Winter Garden Vegetables
Given the right patch of land and climate conditions, winter gardening enlivens many gardeners.
| Garden Resources Growing Salad Vegetables Organic Living |
Only Jack Frost's incompatibility with many plants' cell structures could possibly put the brakes on a winter garden.
Cool season vegetables are the vegetables of choice for most winter gardens. They are categorized by their lower temperature seed germination, soil and air requirements.
Peppers, for example, firmly stand in the warm weather vegetable category. Not only are they susceptible to even a hint of frost, but they also require higher surface air temperatures to reach growing maturity.
| Nutrition Tip 1c raw chopped broccoli: 81.2mg Vitamin C Men 19+: 90 mg/day suggested Women 19+: 75 mg/day suggested |
broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower, are cool weather vegetables that sometimes go by the name cole crops.
Lettuce, onion, parsnip and spinach seeds carry the potential to germinate in soil temperatures as low as 35o F. Cabbage, carrots and celery can germinate in soil temperature as low as 40o F.
Nutrition and taste partially account for cole crop popularity. The chart at the top of the page, for example (add source of statistics here) shows how over a forty year span, fresh broccoli consumption has increased over ten fold.
In 1970, the average American consumed one-half pound of fresh broccoli. By 2011, the preliminary data from the USDA Vegetable and Mellon Yearbook (establishes) American fresh broccoli consumption number at the 5.9 pounds/person.
The nutrition insert also provides a reminder of the fact that one cup of fresh broccoli provides almost an entire day's worth of Vitamin C for adults.
Local garden stores and extension services offer information about the specific vegetables suitable for winter growing in your area.
Once the vegetable choices are made, gardeners need to consider soil nutrient conditions.
Cool weather vegetables adapt to cool soil conditions because of their shallow roots, which may or may not reach buried nutrients, such as phosphorus, which tends to settle into the soil. Always check nutrient levels at different soil heights to insure plant nutritional needs.
Finally, while winter gardens tend to attract comparatively fewer insect pests than their summer counterparts, keeping the garden area weed free often serves as a good pest management strategy.
© 2000-2012. Patricia A. Michaels