Extend the growing season and harvest fresh vegetables in winter with these cold-hardy crops.
However, there are several vegetables to plant in winter to keep your harvests going during the colder months.
These tough plants arent damaged by frost; carrot roots become even sweeter in cold weather.
Credit: Marty Baldwin
Adding a bit of straw mulch over beets in fall can shield them from the worst of winter weather.
Broccoli
Even thoughbroccolilikes cooler temperatures, it doesn’t tolerate any hard freezes.
Fast-growing and compact,green onionscan be planted in small garden spaces and harvested in about 60 days.
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Frost-tolerant and resilient, green onions often survive subfreezing temperatures, but established plants are much hardier than seedlings.
Leek seeds even germinate in cool weather, and some leek varieties tolerate temperatures as low as 20F.
Adding natural mulches aroundleek plantsshields their roots from the cold.
Credit:Bob Stefko
Crops are sweeter and tastier after a light frost or two.
Leaf Lettuce
Many types of lettuce grow in cold weather, including head lettuce varieties like romaine.
Radishes
Cameron Sadeghpour
No list of cool weather crops would be complete without fast-growingradishes.
Credit: Ed Gohlich
Cabbage
Kindra Clineff
Fall and winter growing is particularly beneficial forcabbage plantsbecause they thrive in lower temperatures.
Their flavor may even improve after a light frost.
Plus,cabbage loopers and other plant pestsarent as active at this time of year.
Credit:Bob Stefko
Brussels Sprouts
Brussels sproutsare cold-loving plants like their cabbage cousins.
While they won’t thrive under feet of snow, Brussels sprouts are capable of surviving freezing winter weather.
In fact, they taste sweeter ifthey’re harvested after a frost.
Credit:Brie Williams
If you want fresh spinach in the spring, plant seeds in the late fall.
Or, if you prefer a later harvest, plant the seeds any time during the winter.
Swiss Chard
Swiss chardcan withstand both heat and cold, surviving in temperatures down to 15F.
Credit:Bob Stefko
Or, consider growing Swiss chard in a protected container with other frost-hardy veggies.
Credit:Marty Baldwin
Credit: Marty Baldwin
Credit:Cameron Sadeghpour
Credit:Kindra Clineff
Credit:Kindra Clineff
Credit:Denny Schrock
Credit: Karla Conrad
