A Quick Walk Through the Garden in February

Just a short walk through the garden tonight to talk about how things are going with the Back to Eden Gardening Method.  So far, so good.  Really, not much 'winter grass' this year.  The only thing that pops up is oxalis.  A couple of days ago I showed you the sugar snap peas.  Let's walk a few rows over.  Next week we'll look a few rows over from that.

First we have broccoli.  Nice, big heads of broccoli coming out of the garden right now.  We'll continue to harvest the little florets for quite a while now.  Tricia roasts the broccoli in the oven (with some cauliflower) in a little olive oil and minced garlic.  Scrumptious!

Speaking of cauliflower, here's a nice head of purple cauliflower.  Nice to look at and delicious to eat.

On February 15th, I planted two 15 foot rows of sweet corn.  I scraped back the wood chips from either side of some spinach that is finishing up.  I' allowing the spinach to go to seed so that I can save lots of seed from them.  We liked it.  The variety was Galilee Spinach, and it comes from Israel.  To the left, you can see the garlic and to the right, you can see several rows of carrots.  The carrots are about ready to be harvested.  We pulled a fat Cosmic Purple Carrot and ate it in a fresh garden salad Saturday night. 

I planted corn on either side of the spinach.  By the time I've harvested the spinach seeds, the corn will be up and growing.  At that point I will rake the wood chips around the corn to discourage weeds and preserve soil moisture.  I planted Stowell's Evergreen and Country Gentleman varieties this year.

In this row we have Swiss Chard - Rainbow Chard, to be precise.  First is a nice yellow-ribbed one.

And next we have a dark red-ribbed one.  Swiss chard is in the beet family but doesn't produce a big edible root like beets do.  We either eat it raw in salads or cook it like regular greens.  Lately, we've been cooking a mixture of turnip greens, mustard greens, chard, and Brussels sprout leaves.  It makes a nice side dish.

Finally, here is a pink ribbed chard in the foreground.  These are a cool-season crop and quickly fade away once the hot weather hits.  Until then it produces a multitude of leave to eat on.  When one gets eaten by a bug or damaged on the ground, we toss them to the cows, goats, and chickens.

Overall, so far I really like the Back to Eden Gardening method.  No more turning soil over.  It is pretty much no-till.  No more pulling up rows.  No more watering the garden.  Although you still have to weed the garden, it is not nearly as much as before.  Last year, I spent much time weeding.  The chickens always gathered on the outside of the garden fence as I'd throw the weeds over for them to eat.  Other than oxalis (fake clover) there's not many weeds to throw the chickens.  Our hens give the Back to Eden Gardening Method a thumbs-down rating!