'll have baby lettuce, kale, chard and arugula plants for your spring garden. — We’ll have baby lettuce, kale, chard and arugula plants for your spring garden.

Come celebrate spring at the Grow Your Health – Gardening, Local Food and Wellness Festival on March 28, from 10:00 am – 5:30 pm. W.T. Woodson High School in Fairfax VA.

Come take classes on gardening, food and wellness. I’ll be teaching Small Space Gardening and Russell will be teaching about building healthy living soil.

Watch the movie, GMO OMG, enjoy local artisan food and stop by our booth and get your baby spring greens plants !

More info

Get a ticket NOW