High Latitude Gardening: Round Two (grow greens this far north!)

Fireweed, Black Spruce and direct sunlight at 10:30pm

Spinach
Green onion
Oak leaf lettuce
Green beans
Radishes
Turnips
Carrots
Cucumber
Dino kale
Curly Kale
Red Russian Kale
Beets
Alaska Peas
Swiss Chard
Celery
Tomatoes

That's what we're growin'.  While some of my stash has been going missing at the White River Community Garden on the other end of town (see last post..) the greenhouses that Rita, Randy and I grow in are doin' well.  You'd be surprised by the small amount of land needed to have a consistent harvest of greens and veggies.  We've been using about 40 square feet between two greenhouses and have been harvesting every single week.  The season is slowly winding down already (last night was the first frost) but the greenhouses are still producing.  We've been getting a consistent harvest of greens (easily enough to supply 3 - 4 people with their weekly share of greens) and Rita and Randy have been canning beets the last couple of days.  We've had too much that we've had to start giving away greens and veggies so they don't go bad.

We grew in greenhouses so we would be able to lock heat in through the nights and take advantage of the hot sun in the day, while we had it.  Leafy greens grow fast this far north.  We always have a consistent flow of kale and beet greens.  They don't mind the cooler nights (kale prefers it, actually), and you don't need to wait for hot sun to produce a flower until it begins producing the fruit (ie, our tomatoes and cucumber are struggling).  If I were further south I'd grow more tomatoes, but if you're in the north, your best bet is to grow leafy greens.  Ya won't be disappointed.

Typical early-season weekly harvest (mid-June).  Spinach, Radishes,
Radish microgreens, Spinach shoots, Dino, Curly and Red Russian Kale.

An early-July weekly harvest.

Late-July/Early August weekly harvest.

Chantelle sleeping amongst beet greens.

Indoor edible jungle, number one.