It’s the holy grail of edible gardening, isn’t it? Fresh vegetables in the middle of winter? What riches!
To me that’s swankier than a luxury sedan in a four-car garage.
Eliot Coleman has the formula, and it isn’t a secret. It’s all in his classic, Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables From Your Home Garden All Year Long, and I am devouring its wisdom. Short of going to apprentice in his garden, this is the next best thing.
He covers everything from compost to covered gardens: cold frames, greenhouses and high tunnels. Then, root crops and root cellars, and indoor harvesting. Also pest prevention, tons of tables (crop rotation, green manures, lists of cold frame crops, and planting dates for an extended harvest).
He even has a spinach planting dates table. My hero.
Win one of two free copies from the publisher, Chelsea Green, here:
This book looks like a must have.
I have several raised beds just sitting out in the rain because I don’t know how to plant for any season but spring! I did try some cole crops, but they failed. Either insects (from loppers to fuzzy aphid things) or not growing well. My broccoli produced two heads, each the size of a 50 cent piece!
Would love it
Lisa–I’ve only recently started to get into the fall/winter garden thing, mostly by accident. I’m looking forward to learning more and doing it better. Broccoli isn’t my strong suit, either!
I would love to win this book!
This book would be such a help to my thus far failed attempts. My garden only grows weeds well. 2 years of lots of work and few vegetables.
I really must have this book. Lots of work and few veggie, fruit, there is a lot weath
of knowledge in this book for me and other to learn
We just started planning out our garden again. This book sounds fantastic.
Cee–It’s so good. I read it cover to cover and it has a great veg by veg growing guide in the last section with cultivar recommendations. It’s one of those gardening books that really changes the whole way you garden.
I have all of his books and they are great must haves.
My wife wants to turn our garden into a year round spot and this looks great! She hates to see the empty spot in the winter. It is a wasted space as far as she is concerned! Just calling for something.