Which vegetables survived under cover over winter?

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    Fresh winter-grown vegetables-- the idea is intriguing, but one of those challenges few gardeners try. Another brief season even fewer think about is very early spring. The temperatures are warmer, but still too early to harvest from new plantings.

    Some do turn to perennial plants such as asparagus.  Recently, however, I read about overwintering baby vegetables as a strategy to produce an earlier spring crop. This scheme also provides a cover crop over winter, keeping the microscopic flora active and preventing erosion.  

    What is most exciting for me about this approach is that it gives those cool season vegetables with longer maturity dates more time to grow. It is very disappointing when June arrives and the cool season vegetables sown in spring have not matured. And then one realizes someone did not check the maturity dates! Generally, the plants wilt in the sun and then get eaten by bugs or disease. It's often better to just take the plants out. 

    September was six months ago, but I sowed most of the following vegetables around that time, transplanting them in October. With lower light levels from the sun and cooler temperatures, these plants didn't grow too much after November. That's ok, because they just needed to establish their roots. With smaller foliage, the plant has fewer appendages to keep alive over winter. 

   Now that the extreme cold has finished and temperatures rise, I am hoping these vegetables will take off, but not bolt. Some finicky plants bolt if their temperature requirements are not quite right.

  As for the covers, I use felted 1.2 oz row covers needed to protect my crops from frost cold weather. They worked pretty well, despite that I had poor hoops and I had cut them up the previous spring to fit other garden spaces. Click here for prices and more information. 

   

I had to patch them up with clips, which sometimes came apart.  I also bought some wire at the Lowe's that looked sturdy, but I soon found when the snow fell that they really weren't going to work.  So my low tunnels ended up looking a bit dilapidated. No worries, I had a nice patch of brassicas and lettuces in the fall, as well as some vegetables that survived the winter!

    So here's the list of plants of survivers: Florence fennel, Pablo lettuce, endive, collards, Monterey spinach, cilantro, corn salad, rutabaga, turnip, and Savoy cabbage. One purple sprouting broccoli survived, and one chicory plant barely made it-- meaning the outer leaves were completely dead, and underneath the living inner head was covered in goo. A couple of turnips also made it, but I thought they were weeds, and accidentally pulled them out. Oops.

    Of course, walking onions and garlic, as well as other perennials made it through the winter as well.

    I am particularly excited about the Savoy cabbages. This variety has a longer maturity date, yet I was hoping to be able to grow those here in Missouri.  I have come to the conclusion that while numerous exciting varieties of vegetables can grow in this state, the timing is worth investigating before buying, along with susceptibility to disease and insects, of course. 

    The Savoy cabbage, Florence fennel, rutabaga, and purple sprouting broccoli all are tiny yet, and will need more time to grow. These plants also had a number of die offs. I will update this post later this spring with how these survivors came out. The other greens are ready to eat. 

    What didn't survive? Many of the tender brassicas I had planted, such as totsoi, died, as well as my broad beans. I transplanted the broad beans out in December. Perhaps they needed more time, but it did get quite cold this year. Both January and February had several consecutive nightly dips below 10 degrees Fahrenheit, below which temperature broad beans do not survive without protection. Perhaps I can try again with a double cover for those plants next year. 

    What a fun experiment! Now I know for next year, and hopefully I can fill out my garden rows to feed my family through the year. 

Happy Gardening!

Below is the link to the felted row cover I actually used to keep my plants alive. Click to learn more:

Felted row covers