Long-sleeve shirts
For a short moment after coming in from a hot summer day, I looked longingly at my stack of long-sleeve shirts. Their time will come. I’ll be wearing those and my new winter cap when I cultivate around cold-hardy greens and harvest winter radishes. Hoses will be retired for the winter by then, which makes watering in winter a challenge, but gardeners do gardener things to get the job done.
For example, first batch of pole beans have finished, and it’s time to unwind the vines from the trellis. Cutting them down starting at the top, a gardener realizes the vines are helping to hold the trellis together. Better plant snow peas so they can stabilize the trellis until winter. Which kinds of snow peas? All of them… what am I waiting for?
Snow peas and sugar snap peas can handle cooler temperatures until they get frosted, and weather-predictor people claim there’s a 50 percent chance of frost in our area by the end of October, maybe a week or so sooner. Frost for sure by the second week of November. That means snow peas need to be in the ground already. Hurry!
A gardener can try to protect pea vines from frost by investing in a geodesic dome over the garden or by hanging a sturdy covering over the trellis before dark but removing it after dawn. Gardeners wearing long-sleeve shirts do things like this because we’re dedicated to protecting our gardens — they are an investment, an art project, and a place to pick tasty organic snow peas.
Ground-dwelling plants like leafy greens, radishes and beets also need protection sometimes from whatever is available. For example, time took its toll on an old tiny picnic table, so it’s now in pieces except I salvaged a sawhorse-shaped assemblage which, with a tarp or rug stretched over, can be stationed over plants that need frost protection. It will be useful in spring also, but this discussion is about long-sleeve shirts.
Which leafy greens should you plant? All of them, of course! I started thousands of seedlings in cartons. I’m haphazard at tracking which is which and the seedlings all look the same at first, but different Asian greens, for example, show their leaf shapes and public identity when they grow their second leaves and beyond.
Truth is, if seedlings survive transplanting into the garden and produce well — plus they always earn good grades in deportment — it doesn’t matter at dinnertime if it’s Komatsuna or the mystery mustard from Alameda. They might taste different, but it doesn’t matter. Yod fah is like the tenderest possible broccoli plant. Red mustard is mildly spicy. Bok choi tastes like bok choi… on and on.
Doesn’t take too many plants to provide enough greens, and it’s time to get them started. It’s okay to try lettuce again. Clear out a big space and go big on lettuce this time. Should be harvesting before the frost. Plant them close together and thin out small heads for your salad. I don’t mean to tell you what to do. I’m just saying.
It is also a good time to plant winter radishes. Which ones? All of them. Ask your phone about winter radishes and see what you can find. Sometimes local markets sell daikons, which are like long, thick white carrots, but your phone can show you a new world of cool-weather radishes.
From Spain is a round black one the size of a baseball. From northern China is the Shawo Fruit radish which is the shape of a Formanova beet but pale green with a sweet brassica taste. Another sweet winter radish is Red Beauty that is shaped like a red Chantenay carrot. Your phone will show you dozens more.
It would be best if you had already planted beets, but go ahead and try. See what happens. Early Wonder and Red Ace are quick maturers.
It’s transition time for this year’s summer garden. Don’t forget to wash your long-sleeve shirts.