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dianega

Is there a 'how to' Four Season Gardening website?

DianeGA
14 years ago

Hi! I've never tried this before & was wondering if there are any websites that have some basic "how to" info on this. I'm hoping something along the lines of how Square Foot Gardening has a website with a lot of info (squarefootgardening.com). I know Eliot Coleman has a book, but my library doesn't carry it & I wanted to at least get a better idea of what this is like before I buy the book.

I'm in Atlanta, zone 7. The average lows Dec-Feb are in the low-30s to 40s, but there will be a few times that it'll dip into 20's or even a couple of teens at night. My garden faces South so it'll get plenty of sunshine.

Some of my questions (among many!) are:

- Which veggies can take some frost or even a light freeze without protection

- Which need more protection (need covers even for light frost)

- Can you plant new veggies during the winter or have to already have planted during the fall & just harvesting during the winter? Is it too late to put out some transplants now (I can still buy from nursery)? And can I even plant new seeds of cold-hardy veggies if I made a mini greenhouse until they're a few inches tall?

- I think I read somewhere where floating row covers gave an extra 10 degrees or so of protection... is that true? or will it need plastic?

I didn't see an FAQ on the GardenWeb page for this, so if I'm missing something please point me in the right direction. Thanks for any help you can give me!

Comments (13)

  • wally_1936
    14 years ago

    Your best bet is to check with your local extension agent. It all depends on the weather you will have from now until spring. Planting now may not work, and transplants do need to be established before any real cool weather. But for the winter season there are quite a few plants you can put in the ground but should have been started in Sep Oct depending on the weather. Cole plants, peas, root plants herbs do best when started in the fall. I have even planted Strawberry plants in Nov and eaten them in Dec, but that was one hot year and it was too late to plant in March. So you should try anything you want and see, because the best teacher is mother nature and you. You will find out for yourself what works best. Many times mistakes are the best teachers.
    Paul

  • curt_grow
    14 years ago

    No it is not easy to find information on winter gardening Eliot Coleman calls it "Four Season Harvest" It is the length of day not the temperature that controls growth of the plant. You really need to get your hands on the book/s He lives in Mas. on the 44th. parallel zone 5. If he can garden there, then you should make it work in your zone The book would be well worth the money.Also check out green house and garden structures on here. They have some good cold frame info.Be aware he does not grow fruiting summer plants in winter, only hearty winter/spring/fall vegetables, that do not need heating. By the way I had a salad of spinach and Butterhead lettuce tonight from the garden,thanks to Eliot and his tips. Not bad for the frozen north.

    Curt :-)

  • robin_maine
    14 years ago

    Eliot lives in Harborside, Maine, zone 5. All of the winter growing is done inside unheated greenhouses/high tunnels. I'm doing the same thing but don't think I can help much for zone 7. I can bring the climate to 6b in my greenhouses but it stays colder here a lot longer than your location. You might be interested in low tunnels. I'm including the link to information below.

    Four Season Harvest is worth the money. Amazon has it for $16.47.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Extend the Growing Season

  • jorg_zeuger
    14 years ago

    IIRC, Coleman makes a very clear distinction that he _harvests_ four seasons/year, but doesn't necessarily _grow_ all four seasons. There are numerous crops that will essentially go dormant during the colder months, but having grown adequately before the onset of particularly cold temps/short days they're available for harvesting (hence the title of the book).

    The content covered in this book is a bit ambitious for me yet (I'm only one year into gardening), but I found it to be a potentially excellent resource that I'll fall back on after I get a better hand on gardening basics.

  • curt_grow
    14 years ago

    Thanks jorg I did not make that clear in my post.

    Curt :-)

  • carsons_mimi
    14 years ago

    Diane,

    I'm not sure about a website but I can certainly rav about Eliot Coleman's book. Our local library had a copy that I flipped through and without reading more than a few select sections, I can tell you that I've decided it is certainly worth the $16-$18 book price and will be ordering it. It's written in a very straight-forward, easy to understand style and I have already started plans to implement some of his methods into my garden this coming year.

    Good luck with your garden quest!

    Lynn

  • wileyr
    14 years ago

    Eliot Coleman and Barbara Damrosch have a web site http://www.fourseasonfarm.com that does have some information, but is primarily about their farmstead and books. Both are excellent writers and give a tremendous amount of information. You can find some articles about the four season harvest idea online, primarily (in my experience) at the magazine sites operated by the print mags, but the sites are free to explore (Grit, Organic Gardening, Mother Earth, Hobby Farm etc.). There is a newer book called "The Winter Harvest" as well, but I understand it is more about commercial production than a home garden. (Haven't read it, but going on what friends have told me.) I did do a hoop house last winter and found that it was considerably warmer on sunny days than ambient temps, and somewhat warmer on other days and at night. I'm doing some low tunnel beds this year (hoop house will be for early spring stuff) and the row cover does help with the temps, but IMO the plastic will raise temps about twice as much as row cover (and it's additive). I'm near Chattanooga, not too far north of you, with similar temps, and my experience with winter greens (probably the most productive winter crop here) is that once the greens are several inches high, it's more the frost and ice that needs to be protected from than the cold--the up and down temps can be rough on them. I raise turnip greens, mustard, spinach, kale, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, garlic, onions and radishes, and if you get them in early, or catch a warm spell to plant them under plastic, they all do pretty well.

  • heather38
    14 years ago

    I brought this book this year, along with a few others in my first flush of thinking of a garden, I loved them all, but the most battered is this book as it is, as said before really well written and contains not only the how to, but the principles behind his thinking, which made it a book that if you have half a brain and basic common sense you can see how it could apply to you, or what you can accommodate to your garden, I say this with utmost confidence, in that this was my first year gardening, and I managed to apply the book to my massive 2 8x4 raised beds which constitute the majority of garden, I managed to convey in women speak enough info for him indoors, to build a 4 foot high tunnel for one of the beds and I harvested my last peas on Monday, and parsnips and carrots in the nick of time as the tunnel took off on Friday :-o but it has proved to me that this works even small scale , we just need to work out a better way of fixing it down :-)
    and with more space I will be able to experiment with more varieties of veg, and I will have more space, as due to this book, hubby has been impressed with the length of season I managed, and he is planning to build me more beds and "perfect" his tunnels, he also has plans for carrots and parsnips in tubes... as well as some veginsteins =O,
    and if we move back to the UK, even with our shorter day length I can see how I can use this there as well.

  • DianeGA
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Thanks for all your responses! I got a clearance price at the nursery for some frost-tolerant 6-packs of veggies (collards, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage) and some lettuce. I was surprised to find out lettuce could take some frost since it seems more delicate, but those will go in containers so I could bring them in if necessary. I guess I'll do some experimenting & see if the others will grow or just sit there for the winter. Even if they just sit all winter, perhaps they'll take off in early spring.
    Nothing ventured, nothing gained! :-) Thanks again!

  • jrslick (North Central Kansas, Zone 5B)
    14 years ago

    As far as cold tolerant/frost tolerant. I would go for the following. Carrots, Beets, Rutabagas, beets, lettuce, arugula, spinach, Tatsoi, Bok choi, radishes, leeks, onions, turnips, broccoli, cauliflower, Swiss Chard, Kale and many others.

    If your lowest temps are in 20's if you have mature plants inside a small high tunnel, you could carry over some tomatoes too. Trust me it sounds crazy, but I had tons of tomatoes in my tunnels until the heavy snow almost brought my buildings down. I pulled the plastic to save the structure for next year.

    I have spinach growing in a small high tunnel. I have them covered with row cover. I picked 1.5 pounds of spinach for salad tonight and for Christmas. It is very yummy! We have had 17 inches of snow so far this year, temps to 7 below zero, wind chill in the -15-20 range and they are thriving. My broccoli, planted outside with no cover, took temps down to 14. It warmed up to freezing and I harvest the remaining heads. Most were semifrozen but I thawed them in the fridge. We just finished the last one on Monday night.

    A friend has a winter CSA that he just finished up with it last week. He has been selling 25 types of vegetables since November 1.

    I live in North Central Kansas, if we can do it so can you.

  • sfallen2002
    14 years ago

    If you really want to test drive _anything_ try the next best thing to your local library:

    Inter-library loan.

    Go on, go talk to a librarian now!

  • lscully02
    14 years ago

    thanks for the info!

  • rb55
    14 years ago

    There was one comment that stated "It is length of day not temperature that effects plant growth". Not quite true. Air temp above something like 45 degrees will grow many veggies. But low soil temp will stop growth of warm season vegetables like tomatos which require soil temps above 55 degrees. Putting peppers in soil below 60 degrees could stunt them permanately. Spinach and lettuce like the cooler temps.

    Eliot Coleman's book "Four Season Harvest" is excelent. I recommend you pick up a copy. It is worth it.

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