Stretching The Garden Season

Stretching The Garden Season Related Information:

It sometimes seems as though autumn and winter come along all too quickly, and all hopes of enjoying our own fresh fruit and vegetables from our own carefully tended garden go out of the window. We prepare for the cold temperatures and undesirable weather by stocking up on frozen produce and looking forward to the spring and summer when we can once again enjoy the nutrition, taste and goodness of freshly grown vegetables and fruit.

However, with a little advanced planning and preparation you can enjoy these affordable luxuries, even through the colder weather. If you are able to put in a little extra time and effort, you can provide your plants with the protection they need to thrive even during the winter months. This means that you can enjoy continuing with a diet of fresh produce even when the summer is over.

Providing this protection for your plants can be easy and effective. A couple of layers of plastic sheeting used over your plants and vegetation can help to retain the heat from the soil, thus helping to keep away the cold temperatures and stimulate growth. One of these layers of plastic sheeting should be placed at low-level for effective heat retention. The other can be higher up and provides additional protection. Do not add a third layer, as you will then risk cutting out too much light. You should also never under-estimate the power of mulch, and some straw, leaves or other type of organic or inorganic mulch can help to retain both heat and nourishment.

It is also worth broadening your tastes, as there are plenty of winter vegetables that are suitable for the colder weather, and are ideal for winter gardening. This will enable you to continue with a healthy diet of fresh vegetables grown in your own garden. Leeks, turnips, swede and spinach are amongst the group of ideal vegetables to grow during the winter. You can also grow herbs, as there are some herbs that will also thrive and flourish as part of the winter garden.

With a little extra care and protection, you can really stretch the garden season, and continue to enjoy fresh produce and seasonal herbs even through the winter. This is well worth a little extra effort, as it will keep your garden functional all year round, rather then having to effectively shut down for the winter. The precautions and extra steps are very simple ones, and even something as simple as bringing in a range of winter vegetables and herbs can help to keep your garden going through the winter.