Who knew? Spinach, radicchio and even lettuce can survive a bone chilling winter in Philadelphia under nothing but a thin floating row cover and a heavy blanket of snow.
I’m still quite new to gardening in this part of the country, after 25
My garden plot in January (Click on any photo to enlarge)
years of gardening in relentlessly warm and sunny L.A. So I was impressed that said row cover kept my crop of fall-planted salad mix going into December, through several dips of the thermometer into the high 20s. I had intended to retrieve the row cover before I left town for a Christmas visit to Southern California, figuring it would do nothing over the winter other than getting battered by bitter weather. But I never got around to that chore before my departure. By the time I returned in January, the row cover was buried under snow — and stayed that way for the next two months.
Philadelphia got hit with several blasts of the polar vortex this past winter. The temperature briefly dipped below zero degrees Fahrenheit on a couple of occasions and stayed in the teens and single digits for days at a time. On top of that, we had more than a dozen significant snow storms in what turned out to be one of the snowiest winters on record in Philadelphia.
Weeds and spinach in April
I didn’t return to my plot at the Garden R.U.N. community garden in Roxborough until April. The row cover was still there, snuggly tucked in place. Since I have been upgraded to a sunnier plot this year — my second at Garden R.U.N. — I pulled it up so that I could reuse it to cover my early spring plantings in my new plot. Behold! A thicket of weeds that had clearly appreciated the extra warmth, and amidst the weeds, a profusion of thriving, succulent spinach plants, a dozen or so radicchios, and a few red lettuces. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I figured the radicchio roots might survive and sprout new growth. But the spinach and lettuce!?! As I said, who knew? Everybody but me? Should I have been surprised, dear readers with more experience than I have growing in this part of the world? Was the insulating snow my garden’s saving grace?
transplanted survivors in my new plot
I transplanted quite a few of the survivors of the polar vortex to my new plot, knowing they wouldn’t appreciate getting uprooted and moved, as mature as they were. But they have continued to do quite well, yielding as much spinach as I have needed in recent weeks. And I like lots of spinach.
Next fall, I’ll plant a crop and cover it up, with the expectation that I’ll have an early spring harvest.
bulging bag of succulent overwintered spinach with a bit of oak leaf lettuce
yielded a continuous harvest of spinach clippings since March. There are three browse around that pharmacy store cheap viagra models of the product – Basic, Extra and Pro. If the so awaited victory didn’t take place, the main person responsible for it is Jon Diebler from Ohio State, who was unstoppable that night from the 3-point range, giving an exhibition with 10 threes in the 82-61 victory. cialis in the usa In September cialis in canada 2003, Dover canceled practice and qualifying Friday two days early because of Hurricane Isabel moving through the East Coast. Thus they more and more were used to treat patients with Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, and levitra shop uk other disorders that affected the nervous system. The plants have been taking turns bolting for the last month or so. A few of the spinach plants have still barely begun to bolt. I clip them as soon as they start to shoot up, before they turn woody, when they’re still tender and sweet. Guess I’m going to have to make an extra-spinachy batch of my favorite curry, and use my other old favorite spinach recipes that I’ve posted on my Seasonal Chef web site.
