Planted Organic Zucchinies?!

נכתב ע"י maggie בתאריך 9 בפברואר 2014

I planted zucchini!
A bit weird isn't it? Zucchini, like all the pumpkin family, are a summer crop indeed. All the pumpkins we have right now were harvested at the end of last summer. The cucumbers and zucchinis arrive to us from organic hothouses in the Arava and not from open fields as we have in our garden.
Currently, the nights and mornings are really cold. The ground freezes the fingers... morning picking of leaves wet from dew (I wish it was rain) hurts the fingers because it's so cold... but then the sun comes out...
Yes, basically the days are getting longer. September 21 was the autumn equinox in which the day and night are the same length. Since summer the days were getting shorter and the nights grew longer, as befits winter. December 21 was the shortest day and the longest night. Since then the days are getting longer for spring and March 21 which is the spring equinox. Again, a day when day and night are the same length.
So the zucchini is usually planted early in the spring, so I cover the ground really well for heating and maybe even I'll cover with a kind of a sheet.
But this year I met a new problem .
This winter, which has not yet arrived in all its glory (I continue to hope for sweet water from the sky), was characterized by extremely low temperatures in the garden. I remind you that in the cold everything moves slowly. So the winter sowing, planned to be before the peak of cold, encountered freezing cold that delayed their germination and growth.
Remember the shortage of greens, with which we are still dealing a little? It too was due to the cold that slows the growth of the plants after harvest, taking them more time to grow new foliage for us to harvest.
So last week we received trays of new baby plants, fresh and strong after growing in a greenhouse, ready to move and grow in the garden and we hardly have place for them!
Some of the broccoli that was supposed to give way to new lettuces will be happy for a little extra garden time and the warming and nurturing sun; daikon radishes were supposed to go out to you but look like mizona leaves and have not yet developed a root at all; tiny teeny arugula, so cute but so small that it cannot be picked... what do we do with all this? Do we make way for the newer stronger planting?... Cabbage and cauliflower also need more time to develop the head a little bit more.... celery is slightly small but you've already gotten it....
Another problem, that actually is typical for the garden during this season, is the weeds.... Wow! so much weeds... They were also slowed because of the cold and it was actually very refreshing to be on vacation from them. In organic agriculture our only way to handle the weeds is weeding and in our garden weeding is done manually. I'd rather burn calories , not fuel, so I try to cover and cover areas full of weeds to prevent germination of new weeds. You know there are some seeds that can wait in the ground years before they find a good time to sprout! You can never get completely rid of weeds in a garden like ours. Insects and birds are an integral part of the garden and they, like the wind, keep bringing with them new seeds.... The sun of the past two weeks gave the weeds, as with our desired crops, an incredibly vigorous growth spurt.
So I weed, hoe and cultivate new beds, edges, corners and plots wherever it is possible for new tenants to reside - in winter and in summer ... Good luck to all the little ones!
Have a good week!
Yours,
Maggie and the garden staff


And expected in our weekly baskets: (draft only)
Carrots
Tomatoes
Bunch of sweet turnip
Lettuce
Ramiro peppers
Yams
Bunch of radishes
Broccoli
Coriander
And onions

Larger ones also:
Purple Cabbage
Celery
And parsley

Fruit baskets:
Pomelits
Oranges
And avocadoes