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Many enjoy fall vegetable gardening when lettuces, cooking greens, stir fry vegetables, and root crops thrive. But, when freezing rains or snow threaten whatever is left in the garden, most confine their garden dreams to catalogs and thoughts early spring. Here is an overview of gardening in the fall and winter seasons.
Cool season gardening really begins in the heat of summer, in July and August, when its time to start seeds for the fall/winter garden. The best introduction to selecting seeds to plant for fall that I have seen is Rob Johnston, Jr.'s newsletter for Johnnys Seeds [1]. Cool season crops are essentially salad and cooking greens, especially all of the brassicas (cabbage family); root vegetables including carrots, beets, onions, shallots, leeks, and garlic; and oriental stir fry vegetables. The time to start fall seed crops is determined, first, by finding the first frost date for your area. This should be available from your local extention agent. Then, find the number of days from seed-to-harvest on the seed packet. Add a few weeks for slow growth if the crop will be growing in cooler weather. [2][3]
Cool season vegetables, from left to right: kale, 'Dwarf Blue Curled Vates'; common garlic; swiss chard, "Bright Lights'; Chicory, 'Catalogna Special'; carrot, 'Purple Haze'; mache or corn salad; radish 'French Breakfast'; and bok choy or Chinese cabbage.
Here is a thread in the Vegetable Garden Forum: Winter Vegetable Gardens from November 2005 through February 2006. Farmerdill and the gang discuss their own winter vegetable gardens.
Don't forget to plant some flowers for fall bouquets. This is the list from Johnny's seeds Johnny's Seeds. [4] To this list I would add for southern gardens: dahlias, chrysanthemums, and hardy cyclamen, and the ubiquitous violas and pansies. The photo on the left is Viola 'Helen Mount' - a named cultivar of johnny jump-up type viola.
To raise a successful fall/winter crop you need excellent soil and perfect drainage. Many people use raised beds. Here is Tabasco's thread from the Perennials Forum on building "Lasagna Beds". An early proponent of intensive gardening in raised beds, Jon Jevons, [5] recommended that a 5 ft by 20 ft space is adequate to provide food for one person. The beds should be located for maximum exposure to winter sun. But, if seeds are started in the summer heat, some type of shade should be provided for the young plants. Raised beds allow easier installation of season extending devices, such as shade cloth, double plastic 6mm film stretched over a PVC hoop frame, row covers, and Remay winter blankets. Shade cloth, or 6 mm plastic can be attached to PVC hoops spanning the beds, anchored in 1-1/2 inch pipes sunk on either side, and secured with clips. Lengths of PVC pipe, one size larger than the size of the PVC used for hoops, slit down one side can be used for clips to secure the fabrics to the hoops.
If you are using the same space you used for a spring crop, keep in mind that the same types of crops should not be planted continusouly in the same soil. If you planted cabbage at one end of your bed last year, don't plant any type of brassica crop in that space the following year. Keep a journal so you know what sections of your beds were used for what type of crop in each season. You will need to plan for crop rotation over the garden space. It is a good plan to reserve small sections for cover crops if the soil needs to be renewed. [6] [7]
One of the most successful experiments in winter gardening is Eliot Coleman and Barbara Damrosch's Four Seasons Farm in Maine. Using Remay row covers, cold frames, and portable plastic covered hoop houses, together with a judicious selection of cold hardy plants, Eliot Coleman was able to keep his gardens in production throughout the inhospitable Maine winter. [8]
My favorite resource for winter gardening, or for any gardening question, is Bernard McMahon's An American Gardener, first published in 1802. [9] This is a calendar of gardening and detailed description of tasks to be done for every month of the year. His detailed descriptions of how to build hot beds include using tanbark, available from tanning yards, or oak leaves, or fresh horse manure. These materials will produce enough heat as they decompose, to bring a crop through winter freezing temperatures. To build a hot bed in January, I will need to dig my 5 ft by 20 ft bed 3 ft deep. Then I will need to fill this area with fresh steamy horse manure. Lets see: for the 5 ft by 20 ft by 3 ft area I will need 300 cu ft of fresh horse manure . . .. I don't have a horse, but I do have a rabbit.
[9] Bernard McMahon's An American Gardener: Adapted to the Climate and Seasons of the United States, Containing a Complete Account of All the Work Necessary to be Done in the Kitchen-Garden, Fruit-Garden, Flower-Garden, Orchard, Pleasure-Ground, Vineyard, Nursery, Greenhouse, Out-House, and Forcing-Frames, For Every Month in the Year; with Practical Directions and A Copious Index. First Published in 1802. Now in Paperback.
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About Gloria Cole
I am a retired archeologist and curator of an historic house museum. I live in Greensboro, Alabama, a small rural historic Southern town, with my two dogs, a rabbit and (by recent count) two cats. I am upgrading a 100 year old neoclassic house and clearing and planting my two-and-one-half acre property. Of plants, I love roses best of all.
Posted by gloriag (from Floyd, VA) on September 30, 2007 at 12:01 AM:
Your plans sound delicious and beautiful. I hope I can make a little plot next year and grow snow peas, garlic, bok choy, spinach, leeks, and onions. That would be wonderful.
Very good writing and an adorable rabbit picture. Where did it come from?
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Subject: help
Posted by Podgie on September 28, 2007 at 12:38 PM:
I am a first time gardener and live in Arizona. I've watched my mother's garden of squash and melons but other than that I've only tried carrots, which came out very small and deformed looking which I'm told was because the area I planted them was too rocky...
I hope to expand my tiny knowledge about gardening and reap the benefits of growing my own veggies and plants. I'm not really sure what I should try first with it now being fall and barely cooling down, we are still in the high 90's.
Hoping to get help.
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Posted by Kelli (from Los Angeles (Canoga , CA) on September 28, 2007 at 1:46 PM:
Podgie, I don't have much luck with carrots, either and I don't have any stones in my soil. In my case, I think the problem is root nematodes. There is not a whole lot the average person can do to get rid of them so I don't grow carrots. The easiest winter crops for me are radishes and garlic. Peas are kind of hit-or-miss but maybe that's because my watering practice tends to be erratic. I don't start the winter garden until the summer garden is done, so that means that it usually doesn't get started until December.
For summer crops, squash and chili peppers grow very easily for me. Most of the time (but not this year) beans do well. Tomatoes are kind of so-so, plus I'm limited to growing only nematode-resistant varieties.
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Posted by gloria125 (from Greensboro, AL) on September 28, 2007 at 2:29 PM:
Podgie:
For the beginner gardener in any season I would recommend 3 things:
(1) Put the Soil & Compost forum on watch and read it every day.
(2) Build a raised bed. Search "Lasagna Bed".
(3) Go to your county extension agent's office and ask them what you should be growing and how to get a soil test.
Beyond that look for posts by Farmerdill in the Vegetable Garden forum. There are some in the references to Farmerdill this article. He will tell you how to grow beautiful carrots like the purple one's shown in this article.
And remember every mistake is a valuable lesson learned. You are starting out on a wonderful adventure. Buy some seeds and enjoy the journey!
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Posted by Kelli (from Los Angeles (Canoga , CA) on September 28, 2007 at 3:32 PM:
Gloria, are raised beds a good thing in a dry climate?
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Posted by gloria125 (from Greensboro, AL) on September 28, 2007 at 3:40 PM:
Raised beds are good in every climate. You can install "leaky pipe" and attach a timer to keep the beds watered, without losing a lot of moisture to evaporation.
Raised beds fortified with a lot of compost also are likely to correct for alkaline soil you are likely to have in a dry climate, so you can grow a wider variety of plants than you could in your native soil.
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Posted by Pagancat (from Gainesboro, TN) on September 30, 2007 at 7:19 PM:
Kelli - from a former Phoenix resident, just take it from me: do *not* line raised beds in plastic.
That's all I have to say, lol!
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Subject: Timely information!
Posted by melody (from Benton, KY) on September 28, 2007 at 12:03 PM:
So many folks think that gardening is over when autumn comes. It's one of my favorite times...less heat and humidity...and gazillions fewer bugs!
This was a good read with lots of information.
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Posted by gloria125 (from Greensboro, AL) on September 28, 2007 at 2:31 PM:
Thanks, Melody.
I hope some folks, at least those in the 7, 8, & 9 Zones will at least try some radishes and lettuces in the up-coming season.
As for me, I just found some Swiss Chard "Bright Lights" seed that I hope to get in this weekend. And also some kale. I thought they would make a beautiful composition, and I can eat the plants if I want to.
This message was edited Sep 28, 2007 1:33 PM
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Posted by Islandshari (from Kwajalein
(Marshall Islands)) on September 28, 2007 at 5:40 PM:
I don't do much in the way of vegetables, but my DD does, and so I read your article with great interest. We certainly don't have to worry about the frost and snow that other zones contend with, but you had so much other information! The seed catalogs, books and links to our own DGers were great information. Well done Gloria! Interesting, and informative - and I loved the vege pics!
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Posted by gloria125 (from Greensboro, AL) on September 28, 2007 at 6:05 PM:
I love the purple carrots. I ordered the seeds and can't wait to grow them.
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Posted by Dea (from Frederick, MD) on September 28, 2007 at 6:10 PM:
Another round of dandelion greens coming up now - excellent article for those who don't yet know the joy of late of late fall harvests :)
