Cold Weather Crops

With the price of groceries on the way up without any end in sight, I started re-thinking how to save yet more money on my weekly grocery bill. I decided to look into cold weather crops. Which can be planted and harvested earlier or later then usual.

You can always depend on a frost zone map to make sure of temperatures in your area. However, even if you are expecting a few below freezing nights, with proper precautions none of your plants will be lost.

These plants are meant to withstand cold weather, while still producing food through the winter and early spring months.

Lettuce is an excellent cold weather plant. I always start a seed indoors in a yogurt cup or egg carton. Make a hole in the bottom of the container for water drainage and fill with soil. Plant the seed with a light cover of dirt over the top. Place in an area with plenty of sunlight.

When the seedling becomes a plant, replant it in your garden area. Make sure to properly space the plants for bigger healthier vegetables.

Spinach is another great cold weather plant. Start as a seed into a plant, and place in garden area. Leaving a six to eight inch space between plants. Harvest these plants early. Spinach can be blanched and frozen, and kept in the freezer for six to eight months.

With any leaf variety vegetable, you can harvest and immediately plant more in the spaces between the original plants. This way the vegetable can be enjoyed all year, while being grown in fresh soil. Most leaf vegetables, from start to finish can be grown in 25 to 50 days.

Cauliflower is another cold weather crop plant. The are not as easy to grow, as they take more time then a leaf plant. They also take up more space and have to be place deeper into the soil to grow properly. But cauliflower does love cooler temperatures and thrives in the cooler weather. Make sure to space these plants a foot apart from one another.

Broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cabbage are all very good candidates for cold weather planting. But at the same time you can always plant things like Asparagus, Garlic and Potatoes in the early spring or fall to insure a good growing season for the next year.

At any time if the weather is going to be below freezing for a few days, there are a few things you can do. Hay can always be used to surround a plant for warmth. Bails of hay can be used to surround the plants with a sheet of plastic covering the plant for added heat too. You can also use flat wooden boxes with plastic wrap on top for heat. But remember with those cold weather plants, the temperatures can go down as low as 25 degrees without any worries.

If you follow these simple tips, you can enjoy these cold weather plants any time of the year.