Planting New Crops in My Vegetable Greenhouse
It's always so great to start off the new year growing healthy, delicious, organic greens.
Now that it's winter, attention is turned toward planting my vegetable greenhouse, so I am never without fresh produce. Yesterday, my head gardener Ryan McCallister planted new crops of spinach, carrots, arugula, radicchio, parsley, mâche, chicory, and others. Some of the seeds are from my favorite sources, including Johnny's Selected Seeds, Vilmorin, and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds - others I picked up during my recent trip to Italy.
Enjoy these photos.
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- Inside the head house, Ryan is preparing the markers for the vegetables to be planted. Ryan keeps track of what seeds do well at the farm – indoors and out.
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- I select what will be planted in each bed and provide Ryan with a specific diagram.
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- I already planted some crops. Ryan and I make sure to plant in succession, so there is always something growing. One cannot miss the gorgeous Swiss chard. They are so vibrant with stems of rose, gold, orange, and white. Chard has very nutritious leaves making it a popular addition to healthful diets.
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- The most common method for picking is to cut off the outer leaves about two inches above the ground while they are young, tender, and about eight to 12 inches long.
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- The beets are ready to pick. Beets 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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- Lettuce always grows so well in this greenhouse. It’s a real treat to have lettuce like this all year long. I always grow lots of varieties of lettuce, so I can share them with my daughter and her children.
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- And this is young mâche – a type of leafy, non-lettuce salad green that some recognize as lamb’s lettuce, doucette, or corn salad with a nutty and somewhat sweet flavor.
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- There’s also a bed of kale ready to harvest. Kale is related to cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, collard greens, and Brussels sprouts. There are many different types of kale – the leaves can be green or purple in color, and have either smooth or curly shapes.
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- This greenhouse has 16 of these wooden garden boxes to fit the entire length and width of the space. One larger bed is at one end. Raised bed gardening allows good drainage, prevents soil compaction, and provides protection for those plants that may otherwise get trampled. Ryan starts by smoothing out the soil and wedding where necessary.
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- Ryan uses a small soft rake to freshen up the top layer of soil. All the beds were fed, so they’re ready to plant. I use a fertilizer specially formulated for growing vegetables – Miracle-Gro® Shake ‘n Feed® Tomato, Fruit & Vegetable Plant Food.
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- The first to plant is spinach. I grow a lot of spinach. Spinach is an excellent source of vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin C, folate, and a good source of manganese, magnesium, iron and vitamin B2. I use a lot of spinach at the farm for my daily green juice.
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- Spinach seeds are slightly flat and oval-shaped.
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- Ryan plants them by broadcasting. In agriculture, gardening, and forestry, broadcast seeding is a method of seeding by scattering over the area. Ryan has planted them in rows, but it’s good to try different methods to see what works best.
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- Once all the seeds are dropped, Ryan uses the back of the soft rake to cover all the seeds.
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- For planting in rows, Ryan uses a bed preparation rake from Johnny’s Selected Seeds to create furrows in the soil. Hard plastic red tubes slide onto selected teeth of the rake to mark the rows. In general, seeds should be planted at a depth of two times the width, or diameter, of the seed. A seed that’s about 1/16-of-an-inch thick should be planted an eighth-of-an-inch deep.
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- Depending on each vegetable’s seed spacing needs, Ryan makes five or six rows in each bed.
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- This bed is designated for carrots of various colors. Each container of seeds to be used is placed next to its corresponding marker. I like to make sure we keep track of what varieties grow well, so I know what to use again next season.
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- These seeds are pelleted, or coated, carrot seeds. Pellets make seed handling easier for small-seeded crops.
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- Ryan drops two or three seeds every few inches. Once the seeds germinate, the weaker, less robust seedlings will be removed in a process called thinning. Thinning allows the best and strongest plants to grow, and gives them more resources like sunlight, nutrients, and water.
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- These are Arugula seeds. Arugula is a cruciferous vegetable that provides many of the same benefits as other vegetables of the same family.
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- Ryan drops radicchio seeds in another bed. These raised beds were designed for easy reach from all sides, so that work can be done quickly and efficiently.
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- Also in this bed, Ryan plants two rows of chicory, an herb native to Europe and Asia.
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- Ryan backfills the furrows to cover the seeds in each filled row. He also leaves some rows empty, so he can plant more in a few weeks. Lastly, every bed will get a good drink of water.
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- I am so pleased with this greenhouse. The structure uses minimal artificial heat, where many cold hardy crops, such as root vegetables and brassicas, can be grown and harvested through the winter months. Above, I installed grow lights specially designed to substitute natural sunlight, stimulating photosynthesis, and provide the right color spectrum for thriving plants. I am looking forward to a winter filled with bountiful harvests.
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