Moxie Gardener

Belgian endive is forced indoors.

Winter is especially hard on gardeners in the far north.  Snow covers the landscape for several months of the year and growing anything outdoors is out of the question.  Belgian endive is meant to be forced in winter.  It’s a double blessing—fresh vegetables and a chance for the gardener in the house to grow something.

Belgian endive is actually a chicory—witloof chicory to be exact.  Its Latin binomial is Cichorium intybus. Belgian endive is thought to have been discovered somewhat by accident at the Belgian Botanical Gardens.  Apparently a professor of gardening planted wild chicory in the basement of the lab and mounded the soil up upon the plants.  The result were the chicons that today we call Belgian endive.

To force-grow Belgian endive in winter you first need to grow witloof chicory during the summer.  Direct sow seeds where they are to grow in early June.  Space seeds three inches apart in rows twelve inches apart.  When seedlings are two to three inches high, thin to six inches apart.

Witloof chicory doesn’t require super rich soil.  Feed sparingly and use a low nitrogen fertilizer or the plants will put all their energy into growing leaves.  Mulch to control weeds and provide an inch of rainfall per week.

The witloof chicory will be ready to harvest 110 to 130 days after direct seeding.  The roots will perform better when forcing indoors if the chicory is left in the ground to weather several light to moderate frosts.  Just make sure to dig the roots before the ground freezes solid.

Take care not to damage the roots of witloof chicory when digging them for storage prior to forcing for Belgian endive.  Keep only roots with a stem at least an inch in diameter.  Cut the leaves off about an inch above the root.  Trim any side roots and trim the main roots so they are about eight to nine inches long.  Set aside any damaged or cut roots to use first.

Store the roots on their sides in damp peat moss in your root cellar at about 35° F.  You can also tightly pack them, root end down, in a 2-gallon pot, filling in around the roots with damp sand.   These already potted up roots are ready to force when you’re ready to force them.

About three weeks before you want to use the Belgian endive, begin the forcing process.  Plant the number of roots you plan to force in a 10-12 inch deep pot using a sterile growing medium.  Water well and cover the pot with a black plastic bag or provide darkness another way.  In any case, darkness, and exposing the roots to warmer temperatures of 50° to 65° F. will cause the roots to grow the chicons, which we call Belgian endive.

After you harvest your Belgian endive, remound the soil on the roots, water, and put back in darkness at the same temperature as above and the roots will produce another crop of chicons for you.

These garlic chive seedlings have been growing too far from the fluorescent lights and have become "spindly" and "leggy."

Garden plants overwintering inside, along with seedlings we’ve started to get a jump on the growing season, need much more light indoors than we realize.  Garden plants, especially those that require full sun outside in the garden, need direct artificial light in order for them to grow well inside.  Seedlings need direct artificial light only a few inches above their tops or they will grow spindly and get leggy.  We want short, stocky plants with strong stems.

In contrast, “houseplants,” virtually without exception, are plants that grow in the shade of a canopy of trees in their natural jungle habitat.  Their natural requirement for less light is the reason we can grow houseplants so well without additional artificial light.

What is the best way to provide adequate light for our overwintering garden plants and seedlings we’re starting indoors to get a jump on the growing season?

If you have south-facing windows with a sill wide enough to accommodate a pot, your seedlings or overwintering garden plants will grow fairly well with this level of light.  However, the short days of the winter months will rob the plants of some vigor.

To insure that your plants growing on the windowsill get enough natural daylight, set them on the sill directly next to the window pane and insure that no curtain, shade, or blind is between the window glass and the plants.  A window with western exposure will give you slightly less vigorous growth than a window with southern exposure.

For exceptional results overwintering garden plants and/or starting seeds for your spring garden, grow them under fluorescent lights.  You will get the best results from fluorescent bulbs that indicate they contain the full light spectrum and emit light similar to natural sunlight.  Please note that these are not “grow” lights; they are full spectrum fluorescent lights.

For best results, place the plants so their tops are only a few inches from the lights.  It is imperative that you find a way to raise the level of the lights as the plants grow to maintain their robust, straight-up growth.  Make sure to turn the plants frequently to insure even growth.

Of course, the ideal way to overwinter garden plants and start seeds for the garden is in a greenhouse.  Some day I hope to be lucky enough to have one of those.

Until then, fluorescent shop lights are the way to go.

A red pepper growing in my modified square foot garden. If you look closely, you can see the "clothesline" dividers on the soil on either side of the pepper.

Square Foot gardening uses a square foot space as the centerpiece of its methods.  Four-foot-square beds are subdivided into one-foot-square sections and individually planted.  French Intensive gardening uses a bed five to six feet wide and twelve or more feet long.  Using either method, the actual growing area for crops is never walked upon.  Both methods recommend enclosing the bed with wood or masonry, raising the level of the soil, which creates a raised bed.

Square Foot gardening advises digging your soil to six inches below the surface, while French Intensive gardening double digs garden beds to a depth of two feet below the surface.  The perimeter boards or masonry increase the depth of the crops’ root zone and create a raised bed.

In my modified version, I create a bed four to five feet wide with the length determined by the geography of the site.  In the past I’ve used found or scrounged lumber for the perimeter, usually 2 x 4’s.

Next, I dig the soil down one spade depth and remove all the weeds, including the roots, by hand.  I then put down a two inch layer of compost and peat moss, along with a granular organic fertilizer.  I then turn the soil over a second time to incorporate the amendments, then rake the soil smooth.

To divide the bed into square foot sections, I use clothesline and three inch galvanized nails.  Here’s how:

• Measure the width of your bed, adding two to three inches to that width, then cut enough lengths of clothesline to separate the entire length of the bed into one foot wide strips.
• Tie a simple knot in both ends of each rope.
• Thread a galvanized nail through each knot and use the nail to anchor the rope into the soil on either side of the row.
• Do the same thing with ropes along the length of the bed, creating a grid, so that the entire bed is broken up into one-foot squares.

The squares are then planted using spacing advocated by the Square Foot method for some vegetables, and the French Intensive method for others.

The bed is planted, weeded, cultivated, and harvested without walking on the growing area.  Since I can only reach half of the bed from either side, I get a lot of exercise walking around to the other side of the bed.

The past two years have shown me that soil truly is the foundation of intensive gardening.  Build a strong foundation and your garden will produce outstanding yields for you.

Whichever method you use.

One method of intensive gardening utilizes a square foot grid with individual crops planted in each square.

Intensive gardening makes sense if you live in the city.  Small yards and urban forests can limit the size of your vegetable plot.  While you can grow a respectable amount of produce in a small garden, using an intensive gardening method can dramatically increase your yields.

Prior to 2007, for a variety of health reasons, I hadn’t grown vegetables for two years (it was agony!).   In 2007, I inherited a ready-made garden plot that had not been planted for several years.

Rather than take the time to amend the soil and plan my garden, all I did was pull the weeds.  I enthusiastically dove in and planted rows of vegetables and popped in a couple of herb plants.  At the last minute I scattered some green onion seeds in one corner of the bed.

The yields from that garden were respectable, but nothing to brag about.  Still, it gave us fresh veges grown by me.  I was back in gardening heaven.

When spring of 2008 came along, I did the same thing (at the time, my job was taking up twelve hours or more a day of my time).  I’m ashamed to say I didn’t even rotate my crops.  I just wanted to get the garden planted.  I was overcome with exhaustion due to too many things on my plate.

Midway through summer of 2008 I broke my arm, limiting my ability to do many gardening chores.

I have to report that my 2008 garden had the lowest yields of any garden I’ve ever grown.  In all fairness, we did have a cold, wet spring followed by a small drought at the beginning of summer.  Nothing can take the place of garden soil rich in organic matter.  It was the lack of rich, fertile soil that caused the decrease in crop yields.

For 2009, I’m resolving to amend the soil in all of my garden beds, old and new.  I also resolve to rotate my vegetable crops.  Finally, I resolve to plan my garden carefully.  The basic philosophy of intensive gardening is to grow as much as possible in a small space.  Planning companion and succession cropping is an integral part of putting this philosophy to work in the real world.

My goal in 2009 is to produce more vegetables from my small plot than I have in the past from much larger plots.

This should be interesting.

A brand new year and a fresh start in the garden.

It’s a new year and a chance for a new start in the garden.  Here are a few areas I hope to write about in 2009:

• This year I plan to return to intensive gardening. I use the square foot method, with a slight modification.  I’ll be sharing my successes and failures, along with a few things I’ve learned gardening with this method in the past.
• Fundamental to success in intensive gardening is improving your soil.  After last year’s disappointing yields, my garden soil is in dire need of improvement.  My goal is to improve the soil in my garden beds at little or no cost.
• One of my existing garden beds will be expanded and the other, primarily a flower garden with a few herbs thrown in, will get an entirely new planting scheme.  I also plan to add a narrow bed along the fence to hide the trash cans with a couple of rows of sunflowers.
• I gave up my seed starting shelves in a household move a couple of years ago.  Now that I have more room, I plan to purchase the components and put together another one.  I’ll start more of my own seeds, rather than purchase bedding plants.
• I’ll keep you updated on my progress at obtaining free or low cost seeds through seed savers exchanges.  Gardeners are so generous you can oftentimes get seeds for just a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
• I’m curious about the validity of planting and harvesting according to the phases of the moon.  I’ll be experimenting with this during the growing season.
• If I can find an available community garden plot, I plan to chronicle my experiences, successes, and failures while gardening away from home.
• Also on the agenda for 2009 is to review gardening sites, tools, catalogs, and miscellaneous gardening “stuff.”
• Finally, I’ll continue to spotlight individual plants in short, easy-to-read articles.  These articles are intended to be a general description of the plant or vegetable.  I’ll toss in a little background or trivia, along with general growing requirements for quick reference or to refresh your memory.

Most of all I want to share my experiences trying to grow as much as possible in my modest garden beds.  It does take effort, but the rewards are delicious.

Life is good in a garden.