Page 75 - Tracy Anderson Magazine – Summer 2020

A NATURAL DETOUR

Directions for designing a year-round garden.

Imagine being able to go out to your Come autumn, the garden returns to the
garden and harvest a variety of fresh cool season vegetables from the previous Niki’s Top
vegetables and herbs year-round. It may spring—lettuce, spinach, radishes, beets, Vegetables for
sound possible only for those who live in and peas. When frost threatens, Jabbour Fall and Winter
warmer climates, but according to Niki uses protective covers like row covers, Harvesting
Jabbour, the award-winning author of mini hoop tunnels, or cold frames to
The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener, even shelter the crops. Carrots - Carrots are
northern gardeners can enjoy a four-sea- an ideal crop for winter
son harvest. As fall turns to winter, Jabbour’s garden cold frames or mulched
beds and polytunnel are packed with beds. Jabbour sows
Jabbour lives in Nova Scotia, Canada, cold-hardy kale, scallions, arugula, Asian her winter carrots in
where winters can be long, cold, and greens, and carrots. Root crops, like the mid-summer to ensure
snowy. “It’s all about matching the veg- carrots, are hidden beneath a layer of they have sized up by
etables to the season and pairing them straw waiting for winter harvesting, while the time cold weather
with simple season extenders, like cold cold-tolerant salad greens are grown arrives.
frames and mini hoop tunnels,” she says. beneath mini tunnels and cold frames.
Kale - Young leaves
The Year-Round Harvest The Season Extenders can be harvested for
baby greens or mature
For most gardeners, the growing season Cold frame - A cold frame is a bot- plants for soups and
starts with spring. “My year-round tomless box with a clear top. It captures kale chips.
garden begins in March and April when solar energy and creates a microclimate
I sow seeds like tomatoes, broccoli, around your vegetables. Jabbour makes Spinach - For plenty
Background photo courtesy of Niki Jabbour, foreground photo of Niki by Joseph De Sciose
peppers, and cucumbers indoors,” says her cold frame boxes from rot-resistant of nutritious spinach
Jabbour. Soon, her raised beds are filled wood like hemlock, but you can also use greens, direct sow the
with a variety of vegetables, herbs, and cinder blocks, bricks, polycarbonate, and seeds in cold frames or
annual flowers. “I plant flowers like other materials. For the top, use a poly- under mini hoop tun-
zinnias and nasturtiums between my carbonate sheet or an old glass window. nels from late summer
vegetables to attract bees and pollina- through early autumn.
tors,” she says. Mini hoop tunnel - A mini hoop tun-
nel looks like a small greenhouse and is Arugula - Peppery
Wondering what to grow in the cool quick and easy to make over top-raised arugula thrives in cool
weather of spring? Jabbour recommends garden beds. Jabbour uses half-inch temperatures. Direct
vegetables that appreciate cool tempera- diameter PVC conduit for the hoops and sow the seeds in early
tures and ample moisture, like lettuce, covers this with a sheet of clear plastic. autumn and start har-
spinach, radishes, and carrots. Secure the cover with clips or weigh it vesting when the leaves
down with rocks or sandbags. are three inches long.
When spring turns to summer, it’s time
for her to plant the heat-loving tomato Mulch - Mulch is the easiest and cheap- Mache - Of all the
and pepper seedlings she started indoors. est option for insulating root crops like salad greens Jabbour
Jabbour also grows beans, potatoes, parsnips, carrots, and beets for harvest- grows in winter, mache
and squash. “Whenever anything is ing during winter. Jabbour uses shredded is the hardiest, sur-
harvested from the garden in summer, leaves or straw and piles a 12- to 18-inch- viving even without a
I immediately tuck more seedlings or deep layer on top of her beds in late protective cover. Direct
seeds in the empty spaces to ensure a autumn. She then covers the mulched sow the seeds in late
nonstop harvest,” she says. bed with an old row cover or piece of summer for plenty of
fabric to hold the mulch in place. tender winter salads.

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