Year-Round Harvest: Winter Gardening

(SurvivalDaily.com) – Gardening is a great way to provide your household with food. However, in most of the US, you can only grow food during the summer, when the weather is warm. You need to can or preserve whatever you grow to last through the colder months — unless you know how to grow a garden during the winter.

For those who don’t, here’s some ideas.

Using an Unheated Greenhouse

You can grow food in an unheated greenhouse through the winter months in most climates. The key is to grow hearty vegetables that can handle the cold temperatures as long as they aren’t covered in snow or frost. Of course, you can always grow vegetables that typically grow in the winter and not have to worry about digging through the snow to harvest them.

Some plants that prefer cold weather and make great options to grow in an unheated greenhouse are:

Carrots
Collard greens
Winter mix lettuce
Asparagus
Pak Choi
Mustard greens

Heated Greenhouse

While an unheated greenhouse can provide you with a longer growing season for certain plants, a heated greenhouse can do that and more. It allows you to grow any kind of food, but it’s especially good for peppers, tomatoes and fruit trees. For the greenhouse to be effective, you’ll need to mimic summer weather. All this means is you’ll need your greenhouse’s inside temperature to be between the mid-70s and low-80s.

Garden Upkeep

With both of the methods above, there’s one thing you still need to do, and that’s take care of the plants. In an unheated greenhouse you still need to water, fertilize and weed the garden. A heated greenhouse has all the same needs, but there’s one more thing you need to do: pollinate your plants. To do this, all you need to do is shake your plants to disperse the pollen into the air.

Winter Gardening can provide an extended growing season for several plants, allowing you to enjoy them in the winter months. However, if you’re looking to potentially survive off of the plants you grow, some choices are better than others. Check out these three plants that are great for a survival garden.