Never too early to start planning for fall

We interrupt this heat wave for an important announcement: fall is coming. Yes, fall – with its cooler temperatures, bright blue skies and occasional rain. Doesn’t that sound lovely to you right now?

While I realize it’s hard to imagine growing a fall garden when it’s so hot outside, it’s time to make plans and get your seeds started.

For the past two years, I have experimented with growing vegetables over the fall and winter months without the use of electricity. It’s possible to do this, provided one selects cold-tolerant varieties and protects plants from extreme temperatures.

The reason I’m going to this trouble is because what I miss the most during the winter months is fresh greens.

During the winter of 2013-14, I planted a bed with lettuce, bunching onions, spinach and carrots. I covered the bed with floating row cover initially but once temperatures really started to drop, I added a sheet of plastic. I had some success, which encouraged me to try again last winter.

I grew two raised beds of kale, arugula, mizuna, tatsoi, corn salad (or mache) and lettuce. The beds were covered with a small hoop house, which is a plastic-covered greenhouse. You don’t have to get that fancy but I wanted to provide a more sheltered environment. Low hoop tunnels covered with plastic would’ve worked equally well.

My efforts were rewarded with even more success. However, I did make some mistakes which you can learn from:

I underestimated the importance of sunlight. Since the winter sun is low in the sky, it’s crucial to choose an area that doesn’t get shaded. Last winter, a small structure shaded one of the beds in the hoop house and those plants struggled.

I grew the plants too closely together. The only pests I had to deal with during the colder months were a few hardy slugs. When plants are crowded, it’s easier for slugs to move from plant to plant and cause maximum damage. With proper spacing, they have to work harder.

I should have gotten the plants off to an earlier start last year. That’s why I’m writing about this topic now. If the seeds are started indoors over the next couple of weeks, plants will develop stronger root systems and be more established by the time fall gets here. Then they’ll put on good growth to provide nice harvests throughout the fall and winter months.

This last one is a biggie: I didn’t choose hardy-enough varieties of vegetable crops. During my two winters of experiments, I simply chose cool-season crops, figuring they would do just fine, but have since learned that certain varieties have much more cold-tolerance.

Which crops would I recommend? Although it is one of the least-known salad greens, corn salad tolerates whatever Mother Nature throws at it; I’ve heard the Vit variety is a good performer. Two other unusual but cold-tolerant greens are claytonia – also known as miner’s lettuce – and minutina.

Kale is another great choice, but not just any kale. I’m talking about the extremely cold-tolerant varieties of Vates, Winterbor, Starbor, Redbor and Ripbor. Kale is very nutritious and very tasty in soups and stews.

During my first winter, I had good luck with Bordeaux spinach so intend to try it again this year.

I’ll provide updates on how the plants are doing over the next several months on my blog, which you can find at susans inthegarden.blogspot.com.