Expanding Your Garden’s Possibilities with Cold-Hardy Plants

                                                                                         

Gardens are considered to be a spring-summer-fall landscaping opportunity, but you can make your dormant garden area more attractive and useful during the winter months by including a winter garden section or planting winter-hardy vegetables. A garden that appears useful nearly all the year long is a lot more attractive than a garden in its usual state of late-fall to winter dormancy and can net you a quantity of useful, nutritious food.

In most of the U.S. and parts of Canada, winter vegetables can thrive, given a little thought as to the location and preparation of the garden. Hardy vegetables can thus be produced in the winter and spring with relatively little effort. The winter months are also a good time to grow vegetables with less effort, as weeds are less likely to compete with your vegetables for the soil and are easy to remove.

Vegetables and grains that can withstand mild to moderate cold include varieties of kale, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, celery, winter rye, beets, carrots, garlic, onions, chives and some herbs such as oregano and marjoram. You can ask your local nursery for advice on which plants would suit your area’s climate best.

For the best appearance, try arranging your garden so that winter vegetables are interspersed among the spring/summer/fall fruits and vegetables, so that all parts of your garden appear to be growing. You can also plant certain crops over others to use the space and provide an extra source of nutrients for the next year’s crop.

Careful mulching is essential to protect your winter garden vegetables from frosts. Properly mulched plants in a winter garden can survive frosts that would otherwise kill them, so be generous. You may also have to consider cold framing part of the garden for winter crops. Cold framing is putting your winter vegetables in a large, shallow rectangular box that is covered with a transparent roof. It increases the temperature of your plants’ area by 5 to 10 degrees.

Your winter garden can yield an impressive crop or two, which should more than make up for the time and effort in planting and maintenance in the cold season. For people who want to stretch their dollars as far as they can or eat organic food at a fraction of the cost of buying it year-round, this is a definite plus. Contact your local nursery to find out more.

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