Winter Gardening
Extend your gardening season into the colder months.
You don’t need to strain your heater to grow vegetables through the winter. In fact, there are many different ways to sow in the winter and some are even less expensive than heating a greenhouse.
When I was growing up, I remember eating fresh salads during the winter because my Opa had started his vegetable seedlings at the end of February in his greenhouse, and lettuce and spinach in flats. Even though I’ve learned more about gardening in the winter, I still remember working in that little greenhouse and all the happy times with Opa. Now I’m finding more and more simple ways to grow vegetables in the fall and early spring
Getting Started with Winter Gardening
Also known as Winter Sowing or Season Extension
Winter Gardening is the use of different tools and techniques to help extend your growing season using the existing microclimates in our yards or creating new ones. This helps us grow into the early Spring, late Fall and even Winter. This practice is also called Season Extension and Year-round Gardening.
Let’s go through the different aspects of Winter Gardening and how you can start extending your growing season.
Tools to Create Microclimates
For starters, we need to search for our warmer microclimates in our gardens or create them using some simple and inexpensive tools.
Cold frames
Floating row covers
High tunnels
Hoop houses
Low tunnels
Plastic mulch
Heated or unheated greenhouses
Each of these items can be used during certain months to maximize the amount of growing time in the Okanagan (Zone 4, 5 and 6). For example, the floating row covers can be used in May and September while hoop houses can be used in April and October. For growing in March, November and December, a combination of hoop houses and floating row covers are best.
Greenhouses are an excellent tool for managing the growth of your garden. If you have a heated greenhouse, you can extend your growing season into January. Even with unheated (insulated) greenhouses, you can support plant growth in February.
| Month | Equipment |
|---|---|
| January | Heated Greenhouse |
| February | Insulated Greenhouse (not heated) |
| March | Hoop house + Row covers |
| April | Hoop house |
| May | Row covers |
| June, July, August | No season extension needed/ grow outside in the open air |
| September | Row covers |
| October | Hoop house + Row covers |
| November | Hoop house + Row covers |
| December | Hoop house + Row covers |
Plants Suited for Winter Gardening
Picking the right seeds for the season.
It should come as no surprise that, in addition to using the right tools, you need to choose the right plant varieties to grow.
When deciding which plants to use during your season extension, you should limit your search to cool-season vegetables because they require less light and normally reach maturity in cooler temperatures. Growing warm-season vegetables will only be an option if you have a heated greenhouse with the appropriate lighting. The days to maturity or harvest are also things to consider.
The best winter garden plants.
Every type of lettuce you’d find in a salad mix and each of the different Asian greens is best suited to growing in the winter. This is because lettuce can be grown and harvested in 30 days in cooler temperatures with low light.
Quick Tip: Using Winter Gardening techniques, you can start kale, radishes, cabbage, beets, carrots, onions, garlic, asparagus, spinach and peas in late winter while temperatures are still cool.
If you’re looking for more unique or different plants to sow during the winter, you can also successfully grow:
Arugula
Asian greens
Mizuna
Mustard greens
Pac Choi
Tatsoi
Leeks
Mâche
Pansies
Scallions
Swiss chard
Turnips
Watercress