The Changing of the Garden: Cool Crops
Sometime in the fall, tomatoes come out, and turnips go in.
This seasonal changeover doesn’t happen overnight, because many summer vegetables linger well into November. But, as the succulent vegetables of summer fade, they are replaced by things such as broccoli, lettuce, onions and peas.
Beginning as far back as August, vegetable gardeners begin planting what are called “the cool-season crops,” those crunchy vegetables that do best in fall, winter and early spring.
For some, fall, winter and early spring are the best times in a vegetable garden. Veteran gardener Ginny Mackintosh thinks so.
“It’s a wonderful season because you don’t have all the insects to contend with,” she says, or the heat of summer, or the constant watering.
A few gardeners get started as early as August because a couple of crops, Brussels sprouts and cabbage in particular, take a long time to mature. They sow seed late in August and then transplant the seedlings into the garden in September.
Janie Malloy, who runs a business called Home Grown in Pasadena, installs and plants vegetable gardens for others and she begins the switch then. She wants to start these two slow-growers early so they are mature before the heat of spring and summer arrives in the inland valley areas.
Nearer the coast, timing isn’t so critical, even for these two vegetables.
At the Ocean View Farms community garden in Mar Vista, Mackintosh may start that early but she keeps planting right through February. “I don’t pay too much attention to planting times,” she says, showing the difference in climate between the mild beach areas and the more extreme inland valleys.
She even grows some cool-season crops in summer, including broccoli and lettuce, by planting them under 50% shade cloth, which, with the ocean breeze, keeps them cool enough.
Cole Crops
The cole crops--broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale and kohlrabi--are anchors in a cool-season garden--big, heavy, and slow-growing. All are best transplanted into the garden as seedlings, purchased at a nursery or home-grown in little pots or recycled nursery packs. They are seldom sown directly in the ground, even by commercial farmers.
Try this trick when planting: When transplanting, bury the seedlings deep--like a tomato--so the stem is covered and the plant stands up straight and sturdy. As a group they tend to have crooked, weak stems. Mackintosh snips off the two bottom leaves to make sure they get planted deep enough to cover the crook in the stem.
About the only pest you’ll encounter all winter happens to favor the the cole crops, but especially cabbage. The cabbage worm is the larva of that flitting white butterfly so common in gardens.
Mackintosh has gardened long enough to expect the worm so as soon as the plants are growing, she dusts them with a biological control called Bacillus thuringiensis , or simply B.t.
It takes a while to effect the larva so she doesn’t wait until there is damage to dust. She reapplies from time to time through the winter months.
You might also see cutworm damage. If seedlings disappear overnight, suspect this fat larva that feeds at night. Malloy surrounds new seedlings with sections of milk carton that effectively fence out the invaders.
Greens
This is also the best season for all of the leafy greens.
Mackintosh likes salads that are a mix of greens so she plants romaine, radicchio, chicory and head lettuces (her favorite varieties are ‘New York’ and ‘Ithaca’). She doesn’t plant a lot at one time, but makes successive sowing through the year so she is never overwhelmed by lettuce.
Though you may be able to grow lettuce all year long near the coast, it’s definitely easier inland in winter.
Malloy grows all her lettuce from seed and says that a French Bibb lettuce variety named ‘Merveille des Quatre Saisons’ (from Shepard Seeds, 30 Irene St., Torrington, Conn. 06790) is her clients’ favorite.
She tends to sow a mix of seed that includes red mustard, arugula, oakleaf, romaine and butterleaf. She sows thickly and then eats the thinnings as the plants grow. She doesn’t grow in rows, but in wide, usually raised, beds.
Harvesting tends to start within four weeks of sowing and continues for four to six months, if only the outer, mature leaves of plants are cut.
Both gardeners also grow chard and spinach in the cool-season.
Root Crops
Beets, carrots, parsnips, radish, turnips and onions are cool-season root vegetables that can be planted now.
You can start onions from little bulbs available now called “sets,” or sow seed as Malloy does. Sow now and onions will be ready in June or July. Malloy cautions that should they try to flower before then, break off the blooms or the bulbs will begin to shrivel. She also grows garlic from cloves bought at the market, and shallots, from seed.
Potatoes are another cool-season crop. Mackintosh plants hers from what are called “seed potatoes,” actually little baby potatoes. Seed potatoes show up at nurseries in winter (or order from Ronniger’s Seed Potatoes, Star Route, Moyie Springs, Idaho 83845).
Malloy uses seed potato starts and plants as soon as the tomatoes come out. Her favorite variety is called ‘Yukon Gold’ and she says, “it’s like digging for gold” when they’re ready in March or April.
Peas Too
And, don’t forget peas. You can grow them on the same trellises or cages used in summer for tomatoes and snap beans. Malloy grows them on trellises used for summer’s cucumbers and she plants two crops, one now and then one in February when the first is finished. She often mixes flowering sweet peas with the edible peas, adding a little color to the leafy green winter garden.
