Vegetable Gardening In The Winter
Gardening in the wintertime doesn’t only have to be for tropical plants indoors. Believe it or not, you can grow vegetables as well. Growing season doesn’t end in fall. You can plant things like broccoli, cabbage, chives, and garlic - they can grow during the long winter months too.
First it’s important to realize that you can’t plant them in the same way you would in the spring. These vegetables need certain nutrients and amounts of necessary minerals to grow. All the moisture and frost that gardeners dread, doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Use it for good, and you’ve got great winter vegetables on your hands. Let the gardening begin.
First we’ll begin with broccoli. There are many different varieties of broccoli and one of the best for growing in winter months is the Shogun. Shogun is an unusual species because it develops side shoots once the main head is cut. Make sure plenty of moist (but not too moist) soil is provided. Do not allow the soil to become dry. Lime-ph is needed to make sure the broccoli has proper growth. You want 6.5-7.5 to grow your broccoli. Planting your broccoli in the winter will avoid problems with bug infestations, especially caterpillars. When grown in the winter, broccoli will only take approximately 3 months before it is ready to be cut.
Garlic, is the next vegetable that can be grown in the winter. Very well drained, fertile soil is what is needed to make garlic produce without too much at random. It would be best to make your own mix with a few things like, compost, sand, fertilizer, or anything else that will create a deep, fertile soil for your garlic to grow. Your soil pH must be above 6.0. Care for this plant is critical before the planting starts. Garlic will survive heavy freezing, but mulching should be done to prevent heaving. All growth happens underground in the roots growing; sprouting won’t happen until spring. All the work done before planting begins, is what will decide the end result for your cloves. When you begin to plant, choose the biggest cloves and sow them upright so that the root end is facing down into the ground. Because we’re not going very far under the surface, an inch, be careful of watering, so that your clove is not uprooted. Mulching may be necessary around the edges of your clove if soil becomes to dry. They will be growing underground all winter, but once they start sprouting in the spring, liquid fertilizer would help their growth and increase the size of your cloves, (although this depends hugely on the size of the leaves on the clove last spring).
How about a trip to the Far East with some oriental cooking? Oriental vegetables offer some attractive variety to your vegetable garden. Snow peas, a prominent oriental vegetable, are very popular in Chinese dishes, but are difficult to plant in the wintertime. Snow peas can’t last long in the cold frosty months, but if you live in a relatively moderate climate without harsh winters, snow peas will grow wonderfully. Remember that they are a climbing type of garden plant and will need support.
A few other great oriental vegetables are Misome and Komatsuna. Misome is great in stir-fries and is often found in Chinese restaurants with Bok Choy. Dark and leafy, Misome matures very quickly and can be planted in the winter. This does slow maturity down, but will come up faster than cabbage. Komatsuna, or Mustard Spinach, gets its name from its likeness in appearance to leafy mustard. Komatsuna is more like a leafy form of turnip than mustard however. With its tender, glossy leaves, it does have the similar taste to something between cabbage and mustard. It grows quickly and is very easy to grow all year round, although in some of the colder places may be difficult and extra measure to keep the plant warm may have to be taken.
Another winter vegetable is cabbage. There are a few different types of cabbage, and different breeds do better in the winter. Those take approximately 3 months from transplanting them into the garden. Plant during the winter, and when spring arrives, a fresh garden of cabbage will be ready for picking.
Many vegetables will bloom in the winter months, and others, like the cabbage and garlic, will grow all winter and be ready for spring. Keep them warm and let them grow!
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