THINKING ABOUT MY FALL / WINTER GARDEN ALREADY
Despite the fact that my Springer Spaniels, Merlin and Winston, will tell you we’re still in the midst of the “dog days of August”, it’s not too early to consider what we’d like to plant in our vegetable gardens to assure a robust harvest throughout the Fall and Winter. As I make my Fall/Winter gardening plans, my first step is always to check www.ces.ncsu.edu for tips, suggestions and real practical advice. I seriously encourage you to visit the website yourself as the wealth of information available there will truly amaze you.
When coming up with my own Fall/Winter vegetable garden plan, I focus on seeds or seedlings I can plant when the summer heat lets up and harvest in a reasonable amount of time. Since many cool weather plants will survive frost and continue to produce all Winter long, planting a Fall/Winter vegetable garden is a terrific thing to do. The only difficulty I have in planning mine is choosing which plants to grow. While almost any of the cool weather plants will do well in the mild climate of the Sandhills, here are some of my personal favorites.
Beets which I just love for their deep wine color and incredible sweetness look so pretty in the garden and provide leaves that are edible as well as the tender vegetable itself. Beets are high in immune-boosting vitamin C, fiber, and essential minerals like potassium.
Carrots are another of my big time favorites – especially if you ascribe to the “common wisdom” that eating them will keep your eyes healthy (so says the author who is writing this article wearing her reading glasses). I love to slice fresh carrots on an angle and saute them in butter adding a bit of brown sugar toward the end just to take things up a notch or two (or ten) into sweetness nirvana!
Peas go from seed to harvest fairly quickly but shouldn’t be planted while the soil is still hot. There’s good reason some varieties are called “Snow Peas” - they are a true cool weather plant! Just barely blanching them or even munching on them uncooked is an absolute delight.
Red Chard, Kale and Kohlrabi, and are also excellent additions to the Fall/Winter garden. You can saute any of these with a bit of olive oil and big cloves of garlic before serving on a thick French baguette – just heaven!
Spinach and Arugula – Just think about picking fresh greens from your own garden to toss into a salad. The deep green crisp Spinach leaves are just too wonderful for words and adding a bit of Arugula will give your salad a nice kick. As with Red Chard, Kale and Kohlrabi, you can also saute Spinach with olive oil and garlic for a healthy and delicious treat.
Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower and Turnips are also terrific additions to your Fall/Winter vegetable garden and there are a million deliciious ways in which they can be prepared. Heads are ready to harvest when they reach 4″-8″ across (some varieties form larger heads than others) and the individual buds are plump but still dark green. Leave the main plant in the ground after harvesting the heads to allow side shoots to develop.
Radishes will also go from seed to harvest quickly and it’s such fun to see cute little red bits poke out of the ground just begging to be added to your salad or munched on their own.
These are just a few of the many cool weather plants that will thrive in your Fall/Winter Garden. Remember that timing the planting of your fall garden takes a little care. You don’t want to plant your seeds while the soil is too hot or there is too little rain as this will make it difficult for the seeds to germinate. For late Summer / early Fall plantings , you might also want to plant the seeds a little deeper than usual, and keep the seedlings shaded until their roots are established.
