Top 5 Ways to Grow Vegetables in Cold Weather

Growing fresh vegetables all year and extending harvest year-round in the garden is the dream of many homeowners. It can be challenging to grow a vegetable garden during winter, but it is not impossible. Warm-weather crops like tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, summer squash, eggplant, and basil don't produce well when temperatures drop to high 30 F. These vegetables will be highly affected if they come into contact with early morning frost.

Year-round gardening is only possible in colder climates by planting in a greenhouse with lights and heating/cooling systems. However, several other less expensive ways to extend the growing season include row covers, cold frames, cloches, low tunnels, and high tunnels. With these structures, you can protect your crops and keep the harvest going without shutting down your garden when frost occurs.

If you want to become a four-season vegetable gardener, this guide will teach you how to grow crops throughout the year and put fresh food on your table.

Extend the Growing Season with Season-Extension Methods

Greenhouses

Greenhouses are growing structures where temperature, humidity, light levels, and airflow can be controlled to maintain year-round plant growth conditions. This is done using ventilation systems, supplemental lighting, electricity, gas, and evaporative cooling. The greenhouses are permanent structures. These structures provide a controlled growing environment for plants to thrive all year. With a high-quality structure and proper care, greenhouse vegetables can produce better yields than outdoor crops.

Here are the crops to grow in a greenhouse all year in most climates.

Spring Planting: Onions, peas, lettuce

Mid-Spring Growing: Tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, basil, peppers

Summer Growing Season: Tomatoes, squash, peppers, beans, cucumbers, potatoes, carrots

Winter Growing Season: Hardy, frost-tolerant cold-weather vegetables such as kale, Brussels sprouts, beets, carrots, Swiss chard, parsnips, herbs

Read More: Tips for Successful Greenhouse Gardening

Cold Frames

Cold frames are bottomless wooden boxes placed low to the ground over plants to protect them from harsh weather. They have a transparent roof made of glass or plexiglass to let in sunlight and a hinge for access. On sunny days, they monitor the temperature increasing inside the frame during the day. These structures protect plants from strong winds and cold.

Growers use cold frames to extend the gardening season in autumn to protect crops for a few more weeks and in spring to start seeds earlier. They can also be used to harden off seedlings. The lower portion of the frame should be faced south to maximize sunlight penetration and minimize shadows.

Building a cold frame is an easy DIY project. You can build a bottomless wooden box, top it with glass or clear plastic, and set it in the garden in a sunny location. Cold frames are built from timber, plastic, bricks, or concrete with a transparent glass covering.

Floating Row Covers

A floating row cover is a white, lightweight fabric available in various thicknesses. These frost blankets are used to cover plants during frost danger. Row covers are gauze-like, designed to let sun, water, and light reach the plant canopy while keeping insects and frost out.

Drape the fabric, enclose the plants like a blanket, and secure the edges with rocks, bricks, boards, or landscape staples. When the weather gets cold, you can use two or three layers of cover for extra protection. Floating row covers can also be placed over frames built with wood, plastic, metal, or fiberglass.

Cloches

Cloches are bell-shaped glass or plastic covers that are placed over individual plants to protect them from cold and insects. These containers act like mini greenhouses by trapping the sunlight, warming the soil, keeping moisture inside, and keeping plants safe from frost. Originally, cloches were made from glass, but modern cloches are made of plastic or paper. Heat can quickly build up in cloches, so be sure to remove it on hot days, or you might steam your crops.

High Tunnels

After the greenhouse, high tunnels are the most popular structures used by backyard gardeners and commercial growers to extend the growing season. High tunnels are semi-permanent, plastic-covered, taller structures. They're tall enough to walk inside and can also accommodate small machinery like small tractors and walk-behind tillers. High tunnels feature doors and vents for access and air circulation. They extend the growing season more than other methods. When growing warm-season vegetables, they can add a month to the season in early spring and autumn without any extra measures.

Some gardeners also grow cool-weather vegetables in high tunnels. They combine other methods, such as using a low tunnel or row cover inside a high tunnel to increase night temperatures around crops. Some cool-weather crops that can tolerate low temperatures and reduced sunlight are lettuce, Bok choy, spinach, and other leafy greens.

Low Tunnels

Low tunnels are one step up from row covers that are placed in soil over crops. These structures are about 4 feet tall and 3-6 feet wide. Low tunnels are inexpensive ways to extend the growing season and provide protection to your plants from cold and snow, which is crucial for high-value crops. Low tunnels are made of hoops that are bent and placed over plants to hold the row cover around 2-3 feet over plants.

The tunnel hoops are made of rebar, PVC pipe, or electrical conduit. They keep the cover from coming into contact with crops, which prevents cold air from transferring to leaves. These tunnels provide heat to crops and protect them from frost. Open the tunnel ends during the hot day and close them back before evening. You can purchase ready-to-install hoops or build them by bending PVC pipe or metal conduit.

Tips for Year-round Gardens

The key to growing a year-round productive vegetable garden is knowing what to plant, when to plant, and how to protect your planting in winter. Follow these expert tips to create a sustainable, thriving year-round garden.

Carefully Plan Your Garden

Some gardeners dislike any planning before starting a garden, and some are over-planners. Seek a balance between both and create a plan for a year-round garden for rewarding results. Every gardener's experience is unique due to their unique climate, sunlight, soil type, rainfall, and other factors. Include a winter garden in your plan to enjoy harvests all year. Winter gardens have two crucial elements: frost-tolerant crops and protection materials against harsh weather.

Understand Your Climate

When growing in season-extending structures, you must know your region's weather patterns, first and last expected frost dates, daily high and low temperatures, and duration and intensity of the coldest period. If your garden has an area with inadequate cold air drainage, avoid placing structures there. These areas include the ones surrounded by buildings and the bottom of the hill that prevent airflow. Cold air is heavier, and these areas are always colder than higher elevated areas.

Start Earlier

Greenhouses, tunnels, and cold frames are perfect for starting seeds earlier, especially for areas with short growing seasons. Many salad greens are ready to eat right after spring planting, but vegetables like onions, chard, and cabbage take longer to establish. Therefore, we recommend starting seeds under cover to enjoy an earlier harvest. Seedlings can be started indoors in grow lights and moved to protected spots outdoors in a month or two.

Succession Planting

Once the season's first crop is finished, don't wait too long; instead, plant a succession crop. From midsummer, succession crops include fall and winter maturing crops as well as those perfect for storage, such as carrots. You can also plant quick-growing staples like bush beans and bulb fennel, which will be ready to harvest before the first frost.

Start with Healthy Soil

Healthy, nutrient-rich soil is key to a successful year-round garden. Test your garden soil to determine its pH, type, and nutrients it lacks. After testing the soil, you'll know whether your soil is sandy or clay, acidic or alkaline, and then you can adjust it by adding soil amendments. Improve your soil health by adding organic matter like compost, eggshells, coffee grounds, mulch, and more. Most importantly, maintain moisture levels in your soil and plants before winter. Water your plants thoroughly with drip irrigation before freezing weather comes. This is one of the crucial steps of winterizing your garden.

Read More: 5 Steps to Winterize Your Garden

Choose Vegetables

The most important part of planting year-round gardens is choosing what to plant. We recommend planting what you like, as nothing compares to eating your favorite foods from your home garden. For a year-round garden, grow staple crops that store well and can go into winter. These crops include beans, potatoes, root vegetables, grains, and winter squash. Moreover, root crops and leafy greens are more resilient to frost temperatures than other annual vegetables.

The Bottom Line

Year-round gardening is possible by choosing cold-tolerant crops and protecting the crops using multiple methods. A backyard greenhouse and tunnel are gateways to year-round gardening. These season extension structures allow growers to harvest vegetables, herbs, and fruits anytime. All these structures will protect your plants from severe weather conditions, extend your harvest, and produce better quality crops than growing outdoors. Lastly, remember that a year-round productive garden requires careful planning. So, plan your year-round harvest, choose suitable crops to grow, and use one or a combination of methods to bring fresh veggies to your table all year.

DripWorks offers premium row covers, greenhouses, and high tunnels for gardens and farms to extend your growing season and increase harvests. From vegetables and cut flowers to cannabis, you can grow anything in these structures. We also stock a range of ready-to-install drip irrigation kits to irrigate your greenhouse plants.