Winter Kitchen Garden: My Plans

Posted by CB on Nov 9, 2011 in Outdoors | 0 comments

This winter I am attempting to grow one or two vegetable plants in the hope that I’ll have some tasty things to eat come March / April time. If you are super organised then you will probably have leeks, parsnips and sprouts growing happily in your kitchen garden to which you can add all sorts of winter crops. I do not however!

As a total novice I needed some pointers with what to grow. I read a newspaper article that suggested I plant the following crops over autumn:

Broad Beans

Asparagus

Peas and Pea Shoots

Garlic

Onion, Spring Onions and Shallots

Winter Lettuce

Lambs Lettuce

Spinach

Spring Cabbage

Consequently I went onto seedsofitaly.co.uk and went through their seed lists looking for winter varieties of these items. I bought the following seed packets:

Spinach – Gigante D’Inverno

Broad Beans – Aguadulce Supersimonia

Lamb’s Lettuce – Valeriana d’Orlanda

Lettuce – Autunno / Inverno

Peas – Piccolo Provenzale

Lettuce – Meraviglia D’Inverno Sel S. Martino

Last Sunday afternoon when the weather was glorious and we had a bbq slowly cooking away, I started planting my new seeds.

In a seed tray I planted Lettuce – Meraviglia D’Inverno Sel S. Martino and have left it on a sunny bench near the house so I don’t forget about it.

I weeded part of a small bed and planted my easy grow Lamb’s lettuce in 3 rows at the back. I then planted Lettuce – Autunno / Inverno in 2 rows at the front. This is cut and come again lettuce which is fantastic for me as I eat a LOT of lettuce.

I need to plant my peas with poles so I’m going to use the tomato bed that has just about finished providing us with tomatoes. The poles are all in place and ready for a new crop of autumn peas. In my mind I plant the seeds and a few weeks later the produce is ready. The reality is that actually I’m going to have to wait months for this stuff to grow. I do struggle with the forward planning nature of gardening but I’m sure this will come with time!

Timeline:

In a few weeks time I will have to take my Lettuce – Meraviglia D’Inverno Sel S. Martino seedlings and plant them in the ground. They’ll be ready to eat in March.

I don’t have to do anything with Lettuce – Autunno / Inverno which will simply be ready to be harvested in March.

There is also nothing to do for my lambs lettuce. This will be ready in between 40 and 90 days from now which is very exciting as I don’t have too long to wait! That is why I planted it of course.

(photo via veggiegardeningtips)