Time for Winter Carrots, Beets and Other Rooty Things

It's amazing how little time I suddenly have for the blog now that the sun is out (and so is school). More time in the garden, on the beach, at the lake. (And, sadly, at my desk.) I'll do my best to keep it up, but please remember I'd love to see photos and hear stories of YOUR gardens, too. This is for all you wet coast gardeners out there.

If you're going to plant a winter garden, it's time to get more carrots, beets, turnips and other root veggies in. We've started to eat carrots out of our garden, but I started them very early (and under glass). Remember to plant them in well-drained soil. (And if it starts to deluge again, I'd suggest covering them with plastic or reemay to keep the rain off the seeds. The seeds don't like to be swamped. Thanks Trina, for that gardening tip.)

As for the root crop pests — carrot rust fly and cabbage root maggot — here's what Linda Gilkeson suggests:

Take steps to protect this late crop of carrots from carrot rust fly and turnips from cabbage root maggot (they are similar insects, but attack different crops). The late generation of these root pests can attack as late as September and once in the roots, the larvae keep right on boring all winter. Cover the beds before the seedlings come up with floating row covers or use 1-metre-high window screen fence around the bed (most of the adult insects fly below 1 metre). Support the fence on stakes with the bottom edge buried in the soil and allow the top 20 cm to flop outward away from the crop to make an overhang. So the flies zipping along close to the ground hit the fence, fly up, do a loop under the overhang and find they are heading the other way. And of course, make sure there were no carrot family crops or weeds (Queen Anne's lace) in the carrot bed or any cabbage family plants in the turnip bed, before you plant the winter crop. Any root maggots in the soil from a previous crop would be trapped inside the cover or fence with your new crop.

What's Growing in May Gardens

Some of you may be curious to know what is growing or can be planted. Leah let me know what was happening in her garden. What's happening in yours? Fire over an email or leave a comment.

In Leah's Garden, she and Jonathan have:

"Direct seeded carrots (nantes, baby finger and danvers ....didn't use row cover and found that some of the birds were pulling out the little carrot sprigs. weve got tons of seeds so re-planted and will hope for the best.

Planted onions (that I had pre-grown inside the house) and onion sets that we bought. Planting onions around the carrots is a way to prevent the carrot rust fly.

Planted early potatoes...yukon gold.

Planted peas (sweet and shelling), once, twice, three times....birds love the little spoutlets....they look like little worms. They're netted now and seem to be coming up slowly but surely.

Last week we put out the leeks (grown inside first) as well as planted celery seed. I usually buy celery starts but have seen good results here in Tofino using seed so thought I'd try it out. Celery takes a long time to germinate and there are so many adversities ....birds, slugs, etc that starts are desirable. However, the very fragile tap root can be damaged while transplanting starts so direct sowing seemed like a good idea.

Planted lots of edible flowers...calendula, borage, nasturtium. Some parsley and cilantro too.

Transplanted some sunflower seed sprouts. I sprout seeds and grains in the winter/spring and these sunflower sprouts were some that didn't get eaten and just kept growing.

Transplanted another bed of strawberries. Also, planted 3 blueberries this spring.

Planted swiss chard (rainbow and a white stemmed variety ...can't remember the name). We have some pre-sprouted red russian kale babies that we will be transplanting with the chard. The kale sprouts came from a plant that exploded with seeds ....some of the seeds landed inside the greenhouse and started growing on a piece of wet wood. Kale grows anywhere and is the best edible for Tofino!!

In the next week, will be transplanting artichokes (greenglobe & imperial star). Also, we'll be planting under row cover, broccoli (including gai lan, a chinese variety), cauliflower and cabbage. We had terrible army worms and a few cabbage worms last year so hope to prevent with the lightweight row cover.

We've got tomatoes (mostly early varieties and cherries), eggplant, peppers (including jalapeno) & basil inside the house and some in the greenhouse.

In pots I have baby finger carrots and onions and tons of lettuce blends. Can't get enough of them!!

Later this month....gold rush zucchini, gold nugget squash and queensland blue squash (seeds from a friend in Duncan) as well as cucumbers and a cantaloupe (in the greenhouse).

We are going to be intensively growing a number of plants in the greenhouse so will be feeding them heavily (lots of fish fertilizer!!), EM and aerated compost tea."

Here's a short report from my garden:

- Two pots of potatoes are growing well. I can't add any more dirt so once the plant dies back, I'll have an early crop. I also planted two varieties in potato bags and put some directly into the garden. (Can you tell we like potatoes?)

- The leeks, broccoli, artichoke, lettuce starts I began inside are in the garden now.

- Carrots, parsnips, beets seeds sown and I'll keep this up every two weeks for awhile.

- Peas are up and growing well, as are fava beans.

- Other bean varieties (filet beans, for example) are planted inside so they'll be ready to transplant out when the soil warms up.

- The nine-square garden I started over a month ago worked really well and I have great arugula, mizuna, radishes, spinach, lettuce and other greens in that garden.

- Herb garden is sprouting nicely and I planted some parsley and creeping rosemary into that garden.

- The strawberries, blueberries, apples and plums all have/had lots of flowers so I'm hoping for the best. The apple tree has never really produced despite all the flowers so we did get out there this year with a Q-tip, and transferred pollen (we hope) between the two trees. Will report back in the fall! We did put in Mason bees this year, but you certainly can't tether them to your yard and they were released before the flowers were out in force.

All for now. Let us know what you're up to in your garden. Many new (and old ones, too) wet coast gardeners are keen to know what to plant and when as well as what grows well here.

Your Source for Drunken Women Lettuce

And then there's Georgescu chocolate peppers, yellow mortgage lifter tomatoes, and bullsblood beets. (For a word nerd like me, reading a seed catalog is about as much fun as reading the names on all those paint samples at the hardware store.) These seeds and dozens more are available from Salt Spring Seeds.



You can find a 2010 catalogue, as well as a selection of seeds, at Green Soul Organics on 4th Street. And, of course, Trina at Ordinary Corner Nursery has a great selection of seeds from West Coast Seeds as well as other brands.

Have any of you tried seeds from Salt Spring? What about other sources? I'm putting together a post on what people are seeding (and how and when). Let me know what's happening in your garden. Don't be shy. This is going to be awfully dull (for all of us) if we only learn about my garden.