Grow your own to save money 6 cold-weather plants that are perfect to plant this Fall

Clark Howard.com ^ | 9-17-13 | Crystal Collins

[metmom]

Peas can take a light freeze without blinking.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Sounds good. I remove the stem and middle rib and roll the leaves and rough chop. Then cook with a nice piece of bacon, salt, pepper, garlic powder, a shot of hot sauce and a splash of white wine or beer whichever is in my hand whilst cooking. :-)

[Tilted Irish Kilt]

cherry :".. these crops might grow in Missouri or Tenn or southern Ohio, but they won't make it here in the northern tier states....."

Yeah , they will with a little extra effort. The secret of winterizing crops depends on creating " MICROCLIMATES ".
From each concept, you can drop approcimately 1/2 of a plant zone to a full plant zone to extend the harvest season.(YMMV)
#1) Southern / full sun exposure in front of brick/stone wall (acts as a heat sink).
#2) Wind protection from a closeplanting /hedge/wall/4 mil. plastic on hoops / cold frame.
#3) Leaf mulch /straw(insulation)removed on warm days; plants covered up during the night to retain heat.

I had a coworker whose family brought a fig tree from Sicily, and kept this tree bearing fruit in his back lawn.
Every fall he collected leaves from the neighborhood; then he cut exactly 1/2 of the tree roots, and bent the tree over, parallel to the ground.
He watered the tree well ,and put a 20 watt light bulb alongside the trunk , then covered up the tree with leaves (insulation),
and then covered the pile with a comforter and a tarp.
The 20 watt lighbulb was left on throughout the winter under the leaves and tarp
Every year he alternated the side of the tree roots that got cut ; every spring when he set the tree upright, he would add balanced fertilizer to the cut roots
and stake the tree for support since it contiued to bear fruit heavily.
What he actually was doing was creating an artificial microclimate in northern tier zone ; although it is somewhat labor intensive.

[Tilted Irish Kilt]

KGeorge ~:"there is something called Poly Flute (there’s another name for it, too)"

Is that the see-through plastic cone - like that you fill with water to retain daytime heat ?

[RegulatorCountry]

Turnips are underappreciated. Most anything you can do with a potato, you can do with a turnip, boiled and mashed with dairy butter and a touch of horseradish is very good. They’ll keep practically all winter in the ground here.

[KGeorge]

No. It comes in 4 x 8 sheets. It is under $20 a sheet & really easy to work with (I use a carpet knife & a regular Arrow staple gun with it). Some of ours is over 10 years old. We re-use much of it every Winter. It’s a whole lot easier to manage than plastic sheeting on a roll.

It’s like the cardboard with corrugated between 2 layers, translucent but not clear, like polycarbonate.

Now, I’m interested in what you’re describing. On our patio, we have a wall that gets sun most of the day & retains heat pretty well. Out in the yard, where the beds are, we’re either going to make a greenhouse kinda thing or ??? What you’re describing could really be useful.

[cherry]

my 5 red cabbage plants are in a raised bed...I suppose I could make a cold frame, seeing as we have some old windows that we took out....

I LOVE This time of year....I love the gleaning of the garden....I love the squash and I love the crispness of the air and I love cooking and baking in the house now that the temps are cool outside....just can't get into cooking or baking much in the hot summer...

[reformedliberal]

Spring is my favorite season, but it is fun to be using up the last of the garden produce in comfortable weather.

[greeneyes]

Thanks for the link. I noticed that some of the Northern area people were stating that they couldn’t grow those crops.

However, I remember seeing a book and some articles somewhere about gardening year round in one of the New England states.

One method involved a hot frame type thing. Basically you use your compost pile which provides heat, and you have some boards where you sit the pots with plants and then cover it all up with plastic.

Then there’s always the indoor south or west facing window, with a little additional light from a full spectrum plant light.

[Silentgypsy]

Thank you, greeneyes, for your continual work on behalf of all of us.

[SunkenCiv]

Carrots dug in February here in Michigan are truly a delight, they get sweeter the longer they’re in the ground (until they don’t).

Kale’s not on this list, but it’s another one that will grow.

And biennials like parsley are under the snow, as are evergreens like sage.

[SunkenCiv]

Also, garlic should be planted (though not harvested) in the fall; short-day onions (Granex variety, which is marketed under that famous trademarked name starting with V) can be planted where the plants won’t freeze out in order to get that sweet flavor.