As cooler weather and shorter days arrive, gardeners change their focus from harvesting fruits and seeds to harvesting and eating flowers, stems, leaves, and roots.
Cruciferous vegetables
The cruciform vegetables are among the most common cold season crops. This family is varied and widely available and includes broccoli, broccolini, cauliflower, cabbage, collards, kale, Brussels sprouts, the mustards and kohlrabi. We eat the flowers and flower buds of broccoli, broccolini, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts; the leaves of cabbages, collards, kales and mustards; and the swollen stems of kohlrabi.
Most plants in this family are easy to grow from seeds or transplants. Plants like broccoli and collards get quite large so they require some space, and they stay in the ground for a long period before they mature. The leafy varieties can be planted closer together.
If space is an issue in your garden, look for space in your flower beds. There is often room for a cabbage, a small grouping of kale, or a drift of feathery mizuna (Japanese mustard). Purple varieties are available in kale, mustard, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and lettuce. They provide patches or focal points of color in a largely brown and gray winter landscape. We often use ornamental varieties of cabbage and kale for flowerbed color in the winter; why not plant edible varieties instead?
Most of the cruciferous vegetables require little or no protection from frost and cold weather here. In fact, the flavor of many is enhanced by a cold snap. However, if you are not sure, a single layer of frost cloth or even an old sheet will usually be sufficient cover.
Leaves and salads
Fall and winter are salad months in our area. The first thing that comes to mind for the cool months is lettuce, which comes in both heading and leafy (never makes a head) varieties and in many colors. Lettuce also grows well in pots and looks great mixed in with other plants. And if it is in a pot, you can move it into a warmer place if the temperature drops too low. Lettuce is not hardy at temperatures lower than about 30 degrees so make sure you provide protection with some kind of covering. Lettuce and other leafy greens can be harvested when very small and used as microgreens.
Other leafy greens also grow well in the cool and can be used raw in salad or cooked. A number of spinach varieties thrive in Victoria. They generally do not need cold protection. They can be harvested throughout the winter even though their growth slows during colder winter months.
Swiss chard is another useful, beautiful plant grown in fall and winter. Chard has very large, tender leaves with a strong wide rib running down each leaf. The whole leaf, including the rib, can be chopped and used raw or cooked as a green. Tender ribs from young leaves can be chopped and used in salads like celery. They are quite crunchy and have a mild, slightly salty flavor.
Roots
Radishes, carrots, beets, and turnips are the most common root crops grown in home gardens in this area. The young leaves of radishes, beets, and turnips can be harvested and eaten as greens. Radishes may be the easiest of all veggies to grow: they germinate easily, grow quickly and are ideal for children to grow. Carrots and beets, though, are notoriously fickle in their germination habits. If you have spotty germination, just sow again. If you have shallow or tight soil, choose a carrot that makes short stumpy roots rather than long thin ones.
May you enjoy all the vegetables you harvest this fall.
The Gardeners’ Dirt is written by members of the Victoria County Master Gardener Association, an educational outreach of Texas A&M AgriLife Extension – Victoria County. Mail your questions in care of the Advocate, P.O. Box 1518, Victoria, TX 77901; or vcmga@vicad.com, or comment on this column at VictoriaAdvocate.com.
Victoria County Master Gardener Association
