Spinach Kicks Ass!
 

The Spinach in my garden is still alive and not looking the worse for wear either and it is November 5 already. It is a little milder than usual for some reason this fall (I am a zone 3)but we have still had a few freezes already.

Anyone else like spinach for late season and is there any other winter vegetables you guys would recommend?

Re: Spinach Kicks Ass!
 

Mustard greens are my favorite for productivity, ease of growing and nutritional value. They are brassicas.
http://www.elise.com/recipes/archive...ard_greens.php

Re: Spinach Kicks Ass!
 

I put in a winter garden just last weekend (better late than never!). I have a row of spinach seeded, plus cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower. Hopefully I'll be able to keep the chickens out of it; they keep flying over the fence! I planted mustard last year all over the orchard in between the apricot trees and grapes, and it's growing back wild now since we got rain last week. We use it as a ground cover and till it under in spring as "green manure", and we also eat it as greens.

Re: Spinach Kicks Ass!
 

Spinach handles cold well, and kale even better. Cooked spinach robs the body of calcium, so it is a healthy salad, but a long term danger cooked. Juiced raw spinach is a great anemia cure. (Low speed juicer, hand crank best.)

In many climates (kale will tolerate moderate freezes) you can provide a grazing area for hens all or most of the winter with kale. They still need some fat and protein from seeds (millet, hemp seed, etc) because turning out those eggs is intensive for their bodies, but if they have good green grazing they can provide about half their own feed and lay better tasting eggs that are also nutritionally superior.

And you can have kale salad greens too, though I like spinach better myself.

Re: Spinach Kicks Ass!
 

Because our city demands hens be penned overhead as well as fenced, I put in an 8 foot chicken wire roof over the garden / henyard, which is also cross fenced so I can choose where they are cleaning an area of old garden, weeds and bugs, where they are eating things intended for them, and where they are excluded. The added advantage is other birds don't eat the food intended for us or the hens. I had not realized how much they were munching till they couldn't. I noticed sunflower depradations, but not the full range of their partaking. They were even sneaking some of my hens' grain.

If you have a big place and that much fencing is not reasonable for you, clipping the large feathers of one wing will control most hens if you have a 6 foot fence. But you are removing their self defense flight too.

Re: Spinach Kicks Ass!
 

I'm also growing chard and beets. Forgot to mention that.

@#$% nosy city and their chicken-unfriendly demands! I only have a 3' high fence to protect the garden area. It doesn't really keep them out, but sometimes they get trapped inside! Funny chicks! Here's a pic with one side of the garden included:


http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/a...9/DSC_2938.jpg

I'm not too upset when I find the occasional chicken on the wrong side of the fence. I baby my girls more than some people do their kids; they'll probably get most of the good produce anyhow. I reserve the right to change my mind any time, of course, but for now the garden is mainly just for drill. But the chickens are for love.

Gratuitous chicken pix:
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/a...9/DSC_2946.jpg

Re: Spinach Kicks Ass!
 

oh! You have a light brahma. They can forage in snow. And if that is a buff orpington, they are sweet in disposition. Brahmas have the sweetest voices.

I'm going 100% black Australorpe next flock. You would think black hens would suffer in the heat, but maybe it is their aussie heritage, but they hold up best in a wide range of temperatures, lay the best, and I think I'd better plan on breeding true with what may be coming. Brahmas handle cold best, but we had one of our 3 die in a heat wave even with shade and a fan. Our test flock had many breeds.

Those are beautiful chickens.

Re: Spinach Kicks Ass!
 

I put mangel, or giant beet seed away, because they store in place and if you grate them they make decent hen feed on very little land.

Chard is practically immortal if you just take a little from each plant when picking for dinner.

Re: Spinach Kicks Ass!
 

Thanks! I'm new to chickens, and am very much enamored of them. I'm only just now learning their characteristics after having gotten them a couple of months ago (better late than never). The brahma ("Ash") does look made for the cold now that you mention it. Unfortunately all I can offer her is lots of mud to mess up her pretty leg feathers here on the left coast. I'll be sure to watch out for her in the heat, though luckily it usually doesn't get too hot here. You are right about the buff orphingtons having very sweet dispositions; they are my "lap chickens". They are also very smart; when I get the shovel, the buffs all flock to me knowing that I will dig them some worms.

Well, I could talk all day about my chickens, so I started a thread for them so I wouldn't hijack a perfectly ass-kicking spinach thread. On that note, I am still pulling a few tomatoes off the vines, and I saw some baby zukes too. I am so lucky to be able to garden year around!

Re: Spinach Kicks Ass!
 

My spinich didn't do worth a crap this year. Kentuky Wonder beans sure did, though.

Re: Spinach Kicks Ass!
 

My most extreme cold-hardy veggies are rapa broccoli (non-heading and grown for the greens) and turnip greens. They are the first things I put out in the garden in the spring, weeks before the last frost.

Re: Spinach Kicks Ass!
 

my swiss chard is kickin ass too! ;)

Re: Spinach Kicks Ass!
 

wow didn't know that about spinach will pass on

:4_8_4v:

Re: Spinach Kicks Ass!
 

thanks for sharing guys. it is below freezing outside and my power just came back on. i'm begining to think I should live in a warmer climate or at least all seasonal moderate. can't imagine a winter garden or chicks in this weather. maybe tnandy will update us on his greenhouse, that is what I think I would need for these extreme temps.