9 replies to this topic

[Deb aka Resume Lady]

I've never had a winter garden before and am committed to doing it this year.

But, I don't know what I'm doing.

I am hoping you do!

Please do share suggestions for what to plant and any tips you may have. I found out too late in the game that Green Valley did a winter garden workshop last weekend.

Thank you in advance!

[ducky]

I assume you are going more for a table crop instead of a cash crop so here are some plants that I've had some luck with. I'd really call it a fall crop. During the very dead of winter, even if I keep the plants alive during frosts, it's slow going and not really anything to harvest, plus I kind of forget to go out there with it getting dark so early and holidays. I have been able to start things earlier in cold frames like carrots and lettuces and greens for spring.

Broccoli, Swiss chard, bok choy, Italian flat-leaf parsley do well. I'm going to try celery this year from Green Acres. I don't do cabbage because my family doesn't like it.

To protect from frost, I prefer row cover fabric. It lets light in and is pretty inexpensive.

[supermom]

Have you tried growing with glass jars loosely placed over the crop?

[4thgenFolsomite]

I always put in a winter garden. how big of a bed do you have? that would determine what you want to grow.

I put in loose leaf lettuces in a mix (its a little on the late side to start with seeds, but no problem started six-packs, you just get a much bigger cut and come again lettuce garden with seed). I also grow beets, spinach, lacinato kale, blue kale, carrots that I sow together with breakfast radishes, and parley. These will take you all the way into spring.

I also sow fava beans and snow peas. these you plant now but they just sort of sit there in the ground thinking about it until its their time. Snow peas will come up first, so you have crisp pods in January through March. The fava beans will come up in winter and be ready to pick in mid to late spring. usually you have to pull them out to make room for your tomatoes. beans and peas fix nitrogen in the soil, so just cut off the tops to harvest them and leave the roots in the ground to enrich your bed naturally. they also like a little alkali, so adding some wood ash if you have it handy is a good thing to do.

onions and potatoes can go in later. potatoes are pretty frost sensitive, but you can protect them with mulch. they will come back even if the tops freeze, but it slows the development. onions you can plant now and harvest in spring. and let me tell you there is something very special about grilling fresh young spring onions on the bbq that you can't imagine until you've done it.

personally I really like my winter garden because you don't have to worry about watering at all once its germinated and it cools off. weeds grow slower too and there isn't much chance of sticking your hand in where there might be a snake either. its really nice to come home from work and be able to go out and pick lettuce for a dinner salad or spinach to slice an apple and some feta cheese into for a spinach salad.

do that winter garden this year!!!! I promise you will love it.
p.s. a winter garden does like sun though, so plant it in a sunny area.

[Deb aka Resume Lady]

Thank you for the input so far! The raised bed is 16' long, 9' wide at one end, curving to 6' wide at the other. It's not a huge garden, but it's been great having it. It is in a sunny location, so that's good. I like the ideas I'm hearing -- onions (and grilled spring onions sound awesome), kale, cabbage, broccoli, carrots, lettuce, snow peas, Swiss chard, beets, spinach, flat leaf parsley -- all sound good. I'm surprised to learn that lettuces and parsley do well in the cold.

Ducky, to what do you usually adhere the row cover fabric to lift it off the plants?

[4thgenFolsomite]

Thank you for the input so far! The raised bed is 16' long, 9' wide at one end, curving to 6' wide at the other. It's not a huge garden, but it's been great having it. It is in a sunny location, so that's good. I like the ideas I'm hearing -- onions (and grilled spring onions sound awesome), kale, cabbage, broccoli, carrots, lettuce, snow peas, Swiss chard, beets, spinach, flat leaf parsley -- all sound good. I'm surprised to learn that lettuces and parsley do well in the cold.

Ducky, to what do you usually adhere the row cover fabric to lift it off the plants?

that's a big garden space really. I think you're going to love it. just like a summer garden, your growth is going to come inwaves. And actually most leafy greens do much better in cold weather than in heat. I remember once in about 1997 or 1998 it snowed in Folsom. I had a huge lettuce bed, like four feet wide and six feet long. that's a lot of lettuce. well, I rushed around to cut the lettuce before the snow and gave bags to everyone I could. I couldn't get it all, so half the bed was left exposed to the snow. It didn't hurt it AT ALL! So I was fixed for lettuce while I waited for the rest of it to grow back. Now there is a difference in the type of lettuce you grow. If you try to grow ice berg, then you will have trouble with frost. But you won't with loose leaf. Cabbage and broccoli aren't going to give you much bang for your buck in our climate. Our days warm up too much so the growth is slow and by the time you're getting a decent head, it starts to warm up and your vegetable bolts. Poof!

my seedlings are all germinating right now. I have to cover the whole bed with tomato cages laid on their side to keep the turkeys out. A minute ago I saw a few trying to get at my kale. Had to move them out. Turkeys LOVE kale. I left one plant in the last three seasons and its a bush now and they nibble and peck at it every day. It's theirs now. I have to share.

[ducky]

Thank you for the input so far! The raised bed is 16' long, 9' wide at one end, curving to 6' wide at the other. It's not a huge garden, but it's been great having it. It is in a sunny location, so that's good. I like the ideas I'm hearing -- onions (and grilled spring onions sound awesome), kale, cabbage, broccoli, carrots, lettuce, snow peas, Swiss chard, beets, spinach, flat leaf parsley -- all sound good. I'm surprised to learn that lettuces and parsley do well in the cold.

Ducky, to what do you usually adhere the row cover fabric to lift it off the plants?

I had some of those square tomato cages and just used those as four corners and then had some bamboo stakes to make it into a tent shape. It wasn't ideal, but I was being cheap and didn't want to buy the super hoops to go with the row cover. I think I'd invest in the hoops next time. I also find that the material works well just wrapped around small potted citrus that you want to save on those frosty nights. If you put lights in the tree and put the white row cover material around the tree it even looks kind of cool at night.

I was amazed that my parsley stayed all winter, too. It actually did better in the winter than the summer.

I'd go with 4thgen's advice because she sounds like a much more talented gardner than I am, but I will say that I must have gotten lucky with broccoli last year because we had a good crop. I find it all depends on what kind of weather you get. This summer was the first in a long time that I had an excellent tomato crop.

[Deb aka Resume Lady]

Again, thanks all for the input. I've done very well with summer gardens, dedicating the largest portion of the area with different kinds of tomatoes. I've already got flat leaf parsley out there, so hopefully it will just continue to do well into the winter.

I am loving the idea of growing various kinds of leaf lettuce.

[4thgenFolsomite]

I'd go with 4thgen's advice because she sounds like a much more talented gardner than I am, but I will say that I must have gotten lucky with broccoli last year because we had a good crop. I find it all depends on what kind of weather you get. This summer was the first in a long time that I had an excellent tomato crop.

that is kind of you to say, but talent is different than experience. I've got zero talent! just some experience, there has to be some benefit to getting old.

on the other hand, you have good experience with broccoli, so that will work in Folsom and I also think you have a green thumb, Ducky!