Foolish optimism – the winter vegetable garden

I’ve tried with limited success to grown a good winter garden before.

Theoretically, I know it’s possible, but the timing is tricky. It has to be planted late enough to keep from frying all those cold-loving plants in 100-degree weather, and early enough so they get some growth in before the dark and cold of December and January shuts everything down. Even if there’s nothing to harvest before December, if the plants have a good start, they’ll just wait the cold out and then burst into action in February.

I started at the first of September, filling one of the raised beds with sugar snap peas, carrots and rat-tail radishes. Since then I’ve been fighting off the snails (they LOVE tender little carrot seedlings) and the little green caterpillars “planted” by those pretty white butterflies. Who knew that caterpillars would like sugar snap peas? Dusting with BT is helping. And did I mention the last heat wave of the season last week?

Still, some of the peas are halfway up the fence, and the radishes look great, although they’ve yet to produce any flowers or pods.

Since the first of September, I’ve been adding more plantings as space is freed in the beds and the veggie plants become available at the nursery. Now I have gorgeous cauliflower plants, lush Italian parsley and newly planted celery, red cabbage and broccoli plants. Oh, shallots and onion sets too.

A few days ago I planted four of my small boxes with spinach and lettuces. These boxes are ringed with copper tape and filled with fresh potting soil every year to defeat the snails. It worked last year–I hope the snails haven’t spent the summer working out a plan to outsmart me.

I routinely cover all my raised beds with a wire mesh (about 2 x 4 in) when they’re empty or newly planted so the soil isn’t mostly covered with plants. This keeps my cats from doing their business among my veggies, but it isn’t enough to keep the squirrels from their fall food-burying frenzy. I saw at least a dozen fresh holes in and around my newly planted areas this morning. The photo below, a few years old, is of my sweet Carlos lounging on top of the wire, suspended two or three inches above the dirt. Anything for a sunbeam!