fall/winter garden: what to plant

[StonyGarden]

I have Brussels sprouts (Catskill variety), carrots (red cored chantenay), onion (sweet Spanish yellow Utah jumbo variety), and lettuce (mesclun gourmet greens mixture). All of these are seeds.

I know I can start the Brussels sprouts but can I start the others?

 

[digitS']

StonyGarden, I haven't tried Brussels sprouts, carrots just don't seem to want to get started for me during hot weather, lettuce has only grown well when I have it started in a nice location in the backyard in containers and set it out, right thru the summer, the onion may work as an over-wintering crop for you.

This is a subject near and dear to me! There is nothing nicer than spring veggies at the very end of the growing season! And, getting the jump on next year's growing season is great. Problem is, the answers all depends on your climate.

Here, I have learned to anticipate what the weather is going to do. "Anticipate," that is a gambling term and means "rolling the dice." Still, there are some normals and averages just like odds when shooting craps.

I will soon begin to sow seed for fall Asian greens. Every week, there will be more seed going in, well into August. They do just fine! Snow peas will be planted very soon, also. Tomorrow, the last of my bush bean seed will go in the garden. Cucumber and summer squash plants were set out earlier this month so that there will be no drop-off on the production of those before fall frosts.

Over-wintering: This year, I will again try onion seed in late August. I believe this will be the 5th time for me to try that. I was always using Walla Walla as my over-wintering choice. I had 2 very nice Ovation sweet onions that survived last winter and have just bulbed-up well for an early harvest. Of course, I've got this year's sweet onions that were started in the greenhouse in February and are not finished growing but really nice right now. I wouldn't mind for Ol' Man Winter to take charge of the onion growing and I can forget about starting them in the greenhouse. It worked fine about 25% of the winters here with Walla Walla. Time to try to improve those odds with hybrid Ovations.

Steve

 

[StonyGarden]

Climate is a toss up around here (zone 7). For the past few years we've been in a drought. Summers have been hot and humid but dry. This year is the year of the monsoon. Winters are a toss up as well. If I remember correctly, winters have been mild the past couple of years with minimal rain/snow. Maybe once in January/February has it snowed and been cold enough to stick.

Last winter I started the lettuce seeds in January just as an experiment. I had fresh lettuce by the end of February. It had even snowed on the seedlings and didn't damage them.

As for starting carrots outside (and everything else as well), I can start everything inside.

Now a question about varieties: I know really nothing about the different varieties. When I have chosen seeds in the past it has just been for the pretty picture on the front. What is a good process to deciding a good variety?

Thanks for the input digitS'!!

 

[digitS']

It looks like you can grow some things in winter, StonyGarden! Well, let's see . . . scratch, scratch . . . you can work your way out from your frost date for this & that .

Here is your frost date (I hope) from NOAA (link). I pick the middle of the middle (32 at 50%) I am risk-averse but optimistic - figure things can't get any worse .

So . . . I'm not cutting it any closer than 70 days for the beans. Snow peas will have about 65 and the Asian greens will have 65 days or down to about 35, frost-free. It looks like the onion seed will have about 35 days.

You know, I am tempted to say that whatever will do well in the difficult weather of summer will better be able to handle the cooling weather of fall. That works out.

I am a big fan of Summer Crisp lettuce and might try that with "Nevada" - if'n I still have seed. However, I've got a new Summer Crisp to try this year - "Barbados!" Romaine lettuce stands up well to the heat of summer, too.

Snow peas is my choice because we don't have to wait for the seeds to develop. In fact, truth be known, I am fairly happy to have the tips of the vines. Yeah, the ones with a pretty flower look real good in a salad and they are nice at that stage . Taste like peas!

You know, Utah Sweets grow better in my garden than Walla Walla Sweets! Walla Wallas don't do terrible but you might think that because I could drive to that town for lunch ever day, & be back home for dinner, that they would grow better than Utah. Honestly, I think my garden is almost too far north for either.

The only veggie I have in my garden thru the winter is the Purple Orache volunteers. I think that there are other things that would be okay out there, like orache's cousin, spinach. But -- we need folks who plant winter gardens to chime in!!

Steve
edit: the summer squash & cucumbers --- i have given them about 90+ days with good success .