Plant A Fall and Winter Garden

When you plant a winter garden and what you are able to grow successfully in the winter garden will depend upon your location and garden zone. But you can easily calculate when to plant it by knowing the days to maturity of the vegetables you plan to grow. For example, you know that carrots take about 60 days to mature, so they need to be planted 60 days before the date you want to harvest them.

Carrots are one of those wonderful crops that you can leave in the ground in cold weather perhaps up to Christmas time. Parsnips can stay in the ground even further. Some people put bales of hay on top to help keep them warmer. Amazingly enough, snow provides a good cover for carrots and parsnips. Most people agree parsnips taste far better after the roots are exposed to near-freezing temperatures in the fall and early winter. Then the starch in the parsnip root changes into sugar, enhancing the flavor.

If you plan to sow seeds, you need to get them in the ground while the ground is still warm. Most plants need warmth to germinate. You can direct seed peas, carrots, beets, spinach and lettuce. In a warmer climate, you would do that around the first week of August.

Plant onions, leeks, and cole crops like broccoli, collards, and cabbage the first week of August too.

Succession Planting

If you want a continuous crop, try succession planting. Simply plant at different intervals so that each crop will mature a little later than the previous one. One week, plant one batch. The second week, plant another batch, etc.

Soil Preparation is important

If you love gardening, you are probably going to plant your winter garden in the same place you had your warm season garden. This is when a garden plan is important too! If you plan the timing of your plantings properly, you will have space for every vegetable you want, spring, summer, fall and winter. When a summer vegetable is spent, then prepare that spot for your winter vegetables.

Amending the soil to make it nutrient-rich with compost and amendments is a good idea. If you had a summer garden, you probably won’t need very much extra work digging and preparing the soil for planting. Adding compost, manure, peat moss, lime, meal or your favorite amendements is a good idea.

A list of wonderful winter / cool season vegetables

• Snap peas and snow peas -Frost-hardy peas may be planted whenever the soil temperature is at least 45¬∞F or plant heat-tolerant varieties in midsummer to late summer for a fall crop. Plant peas at least 1 to 1-1/2 inches deep and one inch apart. Approximately 60 days to harvest.
• Cole crops: broccoli, cabbage, collards (frost hardy- can tolerate more cold weather in the late fall than other cole crops – 60-75 days to harvest), cauliflower, brussels sprouts, bok choy…
• Carrots – Hardy, cool season biennial. Plant about 1/2 deep (no more than two or three seeds per inch). Takes 2 weeks to germinate and approximately 60+ days to mature.
• Parsnips – Plant seeds 1/2 to 3/4 ” deep. They are slow germinating. You can keep them in the ground over winter and harvest in spring for what most consider to be the best flavor!
• Beets – Fairly frost hardy. Thin seedlings to 1-3 inches apart. Start successive plantings at 3 to 4 week intervals until midsummer. Takes approximately 60 days to maturity.
• Onions – Winter onions are planted from sets formed at the tops of the plant in place of flowers. You must get a winter variety such as walking onion/Egyptian onion, and these are perennials so give them a permanent home. In August, plant the sets 1 inch deep. Space sets 4 inches apart.
• Lettuce – Can be planted early spring or late summer. You may want to start lettuce seedlings in the shade and transplant when temperatures cool. Plant 1/2 inch deep, 12 inches apart.
• Mesclun – A mixture of young, leafy greens including lettuce.
• Spinach – Seed spinach in late summer for fall and winter harvest. Chill your spinach seeds in the refrigerator for 1-2 weeks before planting.
• Rutabagas/Turnips – A rutabaga is a cross between a cabbage and turnip. Turnips grow wild in Siberia. Turnips mature in two months and may be planted either in the spring, late summer or fall. You can eat the roots or leaves. Rutabagas mature in 3 months.
• Chard – Plant seeds 1/2 to 3/4 inches deep.

Also, remember that cold frames, containers, indoor gardening and greenhouses extend your growing season too. Many people garden year-round. Where there’s a will, there is almost always “a way.”