Fresh vegetables in the middle of winter? It’s possible, even in colder climes.
In my plot, I have covered beds of fall-sown kale and collard greens, as well as lettuce. To have a fresh-from-the-garden salad in January is nothing short of kingly.
By Adrian Higgins
Washington Post
Jan. 20, 2021
Excerpt:
In the depths of winter, Niki Jabbour steps out of her suburban home and extracts fresh veggies from the endless produce aisle known as her backyard garden.
She reels off the choices: “carrots, parsnips, beets, scallions, kale, winter lettuces, arugula, parsley, mâche, tatsoi .?.?. ”
This January luxury, you might think, must occur in California or Florida, but Jabbour gardens in her hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Like many gardeners in northern states and Canadian provinces, she has learned to extend the season by growing hardy veggies under covers. Climate change is a factor, in that milder winters make this enterprise more viable, but it still comes down to finding ways to wrap plants against the cold.
For Jabbour, a garden writer, broadcaster and Web publisher, this “undercover gardening” has been a part of her life for at least 20 years and is now fully expressed, both professionally and personally. Her family gets as much as three-quarters of the household produce from the garden. And she gets to tell the world about it, specifically in her new book, “Growing Under Cover.”
Covered gardening takes a number of forms that drag the gardener into a maze of methods and terminology — cold frames, floating row covers, mini-hoop tunnels and polytunnels. Jabbour has a place in her heart for them all, and with good reason.
