What comes after spring garden planting? Abundant harvests of lettuce, radishes, peas, beets, carrots and, a little later, beans, zucchini and tomatoes.  But what else comes after spring garden planting?  Fall and winter garden planting!  Even as I’m enjoying vegetables from the spring and summer garden, I’m eyeing the spaces left by these harvests and plotting what I can plant there for fall and winter. If you have extra garden space showing up as you harvest, you can plant some fall and winter crops now and throughout July and August.  The reward will be vegetables from the kitchen garden this winter.

Most of the vegetables I plant for my fall and winter kitchen garden fall into two general categories, greens and roots. Greens that I always make room for are kale, collards, chard, radicchio, red mustard, arugula, mache. Winter roots that have a place are rutabaga, turnip, carrots, beets, parsnips, celery root. Brussels sprouts, cabbage and leeks don’t fit neatly into these categories, but I always leave space for them in my winter garden too.

Greens grown in fall and winter tend to be sweeter and more succulent than greens grown in summer.  They not only thrive in cool weather, but also get sweeter after a frost. Winter roots as well as leeks, Brussels sprouts and cabbage also thrive and sweeten in cold weather, and their rich deep flavors signal fall and winter in contrast to the lighter, brighter flavors of summer’s beans, zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant and peppers. And even when the weather gets really cold, there are lots of ways to protect your winter crops.

Here’s the planting calendar I keep in mind as space opens up in the garden. Some of these vegetables I’ll direct seed and others I’ll start in pots and plant out as space becomes available.

If you use Linda Gilkeson’s winter garden planting calendar, you’ll notice that I suggest dates a little later than those she suggests, but I’ve found that I can push the season a little more in my Lopez Island garden than she can on Salt Spring Island.

Greens:

Kale and collards: mid-July, direct seed or plant in pots for transplanting

Chard: mid-July, direct seed or plant in pots for transplanting

Radicchio: mid-to-late July, direct seed or plant in pots for transplanting

Red mustard: early to mid-August, direct seed or plant in pots for transplanting

Arugula: direct seed, mid-August through October and as late as December in a cold frame

Mache: mid-August, direct seed or plant in flats for transplanting

Roots:

Carrots: early to mid-July, direct seed

Beets: early to mid-July, direct seed

Rutabaga: mid-July, direct seed or start in pots for transplanting

Turnip: mid-July, direct seed or start in pots for transplanting

Parsnips: early June to mid-July, direct seed

Celery root: April to May in pots for transplanting late June

Leeks: late May, direct seed or in pots to transplant

Brussels sprouts: early June, in pots to transplant early to mid-July

Winter cabbage: early June, in pots to transplant early to mid-July

Over the years, I’ve written many blog posts about growing and cooking winter vegetables. If you’re interested in trying a few winter vegetables this year, check out these posts for photos and ideas and explore the site under Fall/Winter Vegetables. For many of these vegetables, it’s not too late to buy seeds. And if planting for fall and winter doesn’t appeal this year, there’s always next year!

Greens for fall and winter: Includes advice on planting arugula and mache.

Plant your Winter Roots: An overview, similar to this post

Undercover Greens: Includes advice on constructing a low hoop house

Kale: The first of many posts on kale on this blog.

Bitter Greens: Includes advice on growing and cooking radicchio and other bitter greens.

Mache: Includes advice on growing, harvesting and serving mache, also known as corn salad.

Red Mustard: Advice on growing and cooking red mustard.

Winter Vegetable Beauty: Includes a delicious recipe for winter cabbage

Gilfeather Turnip: Includes the “back story” of this delicious winter turnip.

January King Cabbage: Includes advice on growing this very hardy winter cabbage and a recipe for cabbage and collards

Roasting Colorful Carrots: Includes my favorite recipe for winter carrots

Sweeter after a frost: Explains why winter vegetables are sweeter!