Broad BeansThe usual planting time for a winter garden is March, April and May.

Try to select a sheltered spot in the garden to grow your vegetables; hot drying summer winds and freezing cold winter winds could destroy your crops. This can be achieved by planting windbreaks, building walls, or installing cold frames around your plants.

Sacred bamboo (Nandina domestica) is not bamboo, despite its common name, and does not spread like bamboo. It makes an excellent windbreak; and the tall straight stems also make surprisingly strong and long lasting plant stakes if they are cut right down to the ground and allowed to dry out.  The height and spread of this beautiful shrub can also be controlled by pruning. Other smaller plants and herbs like rosemary are also suitable as windbreaks.

Most vegetables, and especially winter ones, need plenty of sunshine, good well drained soil, and regular watering. It is vital to prepare the beds thoroughly about 2 weeks before planting, incorporating lots of compost and a generous dressing of bone meal, plus a balanced organic fertiliser.

In acid soils a dressing of agricultural lime can be added. Look out for worm pellets, called vermicomposting, or volcanic rock dust, which also work especially well with vegetables.

Once the soil temperatures have dropped significantly you can start planting out your first seedlings into the garden. Try to do this early in the morning, and water thoroughly afterwards.

Successive Sowing

For the average family garden it is best to plant out smaller quantities of vegetables at regular intervals during the growing season, rather than planting too much all at once. Successive sowing and planting will ensure a more continuous harvest of crops, rather than a huge quantity all at once.

Remember to plant larger growing varieties of vegetables on the south side of your vegetable garden where they will still benefit from plenty of winter sunshine, but where they will not overshadow smaller growing crops.

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Kohlrabi. Picture courtesy Katherina MillerCold Regions

Autumn is knocking at the door, and on the Highveld there is a slight nip in the air early in the morning and in the evening. You need to sow your winter vegetables this month so that the plants can mature before it gets really freezing cold in June and July; you should try to get at least 6 to 8 weeks of good growth on your winter veggies before the major frosts come, anything less and your plants will struggle over the really cold period.

If you live in a region which receives early frosts, for slower maturing varieties like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and cauliflower, it may be worth your while to purchase trays of established seedlings from your garden centre. In cold regions June and July are not good months to sow seeds.

Warm Frost Free Areas

In warm frost free areas, most winter crops, and also many summer crops can be planted throughout winter. In these warmer regions, continue to sow seeds of vegetables that you can plant out into the garden once the weather cools down.

In sub-tropical regions March is the last month to plant onions, and April is the last month to plant green peppers. Otherwise, cabbage, spinach, beetroot, tomato, beans, peas, coriander, rocket, chillies, carrot, lettuce, gem squash and butternut can all still be planted.

Although lettuce, spinach, cabbage, mustard greens, kale and turnips grow best in cooler weather, there are varieties of each that are more tolerant of cold, or warm temperatures, than others. Heat-tolerant varieties which are slower to bolt or produce a seed stalk are grown in the summer months and are more suitable for subtropical regions. For this reason it is very important to purchase seeds from a reputable garden centre which will have the correct varieties for your region on their shelves, at the correct time of the year.

Raised BedsGrowing vegetables in raised beds

Growing vegetables in raised beds works well for organic gardeners, in both small and large gardens. Because they offer better drainage, they are also recommended for heavy clay soils. Space can also be used more effectively and a good soil structure is easy to obtain. Because there is no soil compaction from walking over the beds, less digging over is required.

Plants in raised beds receive more sun and air circulation, and because they can raise the temperature of the soil inside the bed by quite a few degrees in winter, warm up early in the spring, and stay warm later in autumn, raised beds allow you to plant earlier and harvest for longer. Mulching the beds in cold regions will help to retain heat in winter, and will keep the roots of crops cooler in summer.

Click here to read my full article on growing vegetables in raised beds

Square Foot Vegetable Gardening

To save space in smaller veggie patches it is best to plant crops in small squares, rather than in long rows. Click here to read my article on this fascinating subject.

Protect your newly planted seedlings

To protect your newly planted seedlings, collect and cut the bottoms out of plastic cooldrink bottles and bury these in the ground over the newly planted seedlings. Bottles with screw tops work extremely well, and leaving the screw top off the bottle will protect the seedlings from extreme weather like hail, while still allowing air flow around the plants.

Yogurt tubs also work extremely well, and the lids can be put on if bad weather is expected, and removed later.

These techniques are easy to do in small veggie patches and well worth the effort as they are excellent to keep cats and small dogs from scratching around your plants, and also help protect against some pests.

Once your veggies are planted, water and feed them regularly so that they can become well established before winter really sets in.

Growing your own vegetables can be most rewarding and a lot of fun, but remember not to bite off more than you can chew, and don’t despair if you have a few failures – this is all part of the learning curve. You will soon learn which varieties do best in your garden and how much to sow for your family’s needs. Once you “get the hang of it”, your veggie garden will be overflowing with delicious home grown, organic produce.