Start your long-season, cold crops
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. By transplanting seedlings of these, you give them more time to grow at their preferred cool temperatures before the summer heat kicks in.
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;
You could consider directly sowing into garden soil; paying attention to which crop you sow and soil temperature will increase your success greatly. This reference has cold crops listed and soil temp ranges for them. 50 degrees is often suggested, but some very cold hardy can germinate at lower temps. If you can give your plot protection through covering it by using season extension techniques, you can increase your odds.
You can start cold crops indoors using traditional or wicking seed starting methods. 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 since it requires supplies you may have at home and do not need to harden-off. Further, if you do not have a garden space ready yet, starting by winter sowing can give you time to get the garden prepped. The method instructions are here. Once sowed into your upcycled milk jugs or lettuce containers, you can set your mini-greenhouse outdoors right away.