Tips for Planting a Winter Vegetable Garden

Gardening in the winter is not something that many individuals take advantage of but if you love having access to fresh vegetables all year long, it’s something that you may want to give a try. Gardening in the winter is not something new. In fact, the concept has been around for a very long time. It’s just not as popular as planting a garden in the spring. Still it has many advantages and it’s something that anyone can enjoy.

Winter gardening is not as hard as you might think. You just need to follow a few simply tips and you can be very successful at growing vegetables in the winter.

Tips for planting a winter garden:

• Start planting your garden in the late summer. This way, the plants will reach maturity before the first frost arrives and this will help them be strong enough to survive.
• Plant your winter garden in raised beds because the soil will heat up faster and dry out more quickly.
• Your garden should be facing the south so you can take full advantage of the sun.
• Place the taller plants in the back row and the shorter ones in front.
• Mulch will help to keep the plants from freezing while allowing good air circulation.
• Choose the right vegetables that will do well in this type of environment. Some of these include cabbage, carrots, kale, Brussels sprouts, beets, collards, escarole and cauliflower.
• Leave more distance between each one of the plants than you normally would.

If you live in an extremely cold area, then you’ll need a greenhouse in order to plant a winter garden. The advantage of this is that you can grow any type of vegetables such as tomatoes and squash. Having a winter garden is an excellent way to enjoy fresh delicious vegetables all year long, while saving money in the process.

Square Foot Gardening

If you haven’t heard of square foot gardening, you’re about to learn one of the most useful and versatile gardening techniques ever created. Conceived by Mel Bartholomew, author of Square Foot Gardening, the techniques have been enthusiastically adopted by gardeners all over the world. Square foot gardening is eminently suited for container gardening, patio and roof gardening, backyard gardening, organic gardening, herb gardens, vegetable gardens, flower gardens and more.

The basic concept is to start small – the unit of measure is the square foot. Although Bartholomew’s original square foot garden was four feet square, many schools, community gardens and home gardeners start even smaller – a couple of one square foot containers is plenty to get you started. According to Bartholomew though, a four square foot garden provides just enough harvest for one person.

How to Create A Square Foot Garden

Creating your own square foot garden is as easy as building (or buying) a box in which to garden. My own first square foot garden was a two square foot garden on the cement apron outside my back door in a city apartment. I used four square wicker plastic lined wicker wastebaskets bought for a dollar apiece at the All-for-a-Buck store. Any container that can hold 6-8” of dirt, and has drainage holes in the bottom will work. The biggest requirement for location is sun – choose a nice, sunny spot to place your garden.

Did I say dirt? Amend that. Bartholomew recommends what he calls ‘Mel’s mix’ instead of soil. Mix 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss and 1/3 compost to fill the squares of your box or container. A 10 pound bag of each was plenty to fill my little 2 square foot garden.

Choosing and Laying Out the Plants for Your Square Foot Garden

The most important factor in laying out your garden is the one-square-foot grid. You’ll be planting one type of plant in each square – how many of them depends on the recommended spacing between plants – which you’ll find on the back of the seed packets. Depending on the needs of the specific seedlings, you can plant 1, 4,  9 or 16 plants in each square. To break it down - if the recommendation on the seed packet is 1 foot apart, you can plant 1 in a square. If they need six inches between plants, you can plant 4. Two inches gives you room for 9 plants, and one inch spacing means you can fit 16 plants into one square foot.

My own first square foot garden was a spaghetti garden with this layout:

   1 Basil Plant  4 Tomato plants

   1 Oregano Plant 16 Onion plants

After You Harvest Your Square Foot Garden

Harvest the crop in each square foot when it’s ready, and continue harvesting until it’s no longer producing fruit/vegetables. At that point, uproot the plants in that square (use them for compost!), and plant another, different crop. By refilling and rotating the crops, you avoid depleting the natural nutrients of the soil, and keep every bit of space productive throughout an entire growing season.