What can I leave in the ground over winter?

[Curlykale]

And what will be ruined if I don't lift it? I know I can leave kale, sprouts, parsnips, cabbages, broccoli, swiss chard, leeks, garlic etc in the ground over winter, but what about the following? I'm running out of space to store my excess.

Potatoes
Carrots
Fennel
Beetroot
Perpetual spinach
Celery

[Two_Sheds]

Is your soil claggy and wet, or free-draining? I can leave spuds until December, but then I don't get water-logging or slug damage.

Leafbeet will lose its top growth when it gets really cold, but the root will survive to throw up new leaves in early spring.

Everything else, I'd get up.

[Alison]

I leave carrots in, they were under about a foot of snow last winter with only a sheet of enviromesh for protection. The tops did get a bit of frost damage but the rest of the roots were perfect. This year I'll be adding a bit of a mulch in the next week or two and leaving them again. It can be difficult to find them when the top growth dies down and sometimes you have to chisel them out the ground but it works well. However I don't leave spuds in as I dig them up with a good furtle using my hands a lot and a small fork which would be pretty yucky in cold wet soil so mine are all in sacks in the garage already. The other items you list (with the exception of the spinach) won't survive without a lot of protection - I've tried it with quite a few of them

[pauco]

Overwintering Onions


paul.

[baldrick]

my fennel dies and comes back next year. Ive left perpetual spinach in before but the leaves get massive and the stems tough.

[Two_Sheds]

I leave carrots in, they were under about a foot of snow last winter

They can be ruined by root fly though, which survives in and eats the roots all winter.

Last year I dug them all up and stored in compost, but they went all soft and bendy.

This year I'm turning as many as poss into soup & freezing it, but I'll leave some in the ground like you, to see how they fare

[chris]

I left mine in the garden too, loosened the soil before the harsh frosts - xmas day I went out and pulled them with my parsnips too

[Alison]

They can be ruined by root fly though, which survives in and eats the roots all winter.

Last year I dug them all up and stored in compost, but they went all soft and bendy.

This year I'm turning as many as poss into soup & freezing it, but I'll leave some in the ground like you, to see how they fare

Thankfully I've not seen any evidence of carrot fly on mine this year and last year they weren't too bad either thanks to being covered in enviromesh from sowing to harvesting. Funnily enough the ones which were slightly damaged last year didn't seem to have got any worse over the winter and they lasted until about March before they were too bad by which time there weren't many left anyway

[Aberdeenplotter]

I would normally say it does spuds no harm to leave them in the ground provided there is no major problem with keeled slugs and there is a decent covering of soil. However, kind of changed my mind today. Just lifted some Home Guard. An old variety I trialled after getting some seed from a pal. Horrible things yeuch spit at the thought . Anyways, had to get them out of the ground and did so and the damned things are actually sprouting. Just shows the effect of a warm October.

[binley100]

Guy walking his dog this morning passed me a bit out of a paper...It said one way to store your veg is to bury a dustbin with the lid slightly above ground, fill with straw and keep your root veg in there ..Am guessing he means an old style dustbin and not a wheelie bin

[Aberdeenplotter]

I store my seed potatoes in a wheeliebin in my garden shed at my plot. I have a sheet of polystyrene in the bottom, then some fleece, then a seed tray with spuds, then more fleece, then another seed tray with spuds, then more fleece. you should be getting the picture. I then stuff the spaces with even more fleece and finally close the bin and wrap it in an old duvet and cover with my strawberry nets etc. Would not like to have to dig a hole to bury it though, I only have a spades depth at best.

[Snadger]

Guy walking his dog this morning passed me a bit out of a paper...It said one way to store your veg is to bury a dustbin with the lid slightly above ground, fill with straw and keep your root veg in there ..Am guessing he means an old style dustbin and not a wheelie bin

Amazing what strange men walking there dogs carry about their person innit.................

I made a 'clamp' out of a straw filled kids wardrobe, sunk in the ground and filled with straw-tatties-straw and topped with soil. Worked fine until the wood rotted away!

[binley100]

Its all this media attention , I'm famous ya know