During the warm months of the year, it's easy to find delicious foods to eat, but what about the cooler months? Here is a secret to harvesting crops all year round.
Early until mid-to-late September, gardeners experience their first frosts, signaling the official end of the growing season. A small amount of protection, on the other hand, will allow many crops to continue for a longer period. First, add extra warmth and shelter to your crops using row covers, low tunnels, or cold frames. Then you can add techniques and learn how to make crops thrive all year round.
Vegetables For The Winter
Hardy cool-season mainstays seeded in the summer will take over when the warm-weather crops are finished. However, salads like mizuna, combining, endive, winter lettuce, mustards, leafy greens like chard, spinach, the always-ready kale, and a variety of overwintered carrots, parsnips, beets, and leeks may surprise you as to what will thrive throughout the winter.
The 'Hungry Gap' Must Be Closed
Springtime is known as the 'hungry gap' because it is when the previous season's crops have been harvested, but the current seasons are yet to begin. However, you can make the most of this normally short period with a little forethought. First, sow winter-hardy vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, and late-season leeks in the late summer to provide a steady food supply for the kitchen during the cold months.
Crops To Sow
More robust vegetables like onions, cabbage, and chard take longer to establish after a spring planting than salad greens. Sowing under cover allows you to have an early start and an earlier harvest. Cold frames, tunnels, greenhouses, and sunny windowsills are all essential. Within a month or two of being started indoors under grow lights, many seedlings are ready to be transplanted to a protected location outside.
Spreading Your Harvests
Maintain a consistent stream of harvests by sowing quick-maturing cultivars frequently and seldom all through the spring and summer. To get the most out of each vegetable, choose a variety that can be harvested early, midway, and late in the season. For example, carrots and strawberries may be enjoyed from the middle of spring to the end of winter.
Species of Plants That Thrive in Succession
Sow a succession crop as soon as the season's first crops are harvested! Succession crops, which can be planted as early as the middle of the summer, include a wide range of vegetables that mature in the fall and winter and can be stored, such as main crop carrot sticks and celeriac, as well as quick-growing favorites like bulb fennel but also bush beans, which are ready before the first cold spells in many areas.
