Grow Your Own Vegetables in the Winter Garden

Growing your own winter hardy vegetables is a worthwhile way to reduce the astronomical number of air miles which accrue from the import of unseasonal produce which fills the supermarket shelves during the coldest months of the year.

Frost resistant vegetables are not difficult to grow, but they do have a long growing season. It’s a good idea to plan cropping programmes 12 months in advance and include a range of vitamin rich, flavoursome, health-giving crops in your seed order. This article looks at the benefits and cultural requirements of three of the most popular.

Leeks are an Indispensable Winter Vegetable

Leeks are one of the most reliable winter hardy vegetables. This ancient crop suffered a fall from grace in the 16th and 17th centuries. Its decline in popularity has been attributed to over-cooking which makes them slimy and for being gritty if not thoroughly cleaned. This tasty vegetable whose fibrous roots improve heavy soil is a useful source of potassium and folic acid as well as vitamins A and C.

Useful Tips on How to Grow Leeks

• Sow the seeds thinly under cover in March or outdoors in a nursery bed in April.
• Transplant the seedlings when they are pencil thick about 12 weeks after sowing.
• Make holes with a dibber (or a rake handle as this saves bending) 20cm deep.
• Space the holes 15cm apart in rows 30cm apart.
• Trim a little off both the roots and the leaves and drop one plant in each hole.
• Don’t fill the hole, but simply water each hole after planting and this will settle enough soil over the roots.
• To spread the harvesting period grow at least two varieties – ‘Bandit’ and ‘Giant Winter’ are both reliable.

Parsnips Thrive in the Winter Garden

Parsnips were considered a luxury vegetable by the aristocracy in ancient Rome. These days the parsnip is regarded as a particularly British vegetable because of its winter hardiness. They are a useful source of starch, fibre and antioxidant vitamins C and E. Parsnips are best harvested after the first frosts since the cold converts the starch to sugar, sweetening the roots and mellowing the flavour.

Useful Tips on How to Grow Parsnips

• Sow parsnips from May to early June rather than the generally recommended February to April. The roots will be plenty big enough, but suffer much less from parsnip canker.
• Germination is slow and fresh seed must be used every year.
• For straight, well-shaped roots a deeply worked, stone free soil without fresh manure is essential.
• Parsnips can’t be transplanted and must be sown direct in drills 1cm deep with 30cm between the rows.
• Seedlings should be thinned to 15cm apart in the rows.
• ‘Tender and True’ is a popular variety with outstanding flavour and ‘Gladiator’ is a canker resistant F1 cultivar.

Brussel Sprouts are a Must in the Winter Vegetable Patch

Brussel sprouts were grown as early as the 1200s in Belgium. Long associated with Christmas turkey this versatile brassica which has suffered a bad press as a result of over-boiling, is a winter stalwart. It can be included in many extremely tasty dishes. These elegant miniature cabbages may help to reduce the risk of some cancers.

Useful Tips on How to Grow Brussel Sprouts

• Sow Brussel sprout seeds in March and April.
• Germinate them in trays under glass and grow on in 9cm pots of multi-purpose compost prior to planting out in May/June.
• Plant into well manured soil spacing the plants 75cm apart each way.
• Firm the soil well before planting or loose buttons (sprouts) will be the result.
• Older varieties like ‘Evesham Special’ have the finest flavour but if club-root disease is in the soil then the new club root resistant F1 cultivar ‘Crispus’ available from ‘Plants of Distinction’ s a wise choice.

Find a Place for These and Other Hardy Vegetables in the Winter Garden

These three staple crops will be available to harvest right through to spring. Other winter hardy vegetables to grow alongside them include kale, purple sprouting broccoli and swede. There really is no need to rely too heavily on imported greens and roots when so many can be grown at home.