Post date: Jul 31, 2020 8:47:05 PM
Winter Garden Notes: 1/n
Atlanta has two growing seasons: Mar-Oct and Oct-Mar. You can have year round harvest with successive plantings. The mild winter means your plants will get by easily. Yes, the plants will be out all winter and quite happy.
We will call the Oct-Mar season as the Winter garden. It actually encompasses three harvests: Fall harvests that are ready before frost; overwintered gardens that yield late winter and early Spring; and Spring garden that yields until early summer.
Here is a partial list of what you can sow this season: Asian greens, Beetroot, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, carrots, cabbage, collard, coriander, cauliflower, coriander, chives, green onions, onions, garlic, leeks, Methi, Swiss chard, spinach, sorrel, peas, parsnips, radishes, turnips. There are endless varieties of these crops to try. Many of us here have grown all these crops and can help.
All these crops will take the cold. But they can’t germinate in the cold. That is why we begin them early. They will get sweeter and firmer in winter and yield tasty harvests.
There are three sowing methods we adopt:
1. Starting in a seedling tray and transplanting to the ground.
2. Sowing directly in the ground in late summer.
3. Sowing directly in the ground in Fall.
Each of these crops need a different kind of sowing care. And a specific sowing window. The target is to put them all in the ground by mid October. Our beds must be filled with all these crops as we take down the summer crops.
By mid November we will heavily mulch (pls collect, crush and bin those blessed brown leaves this Fall).
By end Nov we will cover with fleece cloth any crop we believe might be delicate. My cabbages stood in the snow and did well.
That is it. Winter gardening is a joy because there is no watering, weeding, bugs, pests - nothing. The only fuss is the seedlings and putting them all in at the right time. Then only harvests. All the way to end May.
Right now, all you need are seedling trays, seeds, seedling mix. We will only direct sow carrots now. So collect your stuff and make some space for carrots. Next note on carrots after a break. Let’s do this!
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