Did you know that you can garden all year long? Yes, you do need a yard that gets a lot of sun but if you have that and a desire to grow some of your own food you can do it! I highly recommend Eliot Coleman’s book, “Four Season Harvest”, as an introduction. If you do three season gardening you won’t need cold protection, but if you want to do four season a cold frame or greenhouse is necessary in Virginia.
Here are some Fall carrots we planted late summer and harvested in November. Because most people grow garden plants in the summer, they may not be as familiar with the plants that tolerate colder temperatures and which will survive winter in a cold frame or greenhouse. The cold tolerant vegetables we grow are carrots, lettuce, kale, collards, broccoli, onions, parsley, cabbage, and radish. We have grown all of them in both the greenhouse and cold frame. Below is a picture of the cold frame taken in late winter on a nice day when the cover was off. Give it a try–you’ll get better with experience every year!
