As the summertime growing time of year wanes , gardeners are left to wonder how they might continue the joyfulness of harvesting tonic food . There ’s no reason to think that winter yields are impossible — in fact , with careful planning and a bit of luck from the weather , growers can eat from their garden every calendar month of the year . Here are some point to stretch the growing time of year and continue eat topically .
1. Leave Crops In The Ground
Many root word vegetables , like Daucus carota sativa , parsnips and beets , meliorate with exposure to chilly temperature , so you’re able to leave them in the ground until you ’re quick to glean , even through light snows . For the best texture , harvest the produce before a cryptic halt .
When temperatures are cold , you ’ll want to wait until high noon to reap , so the ground is at its warmest . Digging in frosty land can make concretion and disturb dirt tillage . wait until the warmth of the afternoon mean you ’ll cause less wrong to the soil and enjoy your garden study more .
2. Grow Inside
ship’s boat perennials , like rosemary and lilac , thrive if pot and moved indoors for the wintertime . They can tolerate some moth-eaten , so keep them on an unwarmed porch if you like . irrigate the soil sparingly , and befog the leaves . you could transplant bid perennials back outside in the spring or just move the container back to your porch or deck of cards .
3. Deep Mulch
Lightweight mulches , like straw , offer plant leaves and ascendant security from cold and jazz . cryptical mulching — applying several layers of mulch material — is effectual for moth-eaten - sturdy , dim vegetable , like cabbages , turnip , beets and kohlrabi , and small - leaved perennial herbs , like thyme and oregano . commemorate the end of rows and cover them with 6 to 12 inch of stalk . When you require to harvest , dig through the straw , pluck a vegetable , and replace the mulch . This technique allows zone 6 farmers in my field of Ohio to reap cabbages in February .
4. Use Row Covers
Row covers — layer of material or plastic over small metal or plastic hoops — increase the air and soil temperature around your garden by immobilise solar heat . The warm house of cards under cover allows cabbage , chard and cold - tolerant lettuces to continue develop while protect roots from stop dead .
plan your row cover system to be well removable , so you could open up the air place when needed to vent heat or collect food . prefer material that are rated to provide the temperature protection you need . Lightweight textile is great for protecting greens from an early Robert Lee Frost . My farm , Swainway Urban Farm in Columbus Ohio , uses a level of perforate plastic get over by midweight material to protect our drop cultivated carrot crop for harvest well past Christmas .
Because the heatable aviation space is fairly small , rows can get too warm too rapidly and burn tender leave of lettuce and similar crops . Keep an eye on the out-of-door temperature and compute that on a sunny 24-hour interval , rows under clear screening will be as much as 40 degree F higher than the surrounding sphere .
5. Build A Root Cellar
Many fruit and veg can be hive away for calendar month under the right-hand conditions — the ultimate elbow room to cover your harvest . Traditional farm houses often include a root basement or a small outbuilding for this purpose , but modern menage often have space that can mimic the same condition . work up an outside root cellar by digging into the side of a hill or directly in the earth . Excavate a outer space and top it with an old threshold or sheet of woods to keep out hastiness and wind . You could alsobuild a cold - storage area in your basementor unembellished elbow room , if you do n’t have enough earth for an out-of-door warehousing domain .
Crops like squash , potatoes , carrot and apple all want standardized setting to store : coolheaded temperature ( 33 to 40 arcdegree F ) , high humidness ( 80 to 95 percent ) , dark and airing . A basement way with an earthen floor is ideal . Barring that , pack vegetables in slightly dampened sawdust or newspaper publisher in a wooden crate and storage in the cool , darkest spot you have .
storage vegetables in crates or baskets to allow aeration and have a plan for gruelling rain — if a dug cellar fills with weewee , your produce may be ruined . Often vegetables keep best when leave unwashed , though wintertime squeeze benefit from being wiped with a sheet soaked in white vinegar to kill fungus or mould spores that often linger on the control surface .
Bring potted herbs inside, so you can harvest them in the cold season. Photo by Kristine Paulus/Flickr.
Whatever root cellar option you build , be sure to match on your nutrient often . Remove any rotting piece to prevent the spread of mold and fungus .
6. Use Grow Lights
If you have a see- start setup and some spare seeds , consider growingmicrogreensor lettuces during the wintertime . Kale , Brassica oleracea italica and Raphanus sativus can all be grown as microgreens when seeded densely on a flimsy layer of territory . Sow cabbage in deep trays for cut and come again convenience . Many young viridity can be cut after as few as two weeks , so you may easily supplement your class ’s salads for the months between late fall and when you get starting seeds in the leap .
Plan For Next Year
If your crops are already apprehend up or you do n’t have the option of investing in etymon cellaring , quarrel cover or Inner Light right now , stay warm by design for next twelvemonth . admit space for an extended fall harvesting in your garden resume . Add cold - hardy seeds to your wish list . program successions of roots and greens , begin pile up mulching materials or keep up for a hoop house to increase your wintertime growing potential . The cooler seasons do n’t have to leave gardeners wringing their hands indoors . experimentation with winter growing and you ’ll be surprised at the abundance that ’s possible .
Deep mulching with straw will prevent your plants’ roots from freezing. Photo by Doug Beckers/Flickr.
Floating row covers can raise the air and soil temperature around your garden, thus extending the growing season. Photo by Susy Morris/Flickr
Store your harvest in a root cellar or cold-room storage area to make your root vegetables, squash and other produce last through the cold season. Photo by iStock/Thinkstock
Try growing plants, like microgreens and herbs, under grow lights to harvest in the winter. Photo by Josh Kelahan/Flickr
