All the Dirt on Gardening

When we had to have our house's windows replaced with new ones last year, I asked that all the old windows be left with us so they could be re-purposed into mini cold frames. We put them up the day before these 20-degree temperatures arrived and I wanted to give them a few days/nights trial run to see how well they did. Success! Jon drilled little holes in the frames and ran wire through the holes to make a secure tie that even these recent, awful winds have not messed with. The little windows at the ends blew down one night but the plants didn't suffer any damage. We've watered once just by slipping the hose in with a water flow diffuser/bubbler attached so it would flow down into the soil. The other greens in the garden? Mixed results. The Kale has freezer burn, the Mache and Arugula are doing fine. Dinosour kale without protection  Arugula - unfazed by freezing temperatures and blooming! Mache - unprotected and undisturbed by the fr...

Mache and Arugula leaves are abundant enough for a few salads a week at this time of year. Seeds planted in the fall, thrive in our cold winter weather, growing through snow though ice will slow or completely stop them. Mache or lamb's lettuce, has been cultivated in France since the 17th century. Mache's agreeable winter-growth habit make it an ideal source of folate, vitamin C, A, K. Iron, and fiber. Mache in the garden Feb 2013   When I first started growing Mache, it was called Corn Salad, Field Lettuce. For travelers it is German Feldsalat and Netherlands veld salade and in France Valerianella locusta. Fedco offers Mache seeds as 3102VC Verte de Cambrai Mâche. Fedco says "May be the same variety Thomas Jefferson grew in 1810 under the name Candia." I scatter seeds in the fall during fall vegetable garden cleanup but here is a thorough explanation of how to grow Mache or Corn Salad for your winter table. http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/4614/ho...