Portable greenhouses set up for winter salads
Sunday, November 6, 2022
Well, we've had several frosts and a couple of freezes in our Zone 6/7 garden. The tomatoes, eggplant, beans, and basil vines are dead. The pepper plants have had almost all the leaves killed but the stems are still green. The greens are enjoying the cool weather, putting on new leaves and growing.
I could have used a fabric cover to protect these cold sensitive veggies and they would have been fine for the 28F nights we've had. I don't cover my summer veggies to extend the harvest, but focus on getting cold season crops going for fall and winter harvests. I do bring in my hot peppers to overwinter inside. Gives you a couple months head start on the season in the spring. I tried bringing in sweet peppers, tomatoes and eggplant since they are all tropical perennials but only the hot peppers seem to do well indoors for the winter.
You could also put your potted tomatoes, eggplant and peppers in a greenhouse and lengthen the season for at least another 4 weeks.
The cold season crops like lettuce, cabbage, kale, broccoli, cultivated dandelions, spinach, onions, mustard, sorrel are very happy this time of year. The celery is still going strong. Celery doesn’t seem to be affected by heat or cold. I put our potted celery under cover with the rest of the greens. We harvest from it year round. I haven't had to buy celery in years. You can bring it into the garage or keep in a greenhouse and harvest from it all winter. I've overwintered it in an unheated garage and it did just fine there, too.
This week, we got all my pots moved and under the portable greenhouses. I fertilized them all with nitrogen via alfalfa meal. Yesterday, I transplanted the rest of my lettuce volunteers into the pots under greenhouse cover. The Austrian pea seeds I planted a couple of weeks ago have sprouted and are about 6" long. Pea shoots are great in salads. Austrian peas have survived in my garden beds without cover all winter. This year, I have them in the pots under cover.
This is likely the last time I will fertilize until early spring when the plants start growing quickly. I will need to check for watering, though. Once the greenhouse is closed up, I typically only have to water a couple of times.
The herbs in the garden bed are doing very well-thyme, oregano, chives, dill, rosemary, sage, parsley, mint, tarragon. Most perennial herbs can be harvested year round. I brought in my bay tree, moringa tree and citrus trees to overwinter indoors; they don't survive our winters outdoors.
Time to settle in for cooler weather!
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