The Complete Guide to Growing Vegetables All Year Around

If you relish the freshly grown vegetables from your own garden and think of year-around vegetable gardening, here we are with numerous options of vegetables and all the information regarding the growing process and options. Undoubtedly, year-round vegetable gardening involves hard work despite the weather conditions, especially the winter season.

However, it's worth the hard work because you enjoy fresh, homegrown veggies throughout the year. There are many vegetables that even grow during winter, so you need to explore the options. It's time to gear up and get started.

Key Points to Consider for Successful Vegetable Gardening

Proper Planning

Balanced planning ensures rewarding results because over-planning may lead to failure. Another important component of planning is flexibility, as different places have district weather conditions, soil type, amount of rainfall received and sunlight.

Consistency Matters

No matter how busy the schedule is, there's always room for 15 minutes of gardening time every day. This routine will keep you emotionally connected with the beautiful veggie garden apart from the achievement as a gardener. The simplest way to stay connected is to take a morning walk along the garden and see how the garden changes with changing weather. If possible, jot down some of the changes you notice.

Monthly Garden Guide

Monthly guides help keep track of the work flow in the garden round the year, which further gives you a rough idea of the particular month in the garden. You can answer questions such as which are the busiest months in the year, material and equipment needed for preparation and when is the harvest time.

Prioritize the Work

There are so many things in the pipeline from the monthly guide, but you need to prioritize according to your work schedule. For example, if the to-do list involves adding soil, cutting back dead plant matter, mulching, starting seeds in a cold frame and building a new bed, you need to focus on the urgent tasks followed by less urgent others.

Extend the Growing Season

Give plants a longer season using various methods. Protect the crops during the winter and early spring using fleece, row covers and cold frames. Grow plants such as cucumbers and peppers near the sun-facing walls to give warmth to the plants that can extend their growing season.

Cover the pots with cardboard packers and straws. Greenhouses provide sheltered space for plants to grow, but it needs additional insulation to prevent penetration of deep frost. Also, use grow bags inside the greenhouse to grow veggies such as potatoes and peas or create a growing bed.

Remember the Reason for Your Gardening

There could be many reasons for vegetable gardening, like a preference to eat fresh veggies, keep yourself busy, stay connected with nature or some other reason. These reasons will keep you going and motivated.

Plug the Hungry Gap

When the last season's crops are consumed and the current season is not yet ready, the gap between them is known as the "Hungry Gap". Plant vegetables like broccoli and cabbage in late summer to stand over winter and perennial crops like asparagus to plug the hunger gap.

Choose a Variety of Veggies to Spread the Harvest

Sow a mix of early, mid and late season vegetables to enjoy veggies throughout the season like enjoying carrots from mid spring to late winter and strawberries from early summer to fall. This will spread the harvest.

Use Raised Vegetable Beds

Wild animals like bunnies and deer consume the vegetables grown with so much effort within no time. The best way to save the crops from them is a raised garden bed. Another option to keep these animals at bay is to grow herbs and plants around the garden such as Rosemary, Lavender, and Fountain grass because these animals hate these herbs.

Maintain Organic Garden

Try to keep your garden pesticide-free to enjoy pure and safe vegetables all year round. Deter pests naturally by spraying essential oils like rosemary or thyme to keep predators away.

Allot Dedicated Nursery Space in the Greenhouse

Keep a dedicated nursery area to grow crops from seeds to ensure the crop is ready by the time another crop is harvested.

Attract Bees to the Garden

Prepare the garden to attract more bees and butterflies to produce fruit. Herbs and native wildflowers attract fruit-producing bees and flower flies to serve as companion plants for vegetables.

What and When to Grow Vegetables All Year Round?

Broccoli

Broccoli, a healthy veggie can be grown all year around in the outdoor garden. You can grow broccoli to be used in several dishes like salads, soups, or eaten raw with a little salt and pepper to enhance the taste for your tastebuds.

It is grown in US zone 9-11

Versatile Crop Cabbage

Cabbage is another crop grown all year round and the best thing is cabbage is available in various varieties such as spring cabbage, summer cabbage and winter cabbage.

The spring cabbage is sown in July or August and planted in the outdoor area in September or October. The harvest is ready from late February till June. This variety is also known as collard cabbage.

Summer cabbage is compressed in the shape of a ball commonly known as ball-headed cabbage. It is sown between mid February to June, planted outdoors during May or June and harvested from late June to November and is also known as Hispi cabbage.

Another cabbage variety known as Tundra is sown in late April to May, planted outside in July and harvested from November to March.

Leafy Greens

Green leafy veggies like spinach, collard greens, mustard greens and iceberg and many more are sown indoors in September, planted outdoors in November. During winters, sow seeds in July and plant them outdoors in August. All you have to do is water them.

Chickpeas(Garbanzo Beans)

Chickpea seeds are sown in March or April and harvested in August. It is consumed as a salad or for snacking.

Eggplant

Another tasty veggie is eggplant which is sown indoors 8-9 weeks before the last spring frost. To avoid damage to the crop, don't plant it outside until the threat of the last frost is over. It thrives in well-drained sandy soil, and harvest is ready within 100 days of sowing.

Asparagus

Sow it in late February or early March. You can keep it near the sunny window above the heat mat to boost germination. If you want higher produce, opt for an all-male variety. During a warm climate, you will have to pick asparagus twice a day for more production.

Lettuce

Winter lettuce should be sown in September in a greenhouse. Sow it every few days to get a continuous harvest.

Grow Kale as an Annual

Kale flower in the second year(biennial) and grown as an annual. Start sowing kale seeds 6 weeks before the last frost which will mature in 55-75 days. If you want to harvest even after the snowfall, crop it again in fall. You can eat it raw or prepare a stir fry veggie.

Variety of Root Vegetables

Start sowing root vegetables like carrots, beets, turnips or parsnips in April and continue to do this every 3 weeks to harvest continuously. Root vegetables are flexible and can grow in terms of weather.

Parsley

It's a herb used for garnishing. It can be sown 10-12 weeks before the last spring frost (for better germination, soak seeds overnight in drinking water). Parsley is a biennial plant that lives for around 2 years and endures cold weather.

Garlic

Garlic can be sown during early winter or even warmer seasons. Fall is also best as it gives more time to roots to develop. During winters, plant it between September and November, in warm climates between February to March and harvest during June to August. You need to feed garlic with a high nitrogen level.

Basil

Basil is another plant that adds flavor to dishes that can be sown indoors 6 weeks before the last spring frost and plant it outside once the soil warms up to 50 degree fahrenheit. Basil thrives once the weather warms up. Basil needs 6-8 hours of full sun to grow.

Wheatgrass

Wheatgrass is used in multiple things like blended in smoothies, adding flavor to food and providing vitamins and nutrition. You can grow it all year long and thrive in a brightly lit area. Harvest it using a scissor.