Winter Garden

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Lovely winter garden veggies that can be grown in cooler weather.

This page talks about growing a winter garden where the temperature does not get below 22° Fahrenheit and the ground does not freeze.

There are some places, that unless you have a heated greenhouse, you will just not be able to grow anything.

But in places like where we live, winters are fairly mild (most of the time). The ground never freezes and the temperature does not drop below freezing very often and when it does, it does not stay there.

So there is a lot of stuff we can plant, to include some flowers.

These things will take a little bit longer to grow since they do not get as much sunlight as in summer months.

Winter Garden Items

What vegetables can I plant?

The first things that come to my mind are the root crops. Most of these will grow when the temperature gets cold. In our garden we have beets, carrots, parsnips, burdock, onions (from seed and starts) (full size and bunching), salsify, scorzonera, shallots, leeks, radishes, rutabaga, kohlrabi, fennel (bulb type) and turnips.  There may be more but this is all I can think of.

Some other things that come to mind are Swiss Chard, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage, lettuce, collards, various greens and spinach. 

Not all varieties of each type of veggie, under each of these, are good for growing in the winter, but you can research and find out what variety will grow in your area.

There is a lot that you can plant in your winter garden if you live in the southern half of the United States.

You will not be able to start these from seed in the winter time. You will need to plant transplants that are at least six weeks old. It would be better to plant your transplants at the end of summer before the cold moves in.

Something we grow in the winter here are strawberries. We plant the type of plants that produce small berries and throughout the year we get a few here and there. We now live in the Strawberry Capital of Texas so the strawberry farmers have planted their fields with larger berries. These large strawberries should be ready to harvest around the end of February or the beginning of March. One farmer was nice enough to give us 100 plants back in January of 2020. They grew amazingly.

Winter Flowers

This is the first year (December of 2020) that we have planted winter flowers. It got down to 27 degrees Fahrenheit here the other night and they did fine.

What did we plant?

Snapdragons, pansies, violas, and petunias. 

What can be planted?

Winter Jasmine, hellabores, pieris, cyclamen, witch hazel and winter primrose just to name a few. I have never heard of any of these so we do not have the seeds.

Another cold tolerant flower that comes to mind is ornamental kale. There are both open pollinated and hybrid varieties of these and good news! We carry ornamental kale seeds here.

Winter Herbs

What herbs will grow in winter?

Calendula, rosemary, parsley, mint, savory winter, some types of basil and thyme. These alone should give you enough fresh herbs to satisfy your palate through the winter. 

Mint is best grown in a container because wherever you plant it, it will take over the space, choking everything else out...Unless you have small flower beds to plant individual varieties of mint, I would just plant them in pots.

Garlic can be grown in the wintertime as well.  Click here to read about it.

Cover Crops

When winter hits and our grass has died, we plant rye grass. We plant seed and it is usually warm enough for it to germinate.

Here is what we have planted: hairy vetch, winter wheat and crimson clover.

Generally, these are planted in the summer or fall and allowed to overwinter.

Keep in mind that they do need water during the winter months.

And around the beginning of January, for us, it will be time to start our transplants. Of course, we have a nice warm greenhouse for them. If we did not have the greenhouse, we would have to wait.

And you can get all of these wonderful seeds from David's Garden Seeds®.

(Well our stuff is going to get tested.  We are expecting temps as low as 15 degrees.)

Go to Home Page from Growing a Winter Garden

All of the variety information on the David's Garden Seeds® website, including the days to maturity, color and size are based on data from tests done at specific locations. Many factors, including geographic location, daytime and nighttime temperatures, the availability of plant nutrients, many unknown climate factors and insects/pest interact to determine a variety's performance. For information on which varieties will perform best in your area, we recommend that you contact your local county extension agent or a Master Gardener.

David's Garden Seeds® Mission Statement

Here at David’s Garden Seeds®, gardening is our passion. We provide top quality, non-GMO seeds so families can learn about gardening and love it.  In turn, we hope they will pass this passion down to their children and grandchildren, teaching them to grow  delicious food, fresh herbs and beautiful flowers.