Winter Gardening Guide

While the summer months may be the main growing season, there's no reason to hang up your hoe through the winter. Winter gardening can be an ideal way to continue growing food to eat because many vegetables prefer growing in cooler temperatures. Choose winter crops to grow and learn tips and tricks for making your winter garden successful. You might even consider taking your garden inside during the winter months.

Winter Crops

Vegetables vary in the weather conditions they prefer for growing. While many vegetables prefer the hot temperatures of summer, some grow best in the cooler temperatures of winter. A winter garden might include vegetables such as Swiss chard, potatoes, onions, garlic, leafy greens, leeks, radishes, peas, and spinach. Root vegetables such as turnips, rutabaga, carrots, and beets will thrive during the winter also. Another good winter crop is a cover crop such as rye. To avoid soil erosion from wind and water over the winter, you might plant rye in your garden. Rye also benefits your growing area because it can inhibit the growth of weeds. Another benefit of a cover crop is that it can help balance the nutrients in the soil, adding nitrogen, if necessary, or preventing the nutrients from escaping over the winter months. When it's time to mow off the growth before the next growing season, you can save it to use as mulch in other vegetable beds.

Tips and Tricks

Timing is important for a successful winter garden because your plants need enough time to germinate and grow before the first frosts occur but they can't have matured yet. Generally, planting in late August or September should enable seeds and plants to mature sufficiently before the first frosts. After plants sprout and grow, mulch them in snugly to provide extra warmth and protection.

Some winter gardeners build cold-frame structures over winter plants in the garden for added protection. A cold frame frame has a wood, metal, or plastic frame with clear plastic or glass over the top to protect plants from wind while still allowing sun to penetrate through the fabric layer. A cold frame can be a permanent fixture in the garden, or you can make yours portable to enable you to move it as necessary.

Many root vegetables can stay in the soil over the winter, allowing you to harvest them as you need them. Mulch these plants in well and simply pull back the mulch to access the plants throughout the winter.

Points to Consider

Remember that plants grow more slowly during cool weather, so the typical growth patterns of greens and other vegetables during the spring and summer will not occur when you are growing vegetables over the winter months. Pre-sprouting seeds indoors can enable you to control the germination time more carefully because you can predict sprouting times at controlled temperatures. This can enable you to plan your planting and germination times more precisely before transplanting seedlings outdoors.

When you garden over the winter, one of the many benefits will be the lack of insects disturbing your plants. Because insects do not remain as active during the winter, your crops should grow successfully without interference from these pests.

Indoor Gardening

Winter gardening does not have to involve trudging through mud and snow to reach your outdoor growing area. Instead, you might prefer to bring your vegetables indoors where it's warm. Indoor gardening can be an effective way to produce vibrant vegetables year-round. Erecting a hobby greenhouse is one option for indoor gardening. If you prefer to avoid this effort and expense, you can also grow vegetables and herbs in a sunny window or with a grow light suspended over them. Most vegetables need full sun, so you would need to ensure that they receive at least six to eight hours of sunlight or artificial light each day. High-intensity grow lights can provide this level of light, and you would need to suspend the light fixtures at the correct height above the plants.

Written By Ava Rose.