Setting up in the garage for my horticultural therapy classes is getting easier with practice. This one is about growing greens in the Fall and Winter, which excites and puzzles some of my clients.
“It’s not that hard to grow greens year round if you know just a little bit about what to plant and when,” I tell my clients. I let them sample of what could be coming in their own spaces by giving them tiny leaves of lettuce and arugula.
“This is delicious,” says Betty. “Can I grow this too?”
I set clients up with four different cold-resistant types of seeds: winter lettuces, arugula, kale and parsley. They also get small peat posts and a seedling tray to start their plants.
“To protect plants outside, once it gets cold you can build small hoop houses, which act like tiny greenhouses,” I say. “Or you can protect each plant individually by using a cloche that you can fabricate from a plastic milk or soda container.”
I show them pictures of each type of protective approach. After a few questions, everyone grabs a spade of soil and starts to plant up.
