November in the Kitchen Garden
As the weather is inching towards winter, we have this glorious lull in the pressures of the extreme seasons, and as gardeners we can stop and take a moment, grateful for the moment to take a deep breath and enjoy the fruits of our labor. The fall crops are growing happily, as the pest and disease pressures of the summer are behind us. The winter crops are finally able to germinate (I’m looking at you, spinach) and we can start planning for the cooler weather crops that will grow until the spring.
Salad greens are the gift that keep giving this time of year. If you harvest a few leaves around the outside, they will continue growing and you will get multiple harvests from a single plant. Starting from seed gives you access to varieties you may never have even heard of, this year I’m growing Tom Thumb Butter Lettuce, which makes heads at a smaller size than most and tastes so sweet in this cooler weather.
One technique that every winter gardener needs to consider is staggering plantings. If you plant with the end in mind, you can have the harvests you need without gaps or the blessing/curse of too much all at once. Carrots, for example, are a crop that grow well all winter in this area, and I like to plant one 10 gallon grow bag of carrots every month. This provides enough for my family to not buy carrots all winter, as we harvest what’s ready and let the others grow. Radishes are a fast growing crop that I like to plant a small patch of around 20 seeds every 2-3 weeks, as we don’t eat a lot at once, but we do like a few in our salads a few times a week.
Whenever a gap opens up in the garden because a crop is done for the year, it’s important to have a plan for what goes there next. Sometimes I’ll plant a patch of radishes, or put in some swiss chard or lettuce that I started from seed. If I have an area that doesn’t have anything planted, it can easily become a weedy mess, so I would rather plant something to keep that at bay. If I wasn’t going to plant an area for the winter, I would put around 3 inches of compost on it and mulch it with either pine straw, wood chips, or plastic for the winter.
Gardening in the last few months of the year are such a joy here in the Wilmington, NC area. While so many areas are already covered with snow, unable to even consider gardening outdoors, we are harvesting lettuce, carrots, radishes, and herbs all winter long. If you’re interested in learning more gardening techniques, how to harvest from your garden 365 days a year, please feel free to reach out and see if a coaching session or consult would help you achieve your goals.
