Category Archives: Winter Gardening

Garden Advice, Winter Gardening

Bulbs and Beyond: Fall Planting for Spring Production

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Fall is one of the most magical times in the garden. The morning air is cool and crisp, the weeds and pests are beginning to dwindle, and we’re finally enjoying harvests from our long season crops. I love spending autumn days in the garden so much that I often plant almost as much in the fall as in the spring. Thankfully, there are some excellent fall crops I can sneak in this time of year that provide a spring abundance.

What Crops Can I Plant This Fall?

The fall planting list is surprisingly long! If you’re willing to put in the work, there are several flowers, herbs, and vegetables that can all be fall-planted for incredible spring flowers and harvests. 

Fall-Planted Flowers

Fall planting brings spring blooms! If you want early flowers, fall planting is a must. There are many different types of fall-planted flowers, so I divided them into two categories: those you plant from bulbs, corms, tubers, or roots, and those you start from seed. Flowers you can start from seed are often those varieties with a tendency to self-seed that would naturally drop seed each fall and spread. 

Flower BulbsBulbs, Corms, Tubers, & Roots

  • Anemones (Anemone spp.)
  • Checkered Lily (Fritillaria meleagris)
  • Crocus (Iridaceae spp.)
  • Daffodils (Narcissus spp.)
  • Dutch Iris (Iris × hollandica)
  • German Iris (Iris × germanica)
  • Hyacinth (Hyacinthus spp.)
  • Oriental Lilies (Lilium orientalis)
  • Ornamental Alliums (Allium spp.)
  • Peonies (Paeonia officinalis)
  • Snowdrop (Galanthus spp.)
  • Tulips (Tulipa spp.)

Seeds

  • Bachelor’s Buttons (Centaurea cyanus)
  • Butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa)
  • Calendula (Calendula officinalis)
  • Coreopsis (Coreopsis spp.)
  • Dara (Daucus carota)
  • Echinacea (Echinacea spp.)
  • Hollyhocks (Alcea rosea)
  • Johnny Jump-Ups (Viola spp.)
  • Larkspur (Delphinium spp.)
  • Rudbeckia (Rudbeckia spp.)
  • Snapdragons (Antirrhinum spp.)
  • Sweet Peas (Lathyrus odoratus)

Fall-Planted Herbs 

While flower bulbs often seem to be the focus for fall, there are a number of cold-tolerant or perennial herbs you can start this autumn. 

  • Chives
  • Cilantro
  • Feverfew
  • Mint
  • Parsley
  • Thyme
Nancy Malone Wheat Purple Collards
Nancy Malone Wheat Purple Collards

Fall-Planted Vegetables

Hardy vegetables are one of my favorite fall crops. Overwintered vegetables will often start putting on good growth during occasional warm February and March days when we start getting more daylight. They’re ready to harvest long before any indoor seed or spring-started crop ever will be! I’ve divided the vegetables into groups so it’s easier to find the type of crops you’re interested in.

Alliums

  • Bulb Onions
  • Garlic
  • Perennial Onions
  • Shallots

Brassicas

  • Broccoli
  • Brussels Sprouts
  • Cabbage
  • Cauliflower

Beans

  • Fava/Broad Beans

Greens

  • Arugula
  • Claytonia
  • Collards
  • Kale
  • Lettuce
  • Mustard Greens
  • Spinach
  • Swiss Chard

Roots

  • Beets
  • Carrots
  • Daikon Radishes
  • Rutabagas
  • Potatoes
  • Turnips

When Can I Plant These Fall Crops?

The answer to this question depends on both the crop and your location. Those in New England will need to plant much earlier than those in the Deep South, but it also depends on what you’re growing.

For example, you should only plant tulips when soil temperatures have cooled. For those in northern areas, you may be able to put them in as early as September, but waiting until as late as December may be preferable for those in the south. 

Learning about your hardiness zone and using a garden planner app may help you make the best decisions for planting dates. 

Do These Fall Crops Need Protection?

Again, this depends on the crop and location. In warm, southern climates, all of these crops will need less protection than they do in northern zones. In fact, those in the deep south may have to continue weeding and watering as usual into the fall months. 

However, in many areas, these crops, particularly the fall vegetables, benefit from some sort of protection. For root crops and alliums, this may mean a thick layer of straw or hay mulch around the base of the plant to provide some insulation. For greens and herbs, planting them in a hoop house or cold frame or installing low tunnels with wires and clear plastic is ideal. 

Most of the flower bulbs, corms, roots, and tubers do best when they receive a layer of mulch after planting, but they should come with instructions. On the other hand, the flower seeds are usually fine without protection. Some seeds, like echinacea, actually require a period of cold and moisture to germinate properly.

 

Getting good production during the winter months can be challenging, even in the south. Shorter days mean less plant growth, even when the weather is warm. That said, you may still want to consider some of these fall crops. When sown in fall, these flowers, herbs, and vegetables will provide extra-early spring production. Get a jump on 2025 with these fantastic fall-planted crops.

Garden Advice, Winter Gardening

5 Winter Garden Projects to Help You Get Ahead

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Winter is a lovely season to rest and spend free time flipping through the seed catalogs, earmarking way too many varieties, and doing a bit of dreaming and garden planning. We spend these months looking forward to spring when we can get out in the garden again. Unfortunately, spring can be both a fun and overwhelming time. There’s so much to do! Here are five garden projects you can complete this winter to get ahead for spring. 

Start or Maintain a Compost

Compost is one of the best garden amendments. It adds nutrients, builds soil structure, and improves drainage. Composting is also a great way to reduce your household waste and you can start a compost pile any time of year. Visit Black Gold: Making Compost for a beginners guide or Winter Composting for more seasonal advice. 

Build Season Extenders

You don’t have to build an enormous greenhouse or a desire to grow food year round to create and use season extenders. Simple cold frames can help you start and harden off seedlings earlier. Low tunnels allow you to harvest cold hardy greens and brassicas earlier in the spring and protect them from summer heat and insects as the season continues. 

Create your own cold frames this winter with simple materials like straw bales, wood, and old windows. You can also gather supplies for low-tunnels. You can purchase low tunnel supplies from many garden suppliers or you can diy your own with materials like PVC, tulle, and plastic. 

Maintain and Repair Tools

Don’t wait until you need them next spring to get your tools in order. Winter is a great time to sharpen blades, replace broken handles and in the case of power equipment, gather supplies for spring oil changes and other needed maintenance. 

Mulch

One of the cardinal rules of sustainable gardening is to never leave bare soil. Bare soil creates opportunity for erosion and is poor habitat for beneficial insects, fungi, and organisms. Take advantage of any warm days this winter to cover bare spots in your garden. Old leaves work great for this!

Keep Learning

On the days where the weather is truly to bad to be out, you can continue your gardening education. We’re never done learning! Read some seed saving books, listen to your favorite garden podcasts, or settle down with a show and some popcorn.

The growing season is often too busy tackle all the projects we’d like. Get ahead this season with these five winter garden projects.

Garden Advice, Winter Gardening

What to Sow in January

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Written by Lisa Dermer. Source materials include conversations with Ira Wallace.

As the year begins we’re eager to start sowing seeds, but nervous about starting too early and having big, leggy transplants and nowhere to plant them. There are lots of crops we can and should start in January: bulbing onions, rhubarb, artichokes, celery and celeriac, parsley, and spring flowers (like poppies, chamomile, and evening primrose). Long season hot peppers (like habañero) can be started at the end of January; peppers are generally slow to germinate. We’ll start our seeds indoors, or outside in cold frames or the hoophouse, for transplanting later in the spring.

Be aware of when you want to plant and decide when to sow transplants by counting back from then! Overly large transplants suffer greater transplant shock and may have reduced yields. Brassicas like kale, collards, cabbage, and broccoli should have 3-4 true leaves and be about six weeks old when you transplant. Tomatoes and eggplants also need about six weeks, and peppers need 8-10 weeks. In our area we transplant most brassicas in mid-March, so we’ll wait until early February to sow. We provide recommended planting dates (PDF) >>

Sow bulbing onions for transplant now if you haven’t sown them already. Those in the lower South should have already sown Short Day Length bulbing onions, like Vidalia, last fall. In-between areas like us will have the best results growing Long to Intermediate Day Length bulbing onions, and starting them in December or January. Transplant out when they’re still thinner than a pencil! Read about growing bulbing onions >>

Artichokes and rhubarb should be sown in January and grown in cold frames to vernalize. They need the exposure to colder temperatures now to put on much growth later.

Winter has been warm all over the South: we’ve been sowing greens in cold frames and the hoophouse every couple weeks since fall. You can sow a variety of winter hardy greens (spinach, cress, mustard greens, arugula) throughout January. Remember, plants grow slowly in winter’s low light – even in warm greenhouses your starts may not put on much growth until the sun is stronger.

There’s still work to be done outside, even if it’s too early to be putting out plants. On nice days, prepare your beds if the weather is warm and dry enough. Then cover with mulch or row cover (prevent erosion on bare soil!) until you’re ready to plant. And don’t forget to look after your perennials – most fruit trees need pruning in winter, before they start to bud.

Request a free copy of our new catalog if you haven’t received one yet. We do expect to run out of some varieties, so order early while things are still in stock.

Happy winter gardening!