How many of you are planting cold frames or other fall/winter gardens. If so how are you doing it and what are you planting. We have an old cold frame which I plan (today I hope) to plant with Kale, spinach and a bit of lettuce.

What are your favourite cool weather crops and how cold can they survive?

Kim

-- Anonymous, September 15, 2001

Answers

Spinach and Swiss Chard. The chard stopped grwing after it got down consistently cold - below freezing at night; like mid Nov. As soon as it warmed up in the spring, it began growing again. It stayed green all throughout the winter, protected only by some fallen corn stalks. I may try some in a cold frame this year. Spinach did well unprotected until mid Nov. also; but then died and slimed and did not come back in the Spring. The deer really liked the chard, they ignored clover and chomped the chard to the ground.

-- Anonymous, September 15, 2001

Spring crops SFG style in six unused worm bins on our sun porch for three squares of fresh vegetables during the winter months.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

Hi Kim,

I have S. chard, spinach, b. sprouts, broccoli, radishes, carrots, kohlrabi, turnips, kale, cabbage, beets, and collards. I didn't pay too much attention to the temperatures, but I recall the collards getting a slight frost-damaged edge at around 20F. We probably won't get a serious frost until mid-to-late November (although this year is already so strange, who knows?!) Last year, everything overwintered just fine, but it was pretty mild...seldom froze much, just cold and damp in the low 40s. I didn't cover anything up (but yeah, the spinach got pretty slimy in spots. However, the big collard leaves sheltered some of the stuff quite well.

If it looks like tough weather, I won't be wasting bedding on making straw bales (at $4.75 bale!) but I will probably put plastic kind of free-form over the beds. I don't think I'll get that greenhouse shown in the last issue of CS done this fall, but I might cobble together some dimensional lumber and jerry-rig something to hold up the plastic. It will be pretty much on an as-needed last minute basis! However, we have six-foot fencing all around the main garden perimeter. I could attach stringers or ledgers around the edges and figure out something (probably in a gale blowing rain sideways at me!)

Good luck with your crop. It's so much easier to get something out of the garden than it is to have to preserve it for later when possible.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2001