Hand-picked vegetables, year-round!

When your weather is frosty, it may be tough to picture harvesting fresh spinach from your own winter garden! But not only is it possible, there are many ways in which winter gardening is simple and beneficial. While fruit crops won’t work due to their need for long, sunny days to ripen, hardy crops will prosper with adequate protection. Don’t limit your thinking to root cellar vegetables! Many leaf, stem and root vegetables that focus on slow growth will thrive!

Five Benefits of Winter Gardening

There are many benefits associated with winter gardening. Great tasting veggies are just the start!

1. Winter gardening eliminates the high cost of food, especially organic produce which tends to be pricey.
2. Winter grocery store veggies can look a bit bedraggled after being imported from long-distances. Those long trips from warmer climates inflate prices and affect the ecological footprint. Homegrown winter veggies are fresh and environmentally friendly.
3. The longer the distance that vegetables travel from harvest to table, the more nutrients they lose. This is especially problematic when transporting vegetables from southern climates. Growing your own winter crops produces nutrient-rich vegetables.
4. Because of their slow growth, winter vegetables concentrate sugars which improves their flavor.
5. Winter gardening can be easier than summer crops! Growth is slow, weeds are fewer, pests are almost non-existent, and cool temperatures mean low evaporation which reduces watering requirements.

Does Climate Matter?

Northern tier states can grow many of same crops as southern states if using winter protection. In fact, excessive heat can be a risk to winter gardening, especially in the Southern states. By picking the right crops, and using simple protection techniques, it is possible to extend gardening across the country from 4 to 12 months!

Best Crops for Winter Gardening

To determine the best crops for winter gardening, look for cold-hardy vegetables. You’ll also find that different crops have unique growth habits. By understanding harvesting and growth patterns, you can schedule crops to allow for continuous planting. Following are some of the best crops for winter vegetables.

Leaf:

• Spinach
• Lettuce
• Arugula
• Asian greens
• Chard
• Kale
• Parsley

Root:

• Carrots
• Turnips
• Leeks
• Radish

How to Protect Your Crops

When protecting your winter garden, start with the least level of protection and watch your crops for tolerance. The warm sun makes it easy to overheat plants, and frames and greenhouses will need to be vented, especially on sunny or warmer days. Here are some options for protection.

1. Use low tunnels made of plastic pipe or wire bent over beds and covered with plastic sheeting or a semi-transparent fabric called Reemey.
2. Cover crops heavily with 2-3 inches of straw or leaf mulch. This keeps the roots warm and prevents evaporation.
3. Grow crops in a greenhouse. The greenhouse may be a glass or transparent structure, or heavy translucent plastic or fabric suspended on large metal conduit or PVC pipes.
4. Cover crops with blankets, old sheets or row-cover draped over stakes.
5. Put hay bales on the sides of a planting bed and cover the area with old windows creating a cold frame.
6. Use a hotbed. This is similar to a cold frame but has an additional heating device such as manure or a string of electric holiday lights.

We will cover more details of winter gardening in future posts, but these tips should get you dreaming and planning your first cold-weather garden. If you have some persistence and like to experiment, you could be richly rewarded with nutritious crops that will brighten any bleak winter meal! Check out the below infographic from Fix.com for additional information including planting dates, crop varieties and details on protection methods!

Source: Fix.com Blog