Broccoli

Here’s a couple pictures of the wintering broccoli:

Since yesterday was so (comparably) warm I opened it up, watered everything, and (after taking the pictures) did some weeding.  Yup.  Weeding.  Between the covers and the lights the tire-beds have been so warm that there’s weeds growing (and not just grass).  As part of the weeding process I pulled up the batch of radishes that I planted (in one of the end tires) back in the fall.  The radishes had never formed bulbs, but I’d left them in place just to see what would happen.  Well, sometime in the last three weeks they formed bulbs.

I’m utterly delighted with how this turned out.  Over this coming summer I’ll be looking at turning it into a more permanent structure that can be more easily moved than my quick and dirty A frame structure here so that I can rotate it around the garden and cover different sets of tire-beds each winter.  Although this setup works just fine for now, that much pressure treated wood is going to be a massive PIA to move and store without breaking it all the way down.  I’m thinking 1/2″ metal electrical conduit bent into U shapes and attached to a couple of base boards ought to do it, but I’ll have to play around.  Most lettuce, for example, is plenty cold hardy enough to grow in something like this.  We’d love to have fresh home grown salad all winter!  I’ve done some lettuce under lights inside the house, but it never heads right that way.