Vegetables For Winter Gardening

In the winter, when the days are shorter and the nights gets colder, the plants in your garden might suffer — but only if you don’t know what to do.

You don’t have to give up gardening during this time of year! There’s absolutely no reason for you to stop growing, even when after winter begins.

There are vegetables for winter gardening you can grow, even during the colder weather. These vegetables can thrive in low temperatures and will even taste better for it.

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Best Vegetables For Winter Gardening

To keep your garden happy and healthy, plant these winter vegetables for the late winter or early spring harvest.

Spinach

Spinach thrives during the cooler, shorter days of fall into winter. You can sow the seeds during mid to late September in open garden beds with well-drained soil then cover crops with polyethylene topped mini hoop tunnels or protective covers when autumn switches to winter.

Beets

At least six to eight weeks before the first expected light frost, start planting beets. 

You can start harvesting these root vegetables as baby greens or you can also leave them in the ground with rich soil to mature into delicious, vitamin-rich roots.

Garlic

As one of the easiest vegetables and root crops to grow, garlic thrives during the mid to late fall and is ready for harvest in mid-summer.

When planting garlic, add lots of compost, like organic material and organic matter, to the garden soil, and apply mulch to protect the crops from weeds and the weather.

Cabbage

There are a lot of varieties of cabbages to choose from — which you can harvest from summer to spring, and even after the colder temperatures.

You can sow the leafy greens during July and early August then protect the crops from pests using floating row covers. You can also add some compost around the winter cabbage, especially during cooler temperatures.

Peas

When planting peas, it’s a good idea to sow seeds from seed packets outdoors until late July, mid-August or early autumn for a fall harvest.

One of the best variety of peas, the parsley pea, grown for its green tendrils, can be added to salads. Make sure to add protection for the cool season crops to extend its harvest even during the colder season.

Leeks

Leeks are an inexpensive crop that can produce a lot when harvested.

Since it’s one of the cold hardy vegetables, leeks are complexly unfazed even during mild winters, but may require more attention din extremely colder climates.

Asian Greens

Another plant on the list of the best vegetables to grow in winter is asian greens. There are a lot of varieties of asian greens that can be grown all year round, with:

• tatsoi
• mustard greens
• Bok choy
• Pac choi
• mizuna

being the best ones for the colder season. 

Asian greens are very fast to grow and come in different colors, textures, and flavors. You can give the seedlings a head start by growing them indoors under grow lights before moving them to garden beds with good drainage.

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Despite having cold temperatures and not usually thought of as the growing season, winter is a good opportunity to start planting vegetables for your garden.

The colder temperature prevents pests and diseases, and the cold garden can make these winter crops easier to manage.

Have you tried growing winter crops? What are your favorites?