With the price of groceries on the road with no end in sight, I started thinking again about how to save more money on my weekly grocery bill. I decided to look at the cold crops. These may be sown and collected before or after it finally becomes customary.
You can always refer to the zone chart to be sure of the temperatures in your area. But even if you wait a few nights below freezing, none of your plants will be lost.
These plants were meant to withstand cold weather while still producing food throughout the winter and early spring months.
Lettuce is the best cold vegetable. Always start the seed inside a yogurt cup or egg carton. Make a hole in the bottom of the water container and fill it with soil. Sow the seed with a light covering on top of the dirt. Place in an area with plenty of sun.
When the plant becomes a plant, plant it in your garden. Make sure you combine plants to make bigger, healthier herbs.
Spinach is another great cold weather plant. Start as a seed into a plant, and place it in the garden area. Leave six to eight inches of space between plants. Harvest these plants early. Spinach can be frozen and frozen for six to eight months in the freezer.
With every variety of vegetable leaf, you can collect, and immediately more in the spaces of the original plants. In this way, the vegetable can be enjoyed throughout the year, while it is growing in new land. Most leafy herbs can grow from start to finish in 25 to 50 days.
Cabbage is another cold weather crop. They are not so easy to grow, so they take more time than leaf plants. They take up even more space and have to be placed deeper into the ground in order to grow properly. But cauliflower likes cooler temperatures and thrives in cooler weather. Make sure to space these plants apart from each other.
Broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cabbage are all very good candidates for cold sowing. But at the same time you can always plant Asparagus, French and Potatoes in early spring or to prevent a good time growing for next year .
There are a few things you can do if there is going to be a storm for a few days below freezing. Hay can always be used to surround the plant. Hay bales can be used to surround the plants with plastic sheeting covering the plant to add warmth as well. You can also use flat wooden bags with plastic wrap over heat. But remember with those cold plants, temperatures can go as low as 25 degrees without any care.
If you follow these simple tips, you can enjoy these cold plants at any time of the year.
