April 6, 2017 - Early spring gardening trick

Several years ago when I started winter gardening, that is gardening on the back side of the calendar as suggested by Eliot Coleman, I researched winter crops and extremely old gardening books to review the cold frame process and suggested crops.

I did not keep a note of what book it was, but it was in the 1925 to 1940 range and originally was discussing market gardens in England and France.

Spinach and arugula were mentioned as fall and winter crops and there was an interesting tip about how to clear the fields for spring crops to be planted.  If the spinach and arugula plants were still viable in the spring there was a custom of lifting them carefully, trimming off the growth [the leaves and stem] above the neck of the root and replanting them in another section of the garden.   This seemed interesting to me and I filled it in the back of my mind for future use.

Couple of years later I needed to move Avenue No. 1 of my raised vegetable garden, yet my winter crop of spinach and arugula were not spent yet.   Remembering this little bit of garden lore from an old gardening book, I gently dug out 12 plants of each and set them aside in the shade.

I proceeded to move the Avenue No. 1 up the hill so that I had a 3 foot path instead of a 1 foot path and re-bricked it and smoothed the soil that I had excavated in the process.

The last thing I did that day was set out the saved plants after I had trimmed off the current growth.  I remember taking my dibble and making holes in the bed at 6 inch intervals and I slipped the slender roots in to the soft soil.  Closed the planting holes and tamped them down firmly so that they were at the proper growing depth about 1/4 inch above the soil surface.  I watered them in with some rainwater from a nearby bucket and I announced to my husband what I was trying.

He was skeptical. I was curious and monitored them for a few weeks.

Surprise, surprise, surprise. A few weeks later I had a lovely stand of arugula and spinach and I cut on it until the newly planted seeds came in for fresher, smaller leaves.  The replanted arugula and spinach did bolt faster, but not until I had taken off dozens of harvests of fresh, succulent leaves for myself and a gardening friend.

I have only shared this "secret garden lore" I gleaned out of an old gardening book with one friend and now I am sharing it with you as it is the right time of year in North Carolina to try it.

Give it a test drive.