What do you grow in your winter garden?

[Chris Bocchino]

I was just wondering what everyone grew in their winter gardens or if they grow something that is out of the ordinary for the season.

[Joel LeGrand]

Hi Chris,
I picked & cooked my frist collards of the year, today. Onions & turnips,carrots,broccoli,cabbage,spinach,mustard & radishs are not readly yet.

[Patricia Campbell]

I grow mesclun as a cut-and-come-again crop. I like the spicy kind that includes lettuces, mustards, and arugula. It stays as baby greens to cut as I need most of the winter, covered with a plastic portable greenhouse. I grow spinach too, but it doesn't grow much until early spring so it has a head start. I will try cilantro this year and see how long I can keep it.

[Marian Worley]

I am usually so exhausted by the end of summer that I do not get out much in the way of winter crops. But this year I just made myself stick in a bit here and there and have been hoping for the best. So far I have some delicious greens, rainbow chard, kale, and collards. I have brussle sprouts that are bushing out, but no stalks yet, some cabbage but no heads yet, some lovely lettuce, and some snap peas that are forming now. I also stuck 1 little hill of yellow squash just to see what would happen and have gotten about 4 or 5 squash from it, reallly waited too late on that, but the plant was about 1.50 and I have gotten about 1.50 worth of squash so no harm done there! For the most part, I am just trying to eat as it comes in, there will not be enough to put any of this by, but it does keep me from having to dip into my winter reserves put by from the saummer crops. Here in Tennessee, we have had an excellent pepper fall, and the fall squashes and pumpkins have been marvelous at the local Farmer's Market and CSA's.

[Laurie]

Asian Garden: baby pak choi, chinese broccoli, sword lettuce, mizuna
Lettuces: deer tongue, marvel of 4 seasons, mesclun mix, arugala, tennis ball, dutch brown, buttercrunch
Sugar snaps, cauliflower, radishes, carrots, beets, mustard greens, collard greens

I'm in zone 7b in Texas

[Chris Welsh]

My husband and I have retired to Sebec, Maine, zone 4. We garden extensively, or as much as we can in three large gardens areas. This year we finally erected a "hoophouse". I had started cold weather seeds in September, and they were coming up nicely. Now we have musclun greens, swiss chard, beets, turnips, parsley, spinach, and some volunteer peas that have blossomed, and volunteer cilantro. It's working very nicely so far. We also still have kale, collards, brussel sprouts, celery, and carrots still growing outside the hoop house. It's amazing, and several more hoop houses with cold frames are in my plans for next year. The year was mixed in terms of our growing. With months of cool weather and rain, rain, rain, many crops did not do well, such as tomatoes, eggplants, peppers. Actually the peppers did the best of those three crops. And the heirloom tomatoes did much better than any of the hybrids we planted. We are happy with the availability of fresh greens still in November in our zone of Maine.

[Maya]

Chris, get those peppers under the hoops next year! Mine were still going yesterday under a partially-open piece of row cover. I threw a sheet of plastic on yesterday and buried the edges because there were still a few small peppers and completely strong leaves and stems. This is not one of the low tunnels, but a makeshift tent over bamboo poles, all held together by clothespins, thrown together in haste when the nights started cooling down in September. Also picked the last of the cucumbers yesterday (under same row cover) and pulled the vines. So while this is not "winter garden," it is easily-managed season extension. Just think what could be done with a bit more organization!

[Carefully Constructed Chaos]

I don't have much winter storage space, so I plan to use my "winter garden" to store roots. I am about to put up my low-tunnels.

You can cover your carrots, beets, turnips, etc with straw, then, depending on your climate, put a low tunnel over them. They won't "grow" any bigger, but they won't freeze and you can pull them as needed into January.

As I pull my roots, I scatter cold-loving varieties of lettuce seeds, beans, spinach, etc. that will come up very early in the spring.

My low tunnels look something like the ones here...

http://mastergardener.umd.edu/local/charles/Horticulture%20Know_how...



But one BIG difference... the ones on that page won't stand up to the snow!

Some things you need to do if you want these to protect your food into the winter...

1. Put the PCV closer together.

2. Anchor the PCV to the ground with a length of rebar into each end. You can buy 1ft and 2ft pre-cut lengths at many hardware stores...I use the 2ft lengths.

3. Most important... before you cover the low tunnel with plastic, cover it with a plastic mesh fencing and tie the mesh to the PCV. That will give it enough stability to stand up to some snow. The tighter you lay the plastic mesh, the less sag you'll get in your tunnel with the snow. And... when you pull off the plastic in the spring you just leave the mesh in place and your lettuce will be out of reach of rabbits.

I plan some of my beds for 2 crops... early spring and winter.

happy harvest!

[joe chmielewski]

I grow kale, lettuce, swiss chard, beets, carrots, garlic, celery, endive, onions and spinach. I have 3 4'x8' raised beds that I constructed cold frames.

[Lee38]

Onions, garlic, brussel sprouts, red kale, 3 kinds of cabbage, 3 cultivars of broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, turnips, carrots, beets swiss chard, peas. Nothing out of the ordinary fo a California garden.

[Marian Worley]

Collards Question

I have noticed that large chunks of the outer leaves are being eaten, clean acrsoo. I do see and am on top of cabbage moths, and have seen and am top of grasshoppers. But is there a chance that rabbits or chipmunks are eating them as well?

[Penelope]

Reminds me. I bought some "organic kale" at Fred Meyer last week and it was full of bugs. Not very appetizing.

[Tamra]

Could be slugs. In my garden the rabbits seem to prefer the clover and lettuce over the collards. Deer like kale as well, and so do chickens. I have row covers over my stuff, mostly to keep rabbits out.