It's time to make a mess

It's been raining. OH HAS IT BEEN RAINING YAY WOO FINALLY!

Phew.

And it's about to clear off a little and warm up a little and hey wait! What's that I see? Is it big vigorous cover crops going to flower?! 

Why yes indeedy.

It's time - before we get all underway with spring planting fun and excitement and WHICH TOMATO VARIETIES ARE YOU TRYING THIS YEAR and such - to prep that soil for a big planting season ahead.

And the first step in spring soil prep is to take down those cover crops and winter food crops with enough pre-planting time on the calendar for those crops' plant material to be broken down and incorporated into your garden soil.

Let's make a mess, shall we?   

When to cut down cover crops

This is always a big question because, when you look at the garden with its bushy cover crops growing all lush and green when everything else in the garden looks rather puny and uninspired, it's hard to make yourself get the shears out to cut that good looking stuff down to the ground.

Aw, po-po cover crops, dying an early death at the hands of the ruthless gardener.

But as soon as you see blossoms hitting the soil and flower buds forming - IT'S TIME.

Flowers on the soil means beans on the plants. CHOP CHOP!

And when your last frost date is March 1 and you're planning to start planting by the beginning of April, you want to give those ruthlessly chopped crops at least a few weeks to a full month to be broken down in the soil.

This way, when you go to plant into that garden, all evidence of your brutal destruction will have vanished and, in its place, will be gorgeous healthy soil full of rich organic matter and happy soil microorganisms and bacteria ready to help out your spring and summer crops.

You want this.

How to cut down cover crops

Once you've made peace with the whole BUT THE COVER CROPS ARE SO GORGEOUS THAT I HATE TO CUT THEM DOWN, get out your shears and pruners and get out there.

The key to getting the full bang for your cover crop buck is to get the plant material cut into small pieces and to get the plants themselves cut off at soil level. 

By doing these two things, you'll give the soil microorganisms and bacteria lots of material to work on and in the right bite-sized pieces so that they can make quick work of your cover crop. By cutting your plants off at the soil level, rather than pulling them out completely, you leave the roots in the soil for the microorganisms and bacteria to work on and add lots of organic matter to the soil, too.

When you're done taking down your cover crop it should look like a chopped salad out there. If you have big stalks left over, save those for building your compost pile (stacked like logs at intervals in your compost pile lets air circulate so it never smells like poo) rather than trying to chop them up into your soil.

Why to cut down cover crops

Sure, we could leave the plants in the garden and let them go to flower and then to seed and then die back on their own time, but there really are good reasons to cut them back before they've set flowers and seed.

• Nutrients - Once plants start to set fruit/seed, they're starting to use the nutrient reserves in their roots. You want those nutrients, especially from legume crops (for nitrogen) like fava beans, bell beans and vetch, going into your soil. Be ruthless! Chop chop!
• Pest control - The longer plants live on in the garden, the more susceptible they are to disease and pests. So, that gorgeous mound of mustard greens and mini orchard of broccoli will be the perfect place for the first hatches of harlequin beetles, aphids and cabbage moths once the rains clear off for a split second.
• Planting - You want to grow a spring garden, right? Right. So, you need to make room for them and prepare that soil accordingly.

So - get out there and get to chopping. If it makes you feel better, think about all of the happy tomatoes and cucumbers and melons and beans and peppers and and and that you'll get to plant soon into that gorgeous healthy soil.

Plus, you get to make a mess, which is kinda fun, too.

Better with frosting

De cicco Broccoli

For a long time I just took other gardeners' word for it when they'd say that Brussels sprouts, broccoli and other Brassicas (the genus from which all of these lovely and sometimes misunderstood vegetables hail) were sweeter after a frost.

Pacific Gold Mustard

I mean, it's easy and nice to plant things that can take a frost and don't need to be covered. It appeals to the lazy I HAVE A MILLION THINGS TO DO ALREADY part of me that really doesn't want to have to go out to the test garden before bed to throw sheets over plants and tuck in stray branches and such.

Vitaverde Cauliflower

But that's as far as my understanding went. Brassicas can take a frost and are therefore awesome and worthwhile to grow in the frosty time of year when most other plants need all kinds of special care that I don't have time for.

Churchill Brussels sprouts

The fact that they also became sweeter after a good frost set in, well, that was a nice bonus. Especially when things like nasturtium, that are totally frost tender (ie. they totally croak when it's frosty), turn to absolute goo when the temps drop into the frosty range.

Nasturtium goo

I don't enjoy goo in the test garden. Just ew.

Sweetness and frost hardiness, though? Definite like.

But eventually I got all, "BUT WHY do they taste sweeter after a frost? I must know." and thankfully I had my horticulture professors, farmy friends and the Internet to bring me up to speed.

And this is where it gets cool and semi-science-y out in the test garden.

Don't freak out though - science can be cool! Promise.

See, when the temperatures drop, Brassicas start producing more sugars in order to lower the temperature that freezing begins in the water in their leaves so that they can survive the cold weather and not turn into a useless and gross pile of goo.

They want to live! We want to eat their sweet lively leaves! Oops.

More sugars = less water to freeze = higher frost tolerance = no need for cover (hardy to about 5 degrees) = really good eating.

So, go out to that garden of yours and pick some Brassicas for a salad, stir-fry, lunch, dinner, breakfast or dessert.

Seriously.

If you're curious about some of the tasty bits in the Sweeter After a Frost Brassica Genus:

• Broccoli
• Brussels sprouts
• Cabbage
• Cauliflower
• Collards
• Kale
• Mustard greens

Eat me.

Love on those mustard greens

For those of you who planted mustard seed this winter, good on you. And good on your garden.

It's good, is what I'm saying.

While it's busy fumigating the soil (really, it does this), you can eat it and imagine it fumigating your innards, too.

Does that sound bad? It's not. It's actually good. Mustard greens have cancer-fighting and cholesterol-lowering properties.

See - that sounds good. No one likes cancer anyway. It's a total jerk.

But do mustard greens taste good? We're not in the business of eating stuff *just* for our health, here.

Thankfully, it's quite good. And flexible - eat mustard greens as spicy sprouts, fresh salad greens or sauteed with ham steak and winter squash.

In case that last one got a raised eyebrow, here's a recipe we cook up often over the winter in order to keep the mustard cover in check and, you know, accompany a nice bottle of chilled Chardonnay.

Ham Steaks with Winter Vegetables

Serves 2
Ingredients
2 ham steaks, trimmed and cubed
1 Delicata squash, peeled, cored and sliced into 1" rings
1 bunch of mustard greens, rinsed and roughly chopped
2 T olive oil
Sea salt, pepper

To make
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Cover a rimmed baking sheet with foil and add a bit of olive oil. Distribute your squash rings on the oiled foil (you know that rhymes, right?) and coat with a bit more olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Roast in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, until the squash is lightly browned and soft.

In a large skillet, brown your ham steak cubes over medium-high heat until brown on all sides. Your house will start to smell reminiscent of bacon and this is just a side benefit to making this meal. Enjoy that.

When your ham steak cubes are browned on all sides, add the mustard greens and saute with the ham until wilted.

Serve the ham and mustard saute with the squash and, of course, that chilled wine we were talking about before.

Let the fumigation begin.

 

Mouth-spankingly good salad dressing

Sometimes I find myself with a giant pile of salad greens and very little inspiration. Like, I know I'm supposed to eat these greens - and furthermore I WANT to eat them - but then I get bored.

I mean, I could always just give them the old olive oil and vinegar treatment, but that gets old when you've been having salads with dinner every single night because your winter greens are exploding and so - I must dress it up. 

Thankfully we live in Northern California where winter also means citrus and we also spent a good amount of time in the summer and fall making pesto from all of the garden's basil, so a mouth-spankingly good salad dressing is only a whisk away.

That's right - a whisk away. I just made that up. I guess I'm getting cheeky around the holidays. Forgive me.

Make this dressing and then enjoy your mouth spanking.

Pesto Lemon Dressing

Ingredients
Juice from 1 Meyer lemon
1 T homemade pesto (or storebought - we don't judge)
3 T olive oil
1 T kosher salt
1 T fresh ground pepper
2 big handfuls arugula or whatever greens you have in the garden

To make
In a large bowl, whisk lemon juice, pesto, salt and pepper. When thoroughly blended, add olive oil one tablespoon at a time until completely blended.

Then toss in TO THE VERY SAME BOWL a couple big handfuls of freshly picked arugula or whatever greens you have on hand (mustard, fava leaves, spinach, beet greens, kale...) right from your garden and toss to coat.

We had a few tomatoes still sitting on the counter, so those went in, too.

That's it. Now go eat those greens.

Starting cover crops

With the late heat we've had in Silicon Valley, the cover crops are going to go in a little later than usual so that the summer vegetables can take advantage of the last burst of heat to give us more tomatoes.

Black Brandywine and Better Boy tomatoes. A fine pairing.

Sure, there are other plants out there doing impressive things, but our main concern is usually the tomatoes. This year is no different.

The extra time before planting cover crops and winter food crops is also good because it gives us a chance to start some of our winter crops indoors so that we can plant stronger transplants into the winter garden rather than vulnerable seeds that can get mowed down by a single hungry pest. 

If you've ever put seeds in the ground in spring and then watched as their nubile little stems emerge and then get summarily gnawed to a nub by a mysterious bug under the cover of darkness, you know the pain all too well.

Churchill Brussels sprout starts. Be strong, boys!

We can't have that happening to our beloved Brussels sprouts (or "Winter tomatoes" as we like to call them since we love them oh so much), so we try to start them indoors before planting out.

Other crops are planted so broadly by seed that a few going down the gullets of garden creatures isn't that bad.

Pacific Gold Mustard seeds germinating

On the whole, we'll sow our winter beds with a variety of cover and food crops - some sown directly into the soil and some started as transplants - with the intention of having some fresh food for the winter and healthy soil all around come spring.

Before planting anything, we remove the summer crops, dig in a 2" layer of finished compost and treat the bed with a dose of neem oil to smother overwintering pests and their eggs. 

Then we get down to the business of fall -

Pacific Gold Mustard - sown direct in raised beds for a winter food crop and spring green manure + pest control for next year's tomatoes
Buckwheat - sown direct in a raised bed for green manure and weed control
Fava beans - sown direct in a raised bed for green manure and nitrogen fixing
Brussels sprouts - transplants installed in one half of a raised bed  for a late fall for winter food crop
Dill - sown direct in a raised bed between Brussels sprouts for a winter food crop and to repel pests from the Brussels sprouts
Garlic - sown from seed in one half of a raised bed for a 2013 summer crop and to repel pests and improve the flavor of Brussels sprouts

We still have summer crops saying their final goodbyes in a few spots, but once the temps drop consistently below 70 degrees, they'll come out and the remaining cool season plants will go in. 

Thus completing another summer season and starting a fall and winter season anew.

Bam.