Park and Garden Winter Growing

Little Red Hen’s Park and Garden isn’t letting a little cold weather put our vegetable gardens to bed!

While most gardeners hang up their gloves in September, we have stayed diligent and kept planting all the way into late October. Our vegetable garden is bursting with cool season crops. Now staff and instructors can enjoy fresh and organic vegetables all winter long.

We have even extended our growing season and protected our vegetables from frost by installing row covers out of plastic and wooden A-frames over our raised beds. The trick to growing a successful winter garden is knowing when your region’s first frost date is and making sure your vegetables are well established before that time.

During the hot months of the summer your vegetable garden is in constant need of water. However, during the winter months, Mother Nature does the work for you and gives your garden generous amounts of rain. The cooler weather also reduces the amount of pests and weeds, which means you aren’t competing for your garden’s bounty. The variety of vegetables that you can grow in the winter is huge! And it just so happens, those vegetables also contain just the right nutrients and vitamins you need to ward off those winter colds.

This year at Park and Garden we are growing bok choi, carrots, many varieties of chard and lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, fava beans, celery, kale, turnips, onions, garlic, peas, chives, mustard greens, and a few perennial and annual herbs.

We welcome people from the community to come and have a guided tour of the Park and Garden at 971 East Ave- Right next to Spiteri's Deli! We are proud of our winter garden and want to share it with everyone, after all, ‘tis the season!

Guest written by Blake Ellis, Charge of Little Red Hen's Park and Garden