A Winter Harvest from My Vegetable Greenhouse
Delicious, organic greens are ready for picking in my vegetable greenhouse.
My outdoor garden beds are bare, but there are lots of fresh, delicious vegetables thriving inside my special vegetable greenhouse tucked behind my Equipment Barn. My gardeners, Ryan and Wilmer, do a great job with succession planting and keeping the produce coming. This process involves following one crop with another in order to maximize a garden's yield. Last week, they picked a good amount of greens for me to enjoy over the weekend. They also took some time to do a little maintenance in the garden beds using supplies from one of my favorite sources, White Flower Farm in Connecticut.
Enjoy these photos.
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- During the winter months, my gardeners keep a good eye on this vegetable greenhouse – temperatures are monitored and the beds are kept clean and weed free.
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- The Swiss chard stalk colors are so vibrant with stems of red, yellow, rose, gold, and white. Chard has very nutritious leaves making it a popular addition to healthful diets.
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- Swiss chard is a tall leafy vegetable that’s part of the goosefoot family – aptly named because the leaves resemble a goose’s foot.
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- This vegetable also has a colorful stem – beets. These are sweet and tender – and one of the healthiest foods. Beets contain a unique source of phytonutrients called betalains, which provide antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and detoxification support.
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- And everyone knows I love fresh lettuce – I grow lots of lettuces all year long.
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- Toward the back of this greenhouse are my tomato plants. They don’t have any fruits yet, but soon they will be filled with delicious tomatoes.
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- Here is our beautiful bok choi – ready for picking. As you may know, Bok choy or pak choi is a type of Chinese cabbage. Chinensis varieties do not form heads and have smooth, dark green leaf blades instead, forming a cluster reminiscent of mustard greens or celery.
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- Cilantro, Coriandrum sativum, is also known commonly as coriander or Chinese parsley. Coriander is actually the dried seed of cilantro. Cilantro is a popular microgreen garnish that complements meat, fish, poultry, noodle dishes and soups.
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- Such beautiful growing turnips. When harvesting, we always gently remove the surrounding earth first to see if the vegetables are big enough. If not, we push the soil back into place.
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- Here are the carrots – looking very green and lush. While carrots are a common vegetable throughout the world, the first cultivated carrot in recorded history is thought to have come from the area around Afghanistan around 900 AD.
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- While Ryan continues to harvest, Wilmer uses some of our newest gardening tools to clean in and around the beds. Because of all the gardens we maintain, we are always on the lookout for durable gardening supplies.
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- To clear the footpaths of weeds, Wilmer uses the Sneeboer narrow leaf rake from White flower Farm in Morris, Connecticut – it’s a perfect size to clear the narrow spaces. White Flower Farm is a family owned nursery and supply store that’s been in business since 1950. https://www.whiteflowerfarm.com/
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- This rake has seven tines – enough to gather unwanted weeds and to aerate the soil. The one-inch diameter ash handle is laid on a stainless steel core and fitted with two brass rivets.
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- Wilmer also uses this four tine cultivating rake which is great for a multitude of uses in the garden, such as cultivating, raking, removing weeds and spreading mulch and fertilizers.
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- We love these Dutch made tools – several of them are also helpful outside.
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- This is called the Royal Dutch hoe designed with innovative teeth on the front of the blade, and a hook on the reverse for precise weed removal.
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- This tool has a specially designed handle to distribute pressure across the blade’s entire surface making it very easy to use.
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- This Dutch hoe has a forward facing 14-centimeter wide blade which slices through established and seedling-stage weeds.
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- All these tools are made with ash handles, which provide good strong leverage to guide the hoe on, or just below, the soil surface.
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- All the weeds come out very easily with just one or two strokes.
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- Whether we’re tending the gardens inside or out, it is always extremely important to have the very best tools for the job. I love how our crops are doing this winter season.
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