When should I start thinking about planting winter veggies and what works best on our coast? (July 2015)
Despite the beautiful mid-summer sunshine, now is the time to start planning and planting your winter veggies.
According to Helen Chestnut, in the Times Colonist’s Garden Notes, early August is the “ideal time to seed autumn and winter green and salad vegetables such as spinach, radish, corn salad, mustards, mesclun mixes, leaf lettuce and cold hardy lettuces.” She also advises us to check out our local nurseries for “lettuce, kale, cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli transplants for fall, winter and early-spring harvesting.”
Sometimes it’s challenging to know when exactly to seed or use transplants, as well as what kind of protection to prepare for those cold winter months and when to expect to harvest outside of summer months. An excellent resource that includes a planting chart as well as details regarding cold hardy cultivars (e.g. two kinds of romaine lettuce, Winter Density and Rouge d’Hiver are generally cold tolerant) is the West Coast Seeds catalogue. Find one at your local garden centre or go online.
Finally, a fantastic resource for veggie gardeners is Linda Gilkeson, who lives on Saltspring Island and offers a wide variety of workshops in Victoria and beyond. A major proponent of gardening year round, her Year-Around Harvest: Winter Gardening on the Coast, details the benefits of winter gardening (fresh veggies when the cost of produce increases instore), what to grow and when, pest management information, planting plans and much more. Check out Linda Gilkeson’s websitewww.lindagilkeson.ca to order a book or check her workshop schedule.
So now it’s even easier to enjoy eating your own veggies year round without a greenhouse and be the envy of all those who know you!
