Wait for window of cooler weather to transplant fall, winter veggies
Dear Helen: The flats of fall and winter vegetables that I’ve grown from seed are ready to transplant, but it’s too hot in the vegetable garden for the tender young plants. What should I do?
P.G.
Delay planting, if possible, and watch for a window of cooler weather. If there is room in the flats, top up their soil with fresh planting mix and keep them well watered. Hold the transplants in bright shade. I have kept mine in the dappled shade of a plum tree.
My latest transplanting, just before the heat wave struck at the beginning of the month, was of lettuces that I could not hold off planting any longer. I found places for them in the cooling, light shade of large, leafy plants, mainly the staked tomatoes and sprawling, large-leaved squashes and pumpkins.
Any recently transplanted vegetables or heat-sensitive greens can be protected with some cooling cover — shade cloth, old, lightweight curtains or even bed sheets, draped over improvised supports. Row covers used to protect plantings from pests such as carrot rust fly are not suitable as cooling agents.
Keep everything watered well, but avoid parboiling plants by watering overhead when they are exposed to direct, hot sun. Dear Helen: Every year I think about growing vegetables for fall and winter use, and every year I get so confused over the timing for seeding and transplanting the different sorts of vegetables that I give up on the project. Can you point me to a reliable timetable to guide me? Is it too late for this year?
E.E. It’s not too late. Aug. 10 is my traditional last date for seeding lettuces. For this sowing, I use cold-hardy varieties such as Rouge d’Hiver and Winter Density (West Coast Seeds). Look, too, for fall and winter vegetable transplants (kale, lettuce, fall and winter cabbage, cauliflower, purple sprouting broccoli) at local garden centres.
Variables such as the current year’s weather pattern and the nature of the garden site make planning the fall and winter vegetable garden a bit tricky. An open, sunny location allows for later planting. My vegetable plots, semi-enclosed by towering forest trees, demands earlier plantings than the usually recommended timings because I need to allow more time in the partly shaded garden for the plants to develop adequately before the weather turns cold.
A long, warm and sunny autumn will enable later plantings to develop rapidly, while cold, rainy weather in the fall will slow the maturing of vegetables for fall, winter and early-spring eating.
Charted seeding and transplanting guides can be found in the West Coast Seeds catalogue and in Linda Gilkeson’s Year-Around Harvest: Winter Gardening on the Coast (lindagilkeson.ca).
For “delayed,” slow-growth garden sites like mine, here is a less optimistic but reasonable planting guide for fall and winter vegetables: • Leeks. Seed indoors early February. Transplant March or early April. • Parsnips. Seed outdoors March or April. • Winter cabbage, cauliflower, purple sprouting broccoli. Seed indoors in May to early June. • Radicchio. Seed indoors late June to early July. • Carrots and beets. Seed outdoors beginning of July. • Lettuce, endive, escarole. Seed indoors last week in July. Transplant late August to early September. Or, direct seed outdoors around Aug. 10. • Spinach, mizuna and other hardy greens. Seed outdoors early August.