Your Winter Vegetable Garden the Second Act Mike Kluk, Nevada County Master Gardener
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Your Winter Vegetable Garden The Second Act Mike Kluk, Nevada County Master Gardener For many of us, when the curtain protection. A well-hydrated plant candidates. Instead of winter cover of frost falls on our summer will handle the cold better than crops or straw on all of your beds, vegetables, we put away our one that is drought stressed. So, some will be growing salad and a tools and wait for spring to begin be prepared to water if there is an vegetable side dish. If you live in again. But it is possible to have a extended dry spell in the winter. snow country, you will probably second act with a whole new cast Choosing beds that are protected need to use a season-extender of characters. Growing a winter from the prevailing winter wind will structure. You will also need to clear garden is a great way to continue also help. the snow away to allow enough to enjoy fresh, healthy vegetables I have managed to have a light to reach the plants. The throughout the year. With a bit of respectable winter garden for exception would be root crops such planning and a few winter-specific several years. Our nighttime as beets and carrots. If you plant a approaches, you can successfully temperatures on clear nights sufficient number in the spring, you grow vegetables that are as varied are generally in the low 20s can enjoy them all winter. Unless and tasty as anything summer has with excursions into the teens your soil freezes, mature beets and to offer. a few times during the winter carrots will do just fine under the The guru of winter vegetable being predictable. The lowest snow waiting to be pulled up for gardening, Eliot Coleman, is a temperature I have recorded at dinner. But the spring planted crop market gardener on the coast our place was 10F, and our winter will not be as sweet as those you of Maine. If he can grow winter garden pulled through in decent plant in the late summer or early fall vegetables profitably there, it shape. after the frost hits them. should be easy here in the foothills One of the big challenges to The following chart includes of Nevada County. growing a winter garden is figuring hardy vegetables you may want to In many respects, your winter out where to put it. Many of your consider growing and the number garden will take less work than winter vegetables will need to be of days to plant prior to your the summer version. You will not planted in July, August or early first frost date. It is by no means need to water as often. Weed September—when your summer a complete list. This information and bug problems are fewer. The crops are still producing well. You came from Eliot Coleman’s book key is getting started early and can never have too many garden Four Season Harvest with some planting cold-tolerant varieties. beds, and this is a good argument modifications based on my Mature plants can withstand cold for establishing more. You’ll find experience. Of course the best temperatures better than younger that the rotation is actually fairly planting date depends on whether plants. Most of the plants you will simple if you plan ahead. You may the cold settles hard in the fall at grow in winter such as lettuces, have a summer cover crop such your garden site or if you tend to leeks, onions, mache and kale, as buckwheat on some beds, just have a period of warmer weather can survive temperatures into the waiting for your winter vegetable after the first frost. teens or even single digits once starts. Beds that had peas in the Sequential planting through the established, especially if given some winter and spring are also likely period will extend your harvest Nevada County Master Gardeners (530) 273-0919 http://ncmg.ucanr.org 255 S. Auburn St., Grass Valley CA UCCE Nevada County Master Gardeners although that is not a big issue Vegetable Varieties for the Winter Garden for a winter garden because the Direct seed Days before first frost plants mature slowly. If you use the covers discussed in the next Beets 30-60 article, you can plant in the shorter Carrots 45-60 time frame. If you don’t, you should start your plants near the earlier Cilantro 20-60 date. In any case, mustard, in all of Claytonia (Miner’s Lettuce) 15-45 its manifestations—from broccoli Lettuce (leafy cut and come again 15-70 to tatsoi—is likely to be the star of varieties seem most successful) your winter garden. Mache (Corn Salad) 15-45 Site selection to take advantage of the warmest microclimates in your Peas 45-90 garden important. For example, Scallions 15-90 areas near a south-facing fence or wall will benefit from reflected Spinach 0-30 heat and light during the day. Swiss chard 30-60 Concentrating your winter garden in areas that are protected from Turnips 45-60 cold, drying winds will also go far Seed Transplant Starts to increase your plants’ chances of (Plant out approx. 30 days after seeding) surviving the winter. Broccoli 75-105 Cabbage 60-90 Cauliflower 75-105 Kale (Red Russian) 45-105 Leeks 90-120 Mustard Greens, Boc Choy, Pak Choy, Mizuna, Tatsoi 15-75 Parsley 45-90 References: The Winter Harvest Handbook and Four-Season Harvest, Eliot Coleman Gardening When It Counts—Growing Food in Hard Times, Steve Solomon Winter Gardening in the Maritime Northwest: Cool-Season Crops for the Year-Round Gardener, Binda Colebrook How to Grow Winter Vegetables, Charles Dowding Solar Gardening—Growing Vegetables Year Round the American Intensive Way, Leandre Poisson/Gretchen Vogel Poisson The Art of Season Extending, University of California Cooperative Extension Season Extenders Maybe You Can Fool Mother Nature Mike Kluk, Nevada County Master Gardener heat stored in the soil during the day, not letting it escape to the atmosphere as fast as it otherwise would. Hot caps Over 350 years ago, gardeners discovered that they could protect heat-loving summer varieties from late frosts by covering each individual plant with a small oiled paper tent A greenhouse—the biggest, most expensive type of season extender or a large “jar” made of glass, often called a cloche or bell The phrase “season extender” cover, cold frames, high tunnels, jar. Gardeners still use these refers to a wide range of generally greenhouses and shade cloth. although they are most often low-tech items and approaches This article will give you an made of thin plastic supported that can keep your warm-season introduction to the most by a wire hoop or homemade plants warm when it’s cold common season extenders and out of a plastic milk jug with the outside and your cool-season hopefully inspire you to give bottom cut off. Unfortunately, crops cool when the mercury is them a try. these individual coverings must rising. be removed on warm sunny days Fall and spring to avoid overheating the plants Season extenders will not fool season extenders and, because of the small size, Mother Nature enough to let you The early spring is a time of can have only a limited affect on grow tomatoes in the winter or changeable, fickle weather in the nighttime temperatures. most lettuces in the height of foothills. Season extenders make summer. But season extenders it possible to start warm-season Floating row cover can help you get a jump start crops at times that would not Another spring option is row on your summer garden, keep otherwise be optimum. Home cover, generally spun polyester, your cool-weather crops going gardeners are most familiar which is laid directly on the plants longer into the summer, extend with the season extenders and held down on the edges your summer vegetables deeper used in spring. All of them work with soil or rocks. Floating row into fall and grow cold-tolerant on the principle of creating a cover serves the same function of vegetables through winter. microclimate by holding in the increasing daytime temperatures Some common season extenders heat of the sun and humidity and humidity when necessary are cloches or hot caps, low during cold days and protecting and holding some of the day’s tunnels with coverings of the plants from damaging winds. heat in at night for at least a while. polyethylene plastic or row At night, they hold in some of the It has the added benefit that it Nevada County Master Gardeners (530) 273-0919 http://ncmg.ucanr.org 255 S. Auburn St., Grass Valley CA UCCE Nevada County Master Gardeners breathes” so that it is unlikely to options are beyond the scope of enough to allow you to reach overheat on sunny, warm spring this article. all of the plants from the open days. The material used in this way side. An alternative is to use 4’ x is a thin version of row cover. The 8’ polycarbonate panels that are various covering options will be simply laid on the frame. They discussed separately below. will span a typical garden bed, Hot caps and floating row cover can be held down with boards or work in the relatively warm days bricks and simply slid off when and nights of late spring. Floating you want access. Cold frames have row cover is a practical way to the disadvantage of being fairly Low tunnel protect your mature summer expensive to buy and somewhat complicated to build and may vegetables from the first cool Cold frames and low tunnels nights of fall, extending your not be practical to cover multiple The next step up in effectiveness, beds.