9 vegetables to plant in winter

You can direct-sow seed into garden beds or start your seeds in containers.

Direct sowing is the simplest method, but your seeds are likely to germinate later because the soil will take longer to warm up in the spring. That’s why many gardeners opt for starting seeds in DIY containers made from plastic milk containers or takeaway food containers, then transplanting them in the spring.

Below are some of the best cool-weather crops.

Spinach, mustard greens and kale are ultra-hardy greens. Kale actually gets more tender when it’s cold. Sow them in the winter for a spring harvest. In moderate climates, you can sow them in autumn for winter harvest as well.

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Most greens prefer cool weather, making them excellent choices for winter gardens. Silverbeet is a semi-hardy plant, along with collard greens, rocket, bok choy, endive, mizuna and radicchio. All can be direct sown or started in containers, except bok choy, which is most successful when transplanted.

When collards are planted and grow over the winter, it improves the flavour of the leaves.

Carrots, along with turnips and beets, actually get sweeter when grown in the winter because the plants produce more sugars to keep from freezing. Keep the soil sandy and well-drained, because heavy soil will cause carrots to grow slowly. All can be started with direct seeding.

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Radishes are a fun cold crop because they’re low-maintenance and grow fast. Specific varieties grow in winter, like daikons, which grow more slowly but come out nice and crisp. Sow them directly into sandy, well-drained soil outside.

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Peas do well when it’s chilly and help improve the soil by fixing nitrogen. They require full sun and well-drained soil. They don’t need a lot of fertiliser, but will benefit from some compost added to the soil before planting. Sow them outside in late winter and make sure they have a trellis or something else to climb on.

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As with radishes, there are winter varieties of broccoli, like hardy purple sprouting broccoli, which does best in colder climates. Sow in containers over winter, then transplant in the spring. Broccoli prefers full, direct sunlight for about six to eight hours a day. While it needs regular watering, it doesn’t do well in overly wet soil.

Learn 6 ways to prepare garden beds for winter vegetables.

Because they grow quickly and tolerate many conditions, bunching onions like spring onions are excellent winter sowing crops. They can be sown directly into the beds for early spring harvest, or sown and grown in containers for winter harvest.

Leeks develop bolder flavour after a frost or two. Sow them in containers and then transplant in the spring. They’re also good for early summer planting. They’re hardy and can sit in the ground over the winter, waiting to be picked for a winter soup.

The most weatherproof winter cabbage is crinkly savoy, which actually gets brighter once it goes through a frost. They take a while to grow, so start them in containers and transplant them once they have six or so leaves.

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Source: Family Handyman