Winter Garden Vegtables

Hello,

I am interested in starting a fall/winter vegtable garden. I live in the midwest, and was curious about the types of vegtables that are grown in the winter and the month I am supposed to plant them.
I apologize if this is such a basic question, but I am just starting out - first garden this summer, and need all the help I can get.

Here are a few veggies that enjoy cold weather:

broccoli
brussels sprouts
cabbage
cauliflower
carrots
garlic
kale
peas (English and sweet)
turnips

You might want to check out the website at Johnny's Select Seeds in Maine and I believe that Territorial Seed in Oregon publishes a winter gardening catalog, which is a wonderful resource.

Just a couple of ideas:

Sweet Onions, like 'Walla Walla Sweet,' can be sown/planted in late summer, and will develop their bulbs over the winter, for harvest the following late-spring.

Radicchio can be sown/planted in late summer, and harvested, on a cut-and-come-again basis well past the first frosts of winter. The are not frost tender, and have a milder, less bitter flavor in winter. They are root hardy to zone 3, and will re-emerge early the following spring.

don't forget spinach, radishes, kohlrabi, arugula and fava beans

oops editing to add chard

This message was edited Jun 23, 2006 1:51 PM

Hello All....I am happy I came on this thread. LarisaB, you joggled my mind. THANKS! I have Melody Spinach which I forgot to plant last spring. Since spinach is a cold weather plant, is it too late for me to plant it here in Algonac, MI in order to get a crop before the first freeze. Our days are in the 80's and the nights vary from the 50's to the mid-60's.
Algonac is a little northeast of Detroit on the St. Claire River. The trees are starting to turn now and have been for two weeks, which is an indicator of an early winter. I "suspect" we will have a freeze by late october; not just a frost.
My zone is 5 on the border of 4. It is too close to call for a difinite zone.
Thanks for reading.

LostIndian

I just started my winter garden seedlings, but I'm further south:

Cabbage, broccoli, spinach, pak choi, pumpkin (iffy on this but the seeds were cheap). These already have 1" sprouts (except for the pumpkin) in only 4 days - a little faster than I expected actually.

This weekend I'll also do carrots and peas.
2 years ago I did my peas too late and we had a freeze before they were grown. This is my first try at a winter garden; following on the footsteps of a moderately successful summer one!

I just discovered this forum and have retrieved all my recyclables from the car for wintersowing...LOL! And DH thought he was safe over the quiet winter months...HAH!

~Sunny

Shirley: You mentioned that "Territorial Seed in Oregon publishes a winter gardening catalog, which is a wonderful resource." I couldn't find reference to it on-line on their website (http://www.territorial-seed.com/stores/1/directory.cfm), other than to winter plants.

I am still puzzled about whether tender plants can be winter sown -- tomatoes, for example, which are killed by the frost. What about tropicals?

Shirley -- My apologies -- I just read the title of this thread and realized you are focusing on winter vegetables, so the Territorial Seed catalog on vegetables is right on point. I misunderstood and thought you were referring to a catalog on winter sowing.

Are you referring to this link? http://www.territorial-seed.com/stores/1/Winter_Varieties_C12.cfm?UserID=16505922&jsessionid=2a30ba5078ef$FE$13$C

Tomatoes can be very successfully wintersown. In fact, I enjoyed a delicious wintersown tomato in my salad for dinner tonight!

In my garden, tomatoes have been reseeding themselves for years. Therefore, they are an excellent candidate for wintersowing.

How about starting a separate thread for ws tropicals. It would be less confusing and the topic wouldn't get buried.

This message was edited Sep 3, 2006 8:44 PM

Ok, will do.

LostIndian-- Have a look at this reference for First Frost Dates -- might help you in planning your fall/winter vegetable garden.

http://www.victoryseeds.com/frost/

I take it, bookworm, you are not asking about "wintersowing" but rather planting a fall garden to get one more crop in before hard frosts? I'm confused again...

some ideas for a quick last fall vegetable crop:

http://lifestyle.msn.com/HomeandGarden/Garden/ArticleBHG.aspx?cp-documentid=38571