What do you grow in your winter garden?

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Permalink Reply by Terri on September 7, 2008 at 2:14pm

I am growing a fall garden that has the brassicas, turnip, spinach and lettuce. I am going to attempt a winter garden this year in an unheated greenhouse with some remay. I'm going to give it a go with some mesclun mix, spinach, and swiss chard.

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Permalink Reply by Mara Riley on September 9, 2008 at 1:31pm

I haven't tried a winter garden before, but this year I'm planting beets, spinach, a winter lettuce mix from Pinetree Garden Seeds, and cabbage (Dutch and Savoy).

I have some chard that I planted this spring that I'm going to leave in place over winter, too. Last year I had leeks in my garden that I planted in the spring and left over the following winter, so I'm doing the same thing again with leeks again this year.

I know that kale is a popular winter vegetable around here (SoMD), but neither my hubby nor I like the stuff, so planting it would be a waste.

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Permalink Reply by Clark Chesser on September 9, 2008 at 1:50pm

When should you plant winter vegetables?

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Permalink Reply by Tamra on September 9, 2008 at 3:06pm

In most parts of the US You want your winter veggies to be full grown my Nov 1. From Nov 1 to Feb 1 the sun is too low in the sky for much plant growth. So look at days to maturity for the veggie you want to grow and count backward. If the days to maturity is 60, then start that veggie by Sept 1. Elliot Coleman goes into much further detail about this in his book Four-Season Harvest.

As far as not liking kale, I have a tip. Most greens, particularly kale and collards sweeten up once they have been through a hard freeze. So I never grow them as a late spring crops, because they are too bitter. But in the fall after it freezes they are great. This January we were eating the sweetest collards I have ever had.

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Permalink Reply by Maggie on September 9, 2008 at 4:00pm

It is spring now here in Australia. On the Adelaide plains we have our best veggie gardens in winter.
We have winter rain and grow all sorts of green vegetables. We grow all the things listed by Tamra earlier in the discussion.
We also grow lots of asian green vegetables and daikon (white radish) grows well.
I love winter gardens as I can grow fenugreek and coriander, rocket, mibuna, mizuma, parsley, mints. chicory, fennels, spinach, silver beet. Our garlic is looking great.
We only have an occasional frost and the day temperatures would be milder than a lot of countries.
I have never lived in an area where it snows in winter, in fact a lot of Australians have never seen snow.
I have see Penelope's photos of her frozen, snow covered garden. I can not imagine anything grows when it is so cold.
What do you mean after it freezes?

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Permalink Reply by Tamra on September 9, 2008 at 5:05pm

Here in Tennessee we get nights below freezing, but the days warm up, greens such as kale and collards love this. I have wait till the day temps warm above freezing and the veggies thaw out to harvest.

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Permalink Reply by Maggie on September 9, 2008 at 5:48pm

Do the vegetable leaves actually freeze at night?
What do you call collards?
I know the Southerners use them in their cooking.

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Permalink Reply by Tamra on September 9, 2008 at 6:14pm

Yes the leaves do freeze when it is cold enough, but once the air temps warm above freezing, the plants look fine. Collards are the most cold hardy winter vegetable I grow. Last winter I only lightly covered them on the few nights when we had temps below 10 F.

Collard greens are a traditional southern food. My mother always cooked them for hours with pork fat. However I just steam them til tender, then I add a little garlic and/or onions and liquid smoke. We love to eat them with sweet pickle relish on top.

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Permalink Reply by Dennis C.Smith on October 12, 2008 at 5:40am

My aunt makes a tomato onion bell pepper and secret ingredient sause much like salsa but not hot and it is wonderful on greens and peas.
Greens can be seasoned with vegetable oil and beef bullion cubes to cut down on the fat,and still taste great.

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Permalink Reply by Michelle W. Flannery on November 9, 2008 at 7:39pm

I start with a little olive oil and saute the collards for a few minutes. Then I add chicken stock. I don't add more than a pinch of salt because of the salted broth. A pinch of pepper. And sometimes I add 1-2 tbsp of finely diced red pepper. I like it for the color, but it adds a very nice flavor too. Very healthy.

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Permalink Reply by Penelope on September 12, 2008 at 9:35am

My "winter garden" means a few herbs indoors in a window.

But I will be planting garlic outdoors soon to winter over into spring/summer. And I let root vegetables stay in the ground late into the fall. They keep better there. but now that I'm using raised beds, I can't winter over carrots or beets or parships; they turn to mush. When I planted them "in the ground" I could keep them there all winter and use them in the spring as soon as I could pry them out of the ground.

We haven't had a hard freeze here yet, so I still have tomatoes ripening. I picked the bulk of my basil yesterday and made a big batch of pesto. I'll make salsa for my visitors and use up some of these tomatoes. I don't really have enough to fire up the canner, but more than I can eat by myself. I've been eating bacon/tomato sandwiches with Brandywine tomatoes all week. Wonderful.

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Permalink Reply by Dennis C.Smith on October 12, 2008 at 5:34am

My grand.mother taught me to cook greens by getting the water boiling to the max then adding the greens adding a teaspoonn of salt per quart and adding some sugar if the grteens were tough to break down the stemms and remove bitterness

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