12 Month Gardening

We've been busy with the bees and the gardens here lately.   We've moved the hives closer to the house to a place at the end of the existing gardens where we will be putting in a berry patch.    It's so nice to have the bees closer!   Expect more details on that later this week.

What I want to talk about first is 12 month gardening.   

We grow food in our gardens for 12 months of the year.   When I posted last winter about veggies that like cold weather, one of my lovely readers cross posted it on Reddit.   I got lots of pageviews [Thank you!!] and some very interesting comments posted on reddit.  

A few people thought my list was ridiculous.   They assumed that I go out in January in the snow and plant my lettuce and radishes then.    There is a deep misunderstanding of how 12 month gardening works.  

Winter gardening is not going out in the dead of winter with your hoe and a packet of seeds and  then carving a row out of the frozen ground, then planting the seeds and expecting them to grow like they do in May.

No.   Definitely not.  

Winter gardening begins in early fall - September, here.   We prep the beds and get them planted and then cover them for the winter in hoop houses and cold frames.  This way we can harvest through the entire winter and then plant again as soon as our latitude gets enough sunshine in the spring.

It's as easy as you want it to be.   Put some straw mulch in there if you want to prevent weeds and water if it gets too warm. 

Here are some things to think about now for your winter garden:

1.  Good soil:  Fertilize with manure or something else before you plant things.   This is especially necessary if you've grown a crop in that bed already this year, as I do. 

2.  Choose appropriate winter veggies:   Don't plant corn, squash and tomatoes.   Do plant greens, radishes, fennel, carrots and other cold weather loving veg.

3.  Prepare appropriate covers:  I use a two layer system - a cold frame or hoop house on the outside with row covers or extra plastic on the inside.   It's like you being in a winter coat in a car in the sunshine.  Even when it's really cold out, you are going to be much warmer than the outside temp.   And that's warm enough for the right kind of vegetables.  

If you can get your hands on some double walled greenhouse 'glass' [it's really acrylic] or some recycled double paned windows, they'll work too.  

And remember - cold frames don't have to be very big and they can tuck up nicely on the south side of your house.   That's just enough to plant a short row of radishes and some greens.

4.  Plant early enough so that you're still getting enough light for things to grow.  Once they get so big, they'll be fine all winter in the ground.   This is where the idea for root cellars came from.   I can plant until early October.  

5.  Watering:  In cold weather, the plants aren't respiring as heavily as when it's hot, so you don't have to water unless it's really warm in there.   If it's warm enough for you to be outside working comfortably, then check the cold frame and if it's dry, sprinkle it. 

6.  Weeds:  They'll grow too, so we use a thick layer of straw between rows.  Newspapers or cardboard work just as well.

We will likely be replacing our current hoop house structure [made with pvc] with a structure made with a 16' cattle panel.   The old one was fine....until we got loads of snow and it collapsed.   The new one should be a little more collapse proof.   I'll keep you updated.

Garden Yields

Those are last year's squash blossoms in the pic.   I love squash blossoms.
 
While I was researching yesterday's post on How much should I plant to feed my family, I found a couple of great related links that list estimates for how much yield you can expect from your garden.

• This is a great post from From Scratch Magazine on How Much I Need to Plant to Feed My Family. There is a downloadable pdf chart.  Read the whole piece and note that these are fresh food estimates.  She multiplies by 5 to cover both fresh eating and preservation amounts.   The chart includes estimates of how much seed you need, estimated yield per 100 ft row and an average amount suggested per person.  It's geared toward big time gardens.

• Another interesting list at Bonnie Plants is here. Their list includes approximate yields per 10 ft row - geared toward backyard gardens.  I like this list a lot and it includes lists for cool season plants as well as warm season plants.    With a bit of planning, your garden can do double duty and with a bit of protection you can garden 12 months of the year even in the northern US. 

• Here's a great collection of information for beginner gardeners.   This page has all kinds of great information for you to get started. 

The 12 Month Garden

On Saturday, I talked about what vegetables are terrific for cool/cold weather gardens.

On Sunday, I talked about how to figure out what times of year you're getting enough daylight to grow vegetables - you want 10 hours of daylight a day.

Then I told you that we garden 12 months of the year.    How is that possible, given that we get less than 10 hours of daylight a day from November 16 through January 25?

An excellent question.   See that pic up there?   That's a cold frame [built with straw bales] on Christmas Day under the snow.   See all those greens in there?

The truth is that things do continue to grow during the dark parts of the year, they just grow very slowly.   And another important truth is that vegetables in the ground keep far far longer than they do in your refrigerator.   Which means that if you plant carrots and they're ready in late November,  they'll keep quite nicely in place, in the ground, unharvested, all through the winter and you can use them as you need them.

Winter gardens double as root cellars.  [Actually a good root cellar mimics the conditions of a winter garden.]

I know this for a fact.   We do it here.   I can plant carrots in late September or early October and can harvest the best carrots I've ever eaten in late February.  [Carrots are much sweeter when grown in cold weather.]

So, start thinking now about your winter garden.   Buy seeds now for those cold weather veggies that you can plant late in the year in a cold frame or hoop house or green house in the fall and then eat on all winter long.  [See the post from a couple of days ago for a list of good cold/cool garden veggies.]


For information on hoop houses and cold frames see the links to my posts in the sidebar under Garden Helps ---->

Here is more information on winter gardening from Eliot Coleman.  Check out his Winter Garden Handbook in my book list over there in the sidebar ---->.

And here's even more information on winter gardens from the Walden Effect blog.

And here's a guide from Johnny's Seeds.   It's written for folks wanting to do large quantities for farmer's markets, but there's good stuff for every gardener in there, too.   Scroll down until you hit the section on 10 ways to extend your season.

Early Planting: Plants that love cold weather.

There are two big things that winter gardens need to grow well - warmth and light.   I thought you might be interested to know how to deal with those things in order to get a 12 month garden.  We'll talk about temperature today and  light tomorrow.

Some plants just don't like the cold and you'll never get them to go through the winter, even if you can keep the temps above freezing in your greenhouse or hoop house.  Basil is a good example.   It spots and pouts if the temp gets down near 40 degrees.    Not to worry!  There are plenty of plants that love cold weather.

Good cold/cool weather plants are:

• lettuce
• arugula
• spinach
• maiche
• endive
• claytonia
• carrots
• radishes
• scallions
• sorrel
• watercress
• leeks
• chard
• beets
• turnip
• mustard
• pak choi

For specific varieties,  check out Eliot Coleman's The Winter Harvest Handbook: Year Round Vegetable Production Using Deep Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses [also in the book list on my sidebar.]    The book is fantastic and he's trialed many varieties.

Plants that must have very warm soil to be happy are:

• squash
• melons
• eggplant
• sweet potatoes
• basil
• red long beans

In other words, don't plan on keeping these happy in a hoop house over the winter.    I don't even plant them until well after the last frost date, in very warm soil.   In the fall, these things are the first to keel over and die when it gets close to frost.

By planting things during the right season, you can double or triple the production of your garden.   Plant carrots and lettuce under cover now, then harvest it in early May, when you can pop some melons and basil in that same bed.   Then when you harvest the melons and basil, you can plant a winter garden and have radishes, carrots and arugula all winter long.