Imagine sweeping aside a bit of snow to discover crisp carrots waiting in the ground below. A chilly trip out to the garden most winter months can be rewarded with fresh greens such as collards. There are dozens of vegetables we can consider for winter harvest, but summer is the time to plan for the winter.
Thanks to BC's relatively mild winter climate, most vegetables will grow with no or limited protection, so winter gardening can be quite simple. With a bit of research and experimentation, it's a fun and tasty project that allows us to eat fresh, organic, local food year round for only the cost of the seeds.
While winter is the furthest thing from most people's minds as they enjoy the summer season, gardeners who wish to grow vegetables into the winter months have to plan ahead. "Plan your vegetable garden to allow space to start winter plants in the summer," says Lisa Atkins, president of SOUL, the Society for Organic Urban Land Care, in Victoria, BC (
http://www.organiclandcare.org).
A winter garden can be started in a section of your garden where spring and summer vegetables have finished. People are used to purchasing veggie plants in May, but according to the UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research, August is another planting time. "Unfortunately, nurseries don't seem to carry vegetable plants at this time of year, so you it's best to sow your own seeds in July," says Tony Maniezzo, UBC's food garden horticulturist.
The best resource for winter seeding information is West Coast Seeds in Delta, BC, a company that specializes in organic, open pollinated, heirloom and organic heritage seeds. Their Winter Gardening Guide, available for free in both catalogue and online at www.westcoastseeds.com "is pretty much the bible," Atkins says.
The guide includes a "Summer Planting & Winter Eating Chart" as well as many valuable tips for successful winter gardening. It advises, for example, sowing arugula from June to the end of August for harvest in fall and through winter into spring. Carrot seeds can go in the ground the first two weeks of August for winter harvests. Carrots are a favourite of many winter gardeners because they become sweet in the cold and are a wonderfully colourful boost of fresh nutrition and crunch in mid-winter. Collard greens can be sown until mid-July for harvest from fall through winter and even into the spring season. They are a cold-hearty leafy vegetable that is high in minerals, especially calcium-perfect for steaming or stir-frying.
Other winter harvest vegetables include beets, Brussels sprouts, kale, lettuce, parsnips, spinach, Swiss chard and turnips.
With less light and sun, vegetables don't grow much come fall and throughout the winter so your winter garden has to be well on its way by late summer so you'll have food to harvest in fall and winter. Some experts suggest stopping any fertilization rituals by mid-August so plants can "harden off," which means they will tolerate the cold better.
When purchasing seeds for winter gardening, choose hardy or winter varieties (indicated on the package) when possible. When planting your winter garden seeds, plan for more space than you do with your summer vegetables. If your winter plants have more space when they're fully grown, they will dry more easily after the winter rains and frosts and therefore will survive better and longer.
Enjoy your summer harvest while planning for your winter.