My Rocky Mountain Winter Garden

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by Clara Coleman

In the following story, Clara Coleman reports on her first experience using a low-tech method developed by her father, Eliot Coleman, for growing salad greens in wintertime. In a companion piece beginning on Page 26, Eliot outlines the evolution of his method, now being adopted by gardeners and farmers throughout North America. — MOTHER

On a cold and rainy mid-September day last year, I planted tiny seeds in a patch of muddy earth and embarked on a seemingly contradictory journey of winter gardening in the Rocky Mountains, in Woody Creek, Colorado. Crouched over my new garden — a 6-by-24-foot raised bed surrounded by 24 bales of musty hay, I felt skeptical that it would succeed, despite reassurances from my father, Eliot Coleman. A long-time proponent of winter food production, he assured me that my winter garden would not only work but would amaze me with the simplicity of its care and the perseverance of its plants.

"The simpler, the better," he always says, so I used spoiled bales from a nearby horse farm, perfect for making a well-insulated base, and a few old 2-by-4's to set across the top. Dad furnished a 20-by-30-foot sheet of still-usable greenhouse plastic sheeting, and that took care of my materials.

Even though the mid-September planting date seemed a little late for some varieties, given the cold mountain climate of my location, my dad says all of the cold-hardy crops we chose were worth planting. I did have the advantage of being on the 38th parallel of latitude, which means I get longer days and more winter sun than he does on the 44th parallel in Maine, or than his Dutch gardening friends and mentors do way up on the 52nd parallel in Holland.

We chose spinach, mache (also called corn salad), arugula, tatsoi and a few other greens to plant. Spinach, Dad says, will germinate and grow at temperatures only slightly above freezing; cold temperatures and short days keep it in prime condition. Mâche, which grows in a small rosette of tender leaves about the size of a thumb, is another winter wonder green because of its incredible resistance to cold. Historically, Dad says, mache was a staple of French winter salads and was harvested wild in Europe for salads long before it was domesticated.

I found that cold weather actually enhances arugula's distinctive flavor, making it mild and complex to the taste, as opposed to strong and coarse — the common effect of summer heat. In Dad's Maine garden, September plantings of arugula under protection are productive until really cold weather hits; after that, he says, September plantings of arugula's hardier wild relative, sylvetta (Diplotaxis tenuifolia), can be harvested through the winter months. From Zone 6 south, the regular arugula should be adequately hardy all winter under protection. Tatsoi, an oriental leaf vegetable, is very hardy and has become a particular favorite in the United States because its shiny, darkgreen leaves are as delicious as they are beautiful.