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Dec 2, 2015

Winter Greens

It is a sad day when the fall temperatures dip below freezing and the days of eating out of the garden are over for another season.  But feasting on fresh greens does not have to be over, even for those who live in cold climates like Minnesota.





Greens for the winter months.



Eating the leaves of plants - which most people refer to as "greens" can not only provide early and late season fresh food, but can also help extend the season well into the winter months.



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Vit and parsley growing thick and green.


I was inspired to try growing greens in the winter after reading the book, Four Season Gardening, by Elliot Coleman.  Coleman plants varieties that are cold hardy and gives them shelter and harvests and eats greens all winter long. He lives in Maine which is Zone 5, one zone warmer than our home in Minnesota.


An easy way to create a min-green house is to build a cold frame..  A cold frame is just a planting box with a glass cover that tilts slightly to the south.  Coleman provides basic instructions in his book.





Cold frames in early November.


I found the cold frames helpful, but there were also challenges.  Most years snow would accumulate on the glass, not only blocking the rays of the sun, but also making it difficult to remove the glass tops to access the greens.


This winter we can take advantage of the greenhouses my husband built from a kit he found at Menards.  Again this is not ideal, but a step up from the cold frames.




These greenhouses are small, only 6' x'8'.


Utilizing a greenhouse has several advantages.  Unlike my cold frames, I only have to remove the snow in front of the door to gain access to the plants.  The other advantage, is the ability to create an additional layer of protection by adding wire hoops and spreading floating row covers over the greens.


This year I only had time to move Vit and parsley into the greenhouse. But given more planting time in August and September, additional varieties of cold hardy greens could be seeded.  Claytonia and Winterbor kale are two cold hardy varieties I would like to try next year.




Arugula is not quite cold hardy enough to survive temps under 20 degrees.


Have you had success growing greens in the winter?




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