Grow Your Own Magazine

Dear All,

Now that summer has been and gone, I am already thinking of autumn sown crops to overwinter. We live near Aberdeen have two raised beds with wind breaks, and get frost and cold winds. I have overwintered cabbage and purple broccoli, but what else can I try? I am thinking of kale (cavolo nero?) and leeks, together with cabbage and brocolli. How about sprouts? Anything else? What varieties?Any advice from fellow gardeners in this part of the world very welcome. Also have a greenhouse, but not heated - overwinter my strawberries there, but not much else.

Thanks for letting me pick your brains

Kay

Hi
I'm not as far north as yourself however the stuff you've mentioned are good shouts in terms winter durability. I've never tried cavolo nero but curly kale would survive a mini ice age; it just depends on how much kale you can eat.
In addition to the traditional purple, I'm trying a white sprouting broccoli this year and can overwinter parsley in my (unheated) greenhouse.
It's too late this for year, but parsnips will quite happily sit in the ground and can be lifted throughout the winter.

Hi kay,

I'm in the far far north of Scotland and I did quite well with overwintered broad beans under cover of enviromesh, japanese onions from sets (but if you get your act together you could try overwintering them from seed instead) and garlic. I also planted some frost-hardy peas in early spring and they're doing okay, but only about as good as the maincrop peas that I planted 6 weeks later! I think next year I'll do the same again apart from the peas, and I've got jap onion seed to try.

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Dwell simply ~ love richly

Hi Kay - I'm in Shetland, but cannot overwinter anything outwith the polytunnel, mainly due to the strong cold winds through the winter. However, I did leave the Swiss Chard in last winter as it looked so pretty, and it didn't look too bad at all!

Hi Kay
I'm in Easter Ross and have overwintered quite a few of the brassicas in the past - PSB you have already mentioned. Winter and Savoy cabbages (Winter Cabbage Tundra is especially good at standing the winter), Kale (incl Cavalo Nero or any of it's other forms), Overwintering onions and autumn planting garlic, autumn sown broad beans and leeks should all be okay except in the severest of winters.

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Rat

British by birth
Scottish by the Grace of God

Blog updated Wednesday November 13th

Many thanks to all you fellow Scots for your suggestions. I'm going to try flower of spring cabbage, PSB, cavolo nero, swiss chard, garlic and will look for some tundra and broad bean seeds quickly! That should keep us fed if we are lucky.

Thanks

Kay