Long-season, cold vegetable crops distributed
What are long-season cold-crops?
We have started getting some of the long season cold crops into the Little Free cabinets. What are cold crops? A more complete list of warm and cold vegetables is at this reference, but in particular, the recent seed drop is focused on the varieties that take more than a couple of months to grow like broccoli, cauliflower, collards, fennel, and more.
Direct seed in the garden or grow seedlings first?
In Zone 4b, we are entering the time of year when direct seeding into a garden is possible to do for a select few crops that can deal with occasional freezing and colder soils. Wahoo! Being outdoors is such a balm! The long-season, cold crop veggies stocked this week in the Little Free cabinets could be grown a few different methods right now;
They could be directly sowed into garden soil, however, often less predictable success is achieved this way. If you can give your garden plot a little protection through season extension techniques, you can increase your odds.
You can start them indoors using traditional or wicking seed starting methods. This linked post offers some how-to about this option. Regardless of indoor technique used, don’t forget to harden-off (or acclimate) your plant babies before transplanting into the garden.
The Winter Sowing method is probably the easiest way to get started with long-season cold crops right now since it requires mostly supplies you have at home. The method instructions are here. Once sowed into your old milk jugs or lettuce containers, you can set your mini-greenhouse outdoors right away. The bit of extra warmth and consistent conditions by starting these seeds ahead of transplanting into a garden allows the plants get tougher to tolerate outdoors. Further, if you do not have a garden space ready yet, starting seeds of these long-season crops can give you time to get the garden prepped.