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I am curious if anyone is growing a winter garden?

My husband and I have three cold frames with a mix of greens, beet, onions and whatever else I manage to stuff in them. Plus he got some long triangle shaped heavy plastic shelves which we have turned over some plants to keep them going longer through the winter.

I get lazy in the winter and it is hard to garden because it is dark when I get home and it is really hard to pick stuff with a flashlight. But it will be nice to have the cold frames as we will have spring greens several months earlier than we have had in the past.

My husband is growing some greens because this is the time to put them in. He loves Swiss chard.

my swiss chard is two years old and still growing. finally got an almost red tomato today...the plants are growing like weeds but the tomatoes are slow....

I have a potted basil plant that we bought at a farmers market in Wilmington, NC sitting outside of the RV as well as two pots of pansies from Cape May, NJ.

All I can do is envy those of you living in better climes! However, the garden catalogs are arriving early this year so I will have plenty of time for armchair gardening!

Swiss chard; arugula; mustard greens; and of course, King Kale. We haven't yet had our first frost (unusual for this area). As a result, chile and jalapeño peppers are still bearing. Life is good in the garden God provides!

think i am going to have to cover everything for the rest of the week...getting in the 30's here in Phoenix.....If I can save them thru the winter I still may have the tomatoes ripen

Hmm, Not sure if it counts as winter gardening if you don't have to use a snow shovel to get to your garden! *teasing grin for all the warm weather folks*

Anna - I'm glad you mentioned the catalogs are coming early. I use to look forward to seeing them in January and making my mind up on what to grow. It's kind of weird getting them in Nov.

My gardens are all tilled and ready for spring, and I planted a cover crop to help the soil this year. This is a first. I also built a new garden bed. I'm not even sure if a cold frame would make it year round here. I always wanted to try and make one.

Faith,

Check out the book Four Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman, it has some great information about growing food in the winter in cold frames. This is the first year I have done cold frames but I did do a hoop house a few years ago and we had greens in it that overwintered well here in Ohio.

The hardest thing seems to be that it is cold and dark by the time I get home and I don't want to go dig things out of the cold frames when it's freezing cold. So these will mostly be left alone for the next few months and then I'll start harvesting again in February and March.

oh I didn't realize you were in OH, then yes, you know what I go through. It's hard enough to get out and go to work in the freezing cold and dark, much less go out and work in it.

So does the cold frame hold in the moisture better? Is it kind of like a terrarium?