Page 39

Picky Eaters? The Top 10 Kid-Friendly Vegetables for Your Garden

Feeding kids at home can be a challenge. Sure, they might seem to thrive on mac and cheese and peanut butter sandwiches, but you’re sure to want to feed them the occasional vegetable as well. Unfortunately, it’s the rare child that willingly eats Brussels sprouts without a fuss.

You don’t need to give up on healthy eating completely with your kids. Growing fruits and vegetables at home is a proven way to get picky eaters to experiment with new flavors, and you’ll likely find that they’re willing to help in the garden as well.

Some fruits and vegetables have a better track record with kids than others. Here are ten of the best options for getting picky eaters excited about produce.

Peppers

The Peppers is a plant that produces bright red pepper vegetables. This chili pepper is commonly used for cooking in places such as the Southern U.S. and Central America. Most are moderately spicy, though because there are so many variants, the spice level can vary dramatically. Cayenne powder is also a popular seasoning product made from Peppers plants.

Sweetpotato

While most assume that the Sweetpotato is a potato, it is not considered nightshade. However, sweet potatoes and potatoes both belong to the order of Solanales. Its culinary use is wide and can be fried, baked or boiled.

Squashes

Squashes are vining plants, many of which are commonly cultivated as a food crop for their fruit and seeds. This group includes squashes, gourds, and pumpkins. The fruits are good sources of vitamins and nutrients such as niacin and folic acid, and their flowers attract important pollinators such as bees.

Tomato

Solanum lycopersicum is an annual or perennial herbaceous vine native to Central and South America that produces a large, juicy, edible fruit known as Tomato. Today there are over 10000 cultivated varieties. Although tomato is the world’s most popular vegetable, botanically it is a fruit.

Carrot

Carrot (Daucus carota subsp. sativus) is the domestic version of its wild relative. This ubiquitous vegetable is closely related to parsley, fennel, and dill. The orange root can be eaten cooked or raw. The Carrot is self-fertile and is pollinated by flies and beetles, who use its flowers as a food source.

Field pumpkin

Field pumpkin are most commonly seen as decorations throughout the autumn and during the Halloween holiday, when they are carved and used as traditional jack-o’-lanterns. While the taste of Field pumpkin flesh may not be ideal, eating the seeds after toasting them with a bit of salt can be a delicious treat!

Garden pea

Garden pea (Pisum sativum) is an annual vegetable that makes a hardy, cold weather crop. Also known as the green pea or garden pea, it grows from 1 to 1.5 feet tall. Peapods form after the first year and both peas and pods are edible and can be eaten cooked or raw. Excellent in stir fry, tender tips, called pea shoots, are also edible.

Cucumbers

Cucumber (Cucumis sativus) is a creeping vine native to South Asia. It has a long history of cultivation – mentions of its use are found in various ancient scripts, including the Bible, Epic of Gilgamesh and Pliny the Elder’s “Natural History“. Today, Cucumber is one of the most widely cultivated vegetable species in the world.

Wild radish

Wild radish is a plant that is entirely edible, with a flavor that is described as peppery and earthy. The leaves and greens can be consumed boiled or in salads, while the roots can be cooked and consumed after the tough outer peel is removed.

Garden strawberry

The Garden strawberry (Fragaria ananassa) is an edible plant species. Each plant produces a quart of strawberries during the growing season. The Garden strawberry fruit becomes ripe during the early spring and summer months. The Garden strawberry was first cultivated during the middle of the eighteenth century in France. It’s a hybrid between a North American strawberry (F. virginiana) and a Chilean strawberry (F. chiloensis).

Ten Easy-Harvest Vegetables to Grow At Home

Ten Easy-Harvest Vegetables To Grow At Home

You’ve done the hard work of prepping your garden space, planting seeds, and nurturing your vegetable plants. Now it’s time to start bringing in the harvest. While many assume that this is the easiest step, gardeners often find harvest time to be overwhelming. Not only does everything seem to ripen at once, but it can take many days of tedious effort to bring everything in.

Here’s the good news. Some garden plants are easier to harvest than others. You may be able to pull out the plant at once, or they might be forgiving enough to let you go a week or longer between harvests.

If you want to reduce the chance of getting overwhelmed, then it’s best to commit to plants that are more manageable. Here’s a guide to ten garden vegetables that take almost no time to harvest and helpful hints for ensuring the entire process is painless.

Radish

Radish (Raphanus sativus) is a plant species that represents a food staple in many cultures around the world. The Radish has a wide range of variations, including variants that grow in the spring, summer and winter. The root is generally eaten raw and can be used in salads or as a garnish.

Common bean

Common bean is one of the most widely produced cash crops in the world, with 23.6 million tons grown in 2016. China is the largest producer of the Common bean, accounting for 79% of the market share. While the Common bean is known as a staple food source, the leaves can be used to trap bedbugs and the beans are widely used in a type of fortune-telling called “favomancy”.

Field mustard

Field mustard (Brassica rapa) is a plant that is widely cultivated and produces oilseed. Canola oil is made from the Field mustard oilseed. Field mustard attracts white butterflies who gain nutrients from its flowers.

Cucumbers

Kale

Kale (Brassica oleracea var. viridis) is an edible green in the cabbage family that’s cultivated as a vegetable. Kale is also called walking stick kale or collard greens. This species is pollinated by bees.

Onion

Onion (Allium cepa) is an onion species commonly known for its ubiquitous culinary applications. The Onion is toxic to a variety of animals. Aside from its many culinary uses, the Onion is often used to teach students how to use a microscope because its cells are very large and easy to visualize.

Bok choi

Bok choi (Brassica rapa subsp. chinensis) is grown worldwide for its leaves, which are eaten in many East Asian cuisines both raw and cooked. It has the most cold-resistant of the Brassica species, making it a popular vegetable to grow in colder regions. The Bok choi plant is a hermaphrodite and is pollinated by bees.

Okra

Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) is a nutritious, edible vegetable that contains folate, vitamins, and antioxidants. Okra is native to Ethiopia, but now grows commonly throughout the world. Okra is commonly prepared by frying, stewing, roasting, and grilling.

Lettuce

Lepidium sativum is a fast-growing, edible herb that’s referred to as the Garden cress, distinguishing it from similar plants that are also called cress. It’s genetically related to mustard and watercress, and it shares their peppery, tangy flavor. It’s commercially grown in Europe.

Carrot

Hate to Wait? 12 Fast-Growing Vegetables for a Speedy Harvest

Hate To Wait? 12 Fast-Growing Vegetables for a Speedy Harvest

You’ve plowed the garden and planted your seeds. Now it’s the hard part—waiting for that first harvest. Garden plants range considerably in how long it takes them to grow. Some are ready to eat within a few weeks, while others take one hundred days or longer.

If you’re looking for some quick victories to keep you motivated, it’s important to plant some fast-growing produce. Not only do they make it possible to start eating from the garden as soon as possible, but they are well-suited for places with short growing seasons that don’t provide enough time to let slower produce fully ripen before winter sets in.

These twelve varieties are an excellent place to start. You’ll practically watch them grow before your eyes in real-time, ensuring there’s minimal time to wait before they end up on your plate. Best of all, most allow for multiple harvests, meaning you’ll be enjoying their bounty throughout most of the growing season.

Rocket salad

The Rocket salad is a type of arugula that is regularly incorporated into salads and other dishes for its spicy, bitter taste. This plant was first cultivated by the Greeks and Romans and continues to be harvested by home gardeners and farmers alike.

Collard greens

Collard greens is a sub-species of cabbage that does not have a central head. The name ’acephela’, draws attention to this characteristic since it means ‘without a head.’ This hybrid bears a closer resemblance to its wild parent than cabbage. This nutritious’s vegetable is rich in vitamins and other essential nutrients.

Mizuna

The Mizuna or Mizuna is excellent as a salad ingredient. Its edible green leaves have a mild mustard flavor. The leaves are ready for harvest when they are about 10 cm tall and can be enjoyed with a bit of balsamic dressing or olive oil.

Bok choy

Bok choy is one of the most popular cultivated forms of Brassica rapa and its tightly clustered leaves make quite a contrast to its loose-leaved parent. It is one of East Asia’s most common leafy vegetables with a pleasant earthy and slightly spicy taste. Being winter-hardy, this plant is now popular in Northern Europe.

Beet

Beet (Beta vulgaris) provides a variety of uses for food products and garden growth. The roots are commonly consumed as nutrient-rich vegetables, the body of the sugar beet is used to make table sugar, and the leaves are harvested as a separate vegetable: chard. In 18th-Century Silesia, an area that is now part of Poland, the first-ever beet sugar extraction plant was created by a royal decree from the king.

Broccoli

Broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica) is a nutritious, cool-weather crop in the cabbage family grown extensively worldwide, both commercially and in home gardens. It is eaten as a nutritious vegetable, raw or cooked, and is frequently added to salads, casseroles, or vegetable platters. Its name comes from a similar Italian word that means “the flowering crest of a cabbage.”

Common bean

Common bean is one of the most widely produced cash crops in the world, with 23.6 million tons grown in 2016. China is the largest producer of the Common bean, accounting for 79% of the market share. While the is known as a staple food source, the leaves can be used to trap bedbugs and the beans are widely used in a type of fortune-telling called “favomancy”.

Italian chicory

Cichorium intybus ‘Palla Rosa’ makes quite a contrast from its green parent since its leaves are a striking mixture of maroon and green, explaining the name ‘rosa.’ Italian chicory has a slightly bitter taste that is reduced by blanching. Its attractive color makes it a popular addition to salads, although it can also be roasted.

Sorrel

The green foliage of the herb Sorrel has a tangy taste with little hints of citrus. It is often used in salads or cooked like spinach. It was once considered a vegetable, but it is now seen as a wild food plant. It is usually found on cliffs and coastal dunes.

Kohlrabi

The common name of the Brassica oleracea var. gongylodes translates from German as “cabbage-turnip;” the swollen stem at the base gives the Kohlrabi the appearance of a cabbage growing out of a turnip. This plant is a common edible vegetable, sold in stores and markets. The stems and leaves can be eaten raw or cooked.

Garden cress

Field mustard

The Top Nine Vegetables to Grow Close To Your Kitchen

When it comes to planning out a garden, you want to maximize the space available. That often means using a kitchen garden to grow the varieties that have the most versatility for use at home.

A kitchen garden is designed to give you easy access to an abundance of fresh produce so that you can make incredible meals while barely stepping out of your home.

Not all plants are suitable for a kitchen garden. Your goal needs to be choosing varieties that you will reach for often to ensure you’re making the best use of the space available. Likewise, kitchen gardens work best when they require minimal maintenance, as you want to spend more of your time creating delicious food, rather than weeding and planting.

These nine vegetables are a great start for any kitchen garden. Simple to grow, fun to eat, and versatile enough for a variety of recipes, they ensure you’ll maximize your space.

Carrot

Cucumbers

Radish

Radish (Raphanus sativus) is a plant species that represents a food staple in many cultures around the world. The Radish has a wide range of variations, including variants that grow in the spring, summer and winter. The root is generally eaten raw and can be used in salads or as a garnish.

Peppers

Lettuce

Lettuce (Lactuca sativa var. ramosa) is a leafy green vegetable that is often cultivated worldwide for commercial and personal gardens. The whole plant can be used for salads, soups, wraps, or sandwiches. Human cultivation of Lettuce dates back to the 5th century in China, and there are now many different cultivars grown globally.

Beet

The Beet (Beta vulgaris) provides a variety of uses for food products and garden growth. The roots are commonly consumed as nutrient-rich vegetables, the body of the sugar beet is used to make table sugar, and the leaves are harvested as a separate vegetable: chard. In 18th-Century Silesia, an area that is now part of Poland, the first-ever beet sugar extraction plant was created by a royal decree from the king.

Common bean

Field pumpkin

Tomato

Tomato is an annual or perennial herbaceous vine native to Central and South America that produces a large, juicy, edible fruit known as Tomato. Today there are over 10000 cultivated varieties. Although tomato is the world’s most popular vegetable, botanically it is a fruit.

Beginning Gardener? 15 Easy Vegetables for Your First Growing Season

Interested in starting a garden this season but not sure where to begin? The worst thing you can do is attempt to grow too much at once.

Many beginning gardeners get overly excited and make ambitious garden plans, only to get overwhelmed with weeds up and upkeep in the middle of the season and give up entirely. Others fall in love with the idea of tackling challenging varieties and struggle when insects and disease pressures start to take over.

The best way to become a successful gardener in the long run is to start out slowly and grow varieties that are manageable for beginners. Early successes will keep you motivated to continue gardening for years to come, and your skills will improve over time.

Here are 15 virtually foolproof vegetables to begin with and the reasons why they are a good gamble that you’ll have a successful gardening season.

Lettuce

Tomato

Cucumbers

Radish

Common bean

Field pumpkin

Watermelon

Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) is a flowering plant with a vine-like appearance native to Western Africa. Watermelon bears fruit that are widely cultivated and consumed across the world. Watermelon grow in tropical and temperate climates and requires warmth to grow. There are 1000 varieties around the world.

Garden pea

Peppers

Spinach

Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) is an edible plant species that is often considered a ‘superfood’ due to its high content of vitamins, folate, fiber, iron, magnesium, and other nutrients. Spinach is grown in gardens around the world and provides an important food source.

Sweet basil

Sweet basil is a species of mint plant native to Asia and Africa. It is a popular houseplant, and thrives when it receives plenty of regular sun and water. This plant is also easy to transfer from one soil environment to another. The edible Sweet basil leaves can be eaten fresh or dried with pizza, salads, soups, teas, and many other dishes.

Potato

The Potato is native to North America and in the United States. Potato products are the second most consumed food. This starchy tuber is a staple in diets around the world and is considered the fourth most important worldwide crop.

Chives

Chives (Allium schoenoprasum) is a herbaceous plant native to Europe, Asia, and North America. Slightly spicy to the taste, Chives are commonly used to flavor foods throughout the globe (especially in Europe). In gardens, the growing plants can act as pest repellents.

Common borage

The edible leaves of Common borage, said to have the fragrance and taste of cucumbers, are often used to make salads, soup, and sauces. Its blue, star-like flowers can also be used as an attractive drink garnish and as an ingredient in some gins. The plant is also commercially cultivated for borage seed oil.

Dill

Dill grows upright with fine, delicate leaves. The main use of dill is in cooking, and its culinary applications vary widely. Whether dried or as a fresh garnish, Dill has a long history as a flavoring herb. It has even been found in 3400-year-old Egyptian tombs. In North America, it may be most well-known as the distinctive flavoring in dill pickles.

The 12 Best Hardy Vegetables for Late-Season Harvests

The start of cold weather can catch many gardeners off guard. Just as your harvests are starting to ramp up for the season, an early frost kills your tomato plants and leaves you with little to show for your efforts.

It’s possible to skip this disappointment by growing cold-tolerant plants instead. By focusing your garden around hardy vegetables, you’ll manage to bring in harvests long after the heat-loving varieties have given up the ghost.

Many cold-tolerant plants require long growing seasons and need to be planted long before the weather turns chilly. This ensures they have plenty of time to get established in pleasant conditions and helps them continue producing once things get cold.

Not sure what to grow? Here are twelve cold-hardy plants to grow at home. Each will help you extend your growing season and ensure you always have something fresh to eat, even when the ground is covered in snow.

Lettuce

Cabbage

When you look at a wild Cabbage plant, you may be surprised by how many edible vegetables were derived from it. Native peoples selectively cultivated the wild Cabbage over centuries to produce broccoli, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, and more. The wild form of the plant is also edible.

Beets

The Beets (genus Beta) are a small group of flowering plants in the amaranth family. The species’ most recognizable member, by far, is the Cultivated Beet (B. vulgaris), which is grown for food. Beets are hardy and very cold tolerant, allowing them to be grown at high latitudes or altitudes, where other crops often fail. They are primarily grown to produce sugar, but they’re also a popular vegetable in their own right (both the roots and greens are edible and nutritious).

Spinach

Onions

The name Onions can be applied to many plants including edible onions, garlic, leeks, and more. Popular as garden plants and also grown commercially, the flowers grow on tall stalks and both leaves and bulbs are usually edible. Onions offer both beauty to the garden and protection from critters; the leaves emit a garlic-like or onion-like fragrance that repels rodents and other pests.

Parsnips

Although the part of Parsnips (Pastinaca) that grows under the ground is edible, the stem and leafy parts that you see growing above ground are toxic. A genus of flowering plants, the most well known is Pastinaca sativa, the common parsnip, which is cultivated as a vegetable root crop. Some species of Parsnips have escaped cultivation and have become a weed of disturbed areas.

Corn salad

Corn salad (Valerianella locusta) is a small annual that grows to 6 to 12 inches in height. It grows on bare ground with rocky soils or coastal dunes producing small clusters of white flowers that bloom from spring to summer. Sow in summer to produce deliciously-edible salad greens throughout winter.

Turnip

One of the oldest cultivated plants in Europe and Asia, the Turnip is one of those vegetables that you can consume in its entirety. The fleshy roots and greens can be typically cooked or eaten raw, like in a salad. It also has many varieties, such as the rounded turnip whose root’s bottom is half white and half purple.

Radish

Spring beauty

The Spring beauty (Claytonia) are a group of diminutive, flowering plants. A few species of Spring beauty are grown ornamentally, although they are not widely cultivated as their flowers tend to be very small and not particularly showy. They will most commonly be encountered as wildflowers or garden weeds. The most famous species in the genus is referred to as “Miner’s lettuce” and is considered a wonderful salad green, consumed for centuries by indigenous Americans and European settlers in mining camps.

Carrot

Brussels sprouts

Brussels sprouts (Brassica oleracea var. gemmifera) are grown in cool-weather vegetable gardens to harvest their miniature cabbage-like buds. It’s thought the common name comes from this vegetable’s popularity in Brussels, Belgium, which dates back at least to the 1300s.

Want to Eat Healthier? Top Ten Fruits and Vegetables to Grow Yourself

Staying healthy can be a challenge. Busy schedules and rising costs at the grocery store can make nutritious food feel out of reach.

Sick of reaching for pre-made convenience foods? One solution is to grow healthy food in your own backyard. By maintaining a garden filled with fresh fruits and vegetables, you’ll ensure your family always has easy access to the produce that keeps you healthy.

However, choosing what to grow can be a challenge. Not all vegetables are created equal, and some have a better nutritional profile than others. Understanding the health facts behind different types of produce is important to ensure you’re growing what makes sense for your dietary goals.

Here’s a closer look at ten types of fruits and vegetables that pack a nutritional punch. Best of all, each is easy to grow at home—no matter your previous gardening experience.

Broccoli

Garlic

Garlic (Allium sativum) is an extremely popular garden plant because of its use for flavoring dishes, as well as its ease of care and growth. It is traditionally planted in autumn and harvested in mid-summer. This plant is also called the stinking rose, and it is useful as an insect repellent in gardens. Garlic is important to Korean creation myths, and is believed to ward off vampires and other spirits in European folklore.

Spinach

Common bean

Garden strawberry

Sweetpotato

Carrot

Brussels sprouts

Garden pea

Beet

The Beet (Beta vulgaris) provides a variety of uses for food products and garden growth. The roots are commonly consumed as nutrient-rich vegetables, the body of the sugar beet is used to make table sugar, and the leaves are harvested as a separate vegetable: chard. In 18th-Century Silesia, an area that is now part of Poland, the first-ever beet sugar extraction plant was created by a royal decree from the king.

The Best Ways to Protect Your Garden From Frost This Winter

Whether you’re planting a Winter garden from seed or letting some of your hardier plants overwinter through the season, there are a few steps you can take to ensure your plants survive the coldest part of the year. When planning your garden for Winter, It’s important to remember that even the most resilient winter vegetables can get too chilly sometimes. So, depending on where you live, your hardiness zone, and unexpected changes in the weather, you may need to take additional measures to prevent your Winter garden or overwintering plants from freezing. The good news is there are some tried-and-true methods that will help protect your garden, so you can enjoy fresh, crisp Winter vegetables year-round.

Mulch

Mulch is any material that you can spread around the base of your plants and trees that keeps the soil around the plant moist and insulated. Store-bought mulch is made of various materials such as straw, bark, pine needles, leaves, or rubber. However, the type of mulch that is most commonly found in stores is usually made of hardwood chips like cedar and pine.

Mulch is an easy and cost-effective way to keep your plants cool in the Summer and warm in the Winter. In fact, it can even help keep your plant’s roots from getting too cold, which is a major culprit when it comes to plants dying over the Winter. Since mulch is so commonly used, there are many types to choose from. Different types of mulch offer different levels of insulative protection, so be sure to choose your mulch method wisely to keep your plants safe from frost this Winter.

Cold Frames

Cold frames are an inexpensive and easy method for helping your plants survive through unpredictable cold weather spells. Cold frames are structured enclosures that are placed over garden beds to create a greenhouse effect. They’re often made of wood or plastic and usually feature a window that can be opened to adjust the temperature and humidity of the soil in your garden. Cold frames work much like a miniature greenhouse, but they’re considerably smaller and less expensive. In fact, many people choose to make their own DIY cold frames.

When you use a cold frame instead of a greenhouse, you won’t need to disturb your plants by relocating them to your garden. Cold frames are a fantastic way to protect your Winter garden from frost and keep a thriving garden throughout the cold season.

Greenhouse

Greenhouses are a great option for starting a Winter garden or keeping your plants cozy through the colder months. Greenhouses are enclosed structures that most resemble elongated tents. They vary in size and can range from very small to quite large. Greenhouses are usually made of some lightweight or transparent material like plastic or glass and are used to trap heat and energy throughout the day. Keeping your plants inside of a greenhouse protects your overwintering plants from cold temperatures and allows you to keep a lush garden during the coldest months. Greenhouses are so useful that most people use them year-round for storing supplies, starting seeds, or starting plants earlier or later in the season.

Conclusion

There are a variety of options to protect your overwintering vegetables or winter garden safe from the cold. Using any of the methods on this list will help your plants thrive through the cold months so you can enjoy fresh garden veggies and a beautiful garden all year long.

What Are the Top Common Veggies That Can Be Planted During Winter?

Most people think of Springtime as the best time to start a garden. Although starting a garden during the colder months sounds counterintuitive, you can still have a lush and high-yielding vegetable garden throughout every season. In fact, knowing which vegetables to grow in later seasons can actually help prepare your soil for a more bountiful and abundant garden in late Winter and early Spring. Knowing this, which vegetables should you grow in your Winter garden?

What are Winter Vegetables?

Winter vegetables, also known as “hardy vegetables” or “cold-weather vegetables”, are edible garden plants that can survive or grow well in colder temperatures. Starting your Winter vegetables in late Summer to Fall can give your garden a good head start, as your winter harvest will be ready just in time for late Winter or early Spring! But, what are the most common veggies that can be planted during winter? Starting a Winter garden that includes any of these cold-resistant plants can provide you with fresh vegetables for you and your family to enjoy all year long.

Top Common Vegetables to Grow in Winter

1. Brassica oleracea var. Italica (Brocolli)

Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli thrive in cold weather. Brocolli seeds can germinate at temperatures as low as 40℉ and can grow well through direct seeding methods in the late Summer to early Autumn months. Although broccoli is a cool-weather vegetable, freezing temperatures can hinder growth in even the most winter-hardy plants when they are young. When temperatures dip below 32℉, it’s important to provide your broccoli plants with extra protection from the elements such as mulch, straw, or other forms of insulation.

2. Allium ampeloprasum (Leeks)

Allium ampeloprasum, more commonly known as Leeks, is a winter-hardy member of the onion family. As such, Allium ampeloprasum is a great root vegetable variety to include in your Winter garden. These root vegetables are popular in gardens year-round but are especially appreciated in the Winter months because of their cold-hardiness. Allium ampeloprasum can survive in temperatures as low as 12 ℉ (-10 ℃). Allium ampeloprasum can be planted several weeks before the last frost date and harvested in the Spring and early summer. This makes Leeks a popular vegetable in many winter gardens.

3. Brassica oleracea acephala (Kale)

Brassica oleracea acephala, also known as Kale, belongs to the same family as other Brassica oleracea cultivars. This includes vegetables such as cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, collard greens, and more. Kale is a hardy biennial plant that is extremely resistant to mild winter conditions. In fact, Kale can withstand temperatures as low as 20 ℉ Fahrenheit before needing insulation like mulch or another similar ground cover. Because Kale is a biennial, you can allow it to continue growing in your garden after harvesting in Fall. It grows throughout winter to produce even more Kale in springtime. Because of this, growing kale in winter is a great way to keep your home stocked up on leafy greens all year.

4. Daucus carota (Carrots)

Carrots are cold-weather resistant root vegetables that can thrive in temperatures as low as 18°F (-8°C). Because of carrots’ ability to survive through the colder seasons, paired with their commonly reported sweeter taste after frost, they’re a popular cold-weather resident in many Winter gardens around the world. The best time to plant carrots is in late summer or 10 weeks before the first frost. If severe frost persists through the winter, it may be necessary to provide a layer of mulch or other ground protection.

5. Beta vulgaris (Beets)

Beta vulgaris, also known as beets or beetroot, is a popular vegetable in cold-weather gardens. Beets can be sown in Fall and allowed to overwinter in mild climates up to 12 weeks before the first frost. Although beets can withstand temperatures around 30°F for sustained periods, severe winter chill can still be a concern. As with all wintering plants, if temperatures fall below 25°F, covering your plants or taking potted plants inside may be necessary to keep your plants from freezing.

Final Tips For Common Winter Vegetables

Whichever cool weather varieties you choose to include in your winter garden, it’s important to remember that even the most resilient of winter vegetables can get too cold sometimes. So, depending on how cold your garden gets in the Winter, you may need to cover your plants to keep them from freezing. The best way to keep your plants warm during winter is by using mulch, a cold frame, or another similar ground cover method.

What Vegetables Can You Regrow at Home?

Did you know that you can grow some vegetables from the kitchen waste that usually gets thrown away? This is a great method of saving money and reducing food waste (which creates greenhouse gasses). Not only that, but it’s an easy and satisfying way to see something grow from nothing!

Regrow Vegetables in Water Only

There are several types of vegetables that can be regrown in a container of plain water. Green onions and celery are well known for this ability, but there are several others that can be grown using this same method. This is the easiest way to regrow vegetables from scraps, but be aware that vegetables regrown in water may not have as much flavor or get as large as other vegetables, since they are not being given any additional nutrients.

After reviewing the process below, you will find a list of vegetables that respond well to water-only growing.

Cut the vegetable away from the base, leaving behind about 1 to 2 inches/3 to 5 cm including any visible roots

Place the root base into a container of water deep enough to submerge the roots. Choose a container that prevents the vegetable from falling over, if needed

Put the container in a warm, sunny location and change out the water every 1 to 2 days

You should see new growth starting within a few weeks. You can trim off pieces to use as you need or harvest the vegetable when it reaches full size

Common vegetables that can be regrown in water include:

Bok choy, Cabbage, Fennel Green onions, Leeks, Lemongrass

You can also regrow some herbs from cuttings in water. Good options for this method include:

Basil, Cilantro, Lemon balm, Mint, Oregano, Sage, Thyme

Regrow Vegetables in Water + Soil

There are also several additional vegetables that you can regrow at home by starting them in water and then moving them to soil once roots have sprouted. Although this is a slightly more complicated process, it is still very simple.

Follow the process of growing vegetables in water. Once it has roots at least 1 inch/ 2.5 cm long, it can be transferred to soil

Move the rooted vegetables into a pot prepared with light, well-draining soil for indoor growing, or plant them directly in a prepared area of the garden. For root vegetables like potatoes grown inside, be sure the container is large enough to contain the resulting vegetables. Make sure the roots are covered with soil and water thoroughly

Move the plant back to a sunny location. It should start to put out new growth within a few weeks, depending on the species. Harvest when the vegetable has reached full size

Vegetables appropriate for this method include:

Broccoli, Celery, Kale, Potatoes, Sweet potatoes, Yams

Regrow Vegetables From Seeds

Many of the vegetables we eat regularly have viable seeds that can be harvested and grown. The method for successfully growing vegetables from seeds can require a little trial and error, but this method works for most of them.

Remove seeds and clean them thoroughly to get rid of any pulp (which can cause the seeds to rot)

Spread the seeds out on wax paper on a flat surface in a cool, dry location

Allow the seeds to dry for at least one week (and preferably 2 to 3 weeks). Then you can either store them to use later or plant them right away. Specific requirements vary by species, but most vegetable seeds need consistent moisture, high humidity, warm temperatures, and bright indirect sun to sprout

Vegetables that can be regrown from seeds include:

Beans, Cucumber, Peas, Peppers, Pumpkin, Tomato, Squash