Year Round Gardening In Cold Climates

Growing vegetables in winter is a new idea for many gardeners but it is possible cold climates. The two keys to success are choosing the right plants and providing sufficient protective covers like frost cloths or polytunnels to prevent plants from freezing. I'll walk you through everything you need to get started.

To start your winter sowing, also see 10 Vegetables to Grow in Winter and grab a copy of my winter sowing plan here.

You can grow many cool-loving vegetables in protected raised beds outdoors in winter in a cold climate.

Growing Vegetables in Winter

How It Works
How to Get Started
Winter Care
Resources

How It Works

Growing vegetables in cold climates during the winter months is a new idea for many cold climate gardeners. I first learned about it when Niki Jabbour's Year-Round Vegetable Gardener was published.

Until then, I had assumed you needed a heated greenhouse to keep vegetables safe when it's cold and snowy outside. But, no. It's much simpler than that, as you'll see.

These winter growing tips work in regions that get real winters with freezing temperatures. How cold your area gets will determine what sort of protective cover your crops will need. This may be frost cloths or a polyethylene tunnel or one of the other options listed below.

The secret to successful winter growing involves choosing the right plants along with the right covers.

For plant selections we look for vegetables known to be cool or cold-tolerant. In seed catalogues their names and descriptions often include words like "hardy" and "winter".

Get Ready in Summer

Keep in mind that winter vegetable growing does not start in winter.

Most seeds should be started in mid to late summer or early fall to allow enough time for the plant to mature before the winter weather sets in. This means sowing in August and September for many of us. Or buying plants if you are lucky enough to have a local nursery that sells vegetables starts at the end of summer.

The plants will grow in late summer and into fall until the weather cools and the days become too short.

We increase the covers and mulch as needed.

In winter, with less than 10 hours of light per day, crops go dormant. The covers provide enough insulation to prevent them from freezing. Once light increases in late winter and early spring, growth resumes.

My favorite part is walking through the snow in the middle of winter and opening the covers to harvest lush, fresh salad greens like spinach, arugula, mustard greens, carrots, a handful of Brussels sprouts—and more—all ready for picking. Once you taste them, you'll never want off-season vegetables from the grocery store again. Plus, many vegetables like carrots can be sweeter after a frost.

How to Get Started

1 Start Your Seeds

Mid to late summer or early fall

Timing is everything. The goal is to get your seeds started in time so the plants are mature by the time winter sets in.

10 Vegetables to Grow in Winter has a good list of suggestions.

Options include broccoli, kale, carrots, leafy greens including arugula, lettuces, spinach, and more. Parsley, radish, Swiss chard, and cauliflower are also good, hardy candidates.

Your seed catalogue will list them as cool or cold-tolerant and include words like winter and hardy in the names or descriptions. Semi-hardy crops tolerate light frosts (a few degrees below freezing) while hardy ones can take even lower temperatures.

This is not the season for warmth-loving plants like tomatoes. They get their day in the sun in the summer. Anything that has to flower and fruit to produce food will not survive winter growing.

20 Vegetables to Sow Mid-Summer for Fall shares my seed sowing plan. It includes some crops you can harvest before winter and others to keep under covers during the winter. I start the slowest-growers first and go from there.

2 Prepare Your Beds

Any garden bed can become a winter vegetable garden if you provide the basics: good soil, adequate light, and room to grow. The same planting guidelines apply for winter as they do in the summer.

Choose a sunny location and top up the soil with compost or composted manure to ensure it has lots of organic matter for the growing season ahead.

Also make sure there is also room to set up whatever covers you will be using.

3 Prepare Your Covers

Broccoli and kale in the winter garden during a thaw at empressofdirt.net/grow-vegetables-in-winter — My winter vegetable garden in a raised bed with lids.

The best cover choice will depend on just how cold and wet it gets in your region. Here in zone 6, I add lids covered in tarps to my raised beds or frost cloths (row covers) with straw on top.

In a colder zone you may need a clear polyethylene cover for added warmth retention.

You may see these listed as "season extenders" in catalogues.

Options include:

Frost cloths | Also called floating row covers
Raised beds with lids
Cold frames
Mini-hoop tunnels or polytunnels using polyethylene (6 mil thickness)
These can be made with pvc pipe or conduit or metal or wood frames.
Greenhouses or a lean-to greenhouse

Or some combination of these.

You can also create extra insulation with:

Organic mulches like leaves, compost, evergreen branches, straw, and snow.

4 Plant Your Crops

Ideally at least 6 to 8 weeks before first frosts.

It's planting time when your plants are strong enough for transplanting. This means they have several "true" leaves and have grown beyond the seedling stage.

Be sure to harden off (gradually transition to outdoor growing conditions) everything before planting.

Winter Vegetable Garden Care

What to Expect

We plant the winter vegetable garden weeks before first frosts because we need the plants to mature before winter sets in.

After planting, be sure to water your garden as needed and keep up with the weeding.

During the coldest, darkest months, the plants won't actually grow, but simply remain dormant, safe under their protective covers.

In spring, when temperatures warm up and, more specifically, sunlight increases, growth can resume.

Winter Warm Spells

If you get a warm spell during the winter and the temperature is a few degrees above freezing (32°F / 0°C) or warmer, you may need to temporarily remove or open any covers to prevent your plants from over-heating or drying out.

This may mean removing floating row covers, opening up a polytunnel, or lifting the lids on raised beds during a sunny afternoon.

Water

Whether your winter beds require watering during the winter will depend entirely on your circumstances.

There can be months where the beds stay adequately hydrated but then a hot spell dries the soil.

Be sure to check your soil weekly. If it's dry an inch below the surface, add water.

This may require hauling water in if you have shut off outdoor faucets for the season.

Resources

My Winter Vegetable Garden

This short video was filmed years ago when I first tried winter growing. Watch as I check on my vegetables on a snowy day.

Recommended books

The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener by Niki Jabbour. This is the book that got me started with winter growing.

Growing Under Cover by Niki Jabbour shares how to grow under cover all year-round including during the winter.

Listen

I hope you'll give winter growing a try. And maybe you too will become a year-round vegetable gardener.

~Melissa the Empress of Dirt ♛

Backyard winter vegetable garden in the snow.