Winter Gardener Plants

Here are five easy-to-grow crops for the winter greenhouse gardener.

SWISS CHARD FORDHOOK GIANT : It’s difficult to capture how wonderful it is to sneak out to the garden on a snowy night and cut off some large Swiss chard stalks to sauté. Swiss chard is my favorite cutand-come-again winter greenhouse plant because it gets large in the fall, improves in flavor in the cold and rejuvenates in early summer with hundreds of easy to collect seeds for a microgreen system.

KALE DELAWAY : Gardeners might advise to “Watch out for those white cabbage butterflies that love all brassicas!” That’s not such a downer when you have a winter greenhouse. Kale, another great cut-and-come-again plant, can, fortunately, overwinter in the winter greenhouse producing a harvest before the hungry caterpillars come around. Kale also produces abundant seeds for microgreens.

CARROTS: For many, carrots are difficult to germinate, and they take time to grow. But winter greenhouse soil stays damp, so germinating carrots is easier there. They don’t aggressively grow during cold winters, but the seedlings will grow up quite fast as spring nears. Overwintering carrots is also a great way of getting abundant seed, which I generously sprinkle all over the greenhouse under the larger plants!

COLLARD GREEN OLE TIMEY BLUE : Collards are another flavorful plant that will live year after year in a winter greenhouse. Planted late in a rotation, they can also provide for fall and winter eating and a nice spring crop of seeds before the caterpillars come!

SPINACH: Keeping spinach from bolting can be difficult, so why not grow it during winter or very early spring when snow still blows?! Bolting spinach in the heat of late spring or summer simply means more seeds for microgreens or the next crop.