Garden Wisdom Blog — category: Winter Gardening

Plant Hardiness Zones offer general guidance to the kinds of plants that will succeed in your area. The warmer your climate, the higher the number of the Zone you live in. Zones assume that all plants are receiving adequate water. The accuracy of zone coding can be substantially distorted by a lack of water. Zones are also affected by altitude, soil aeration, light, day length, air movement, surrounding structures, and soil pH. Microclimates like English Bay in Vancouver can provide enough protection to grow palm trees. However, neighbours on a hilly street in North Vancouver may find themselves in different...

Winter is a gift: it’s nature’s down time, a time when many plants go dormant and many animals have a winter’s rest. However, for those animals that are still active, winter can be a challenge. It’s hard to keep up your energy levels when you’re small, wet, and cold. Add food for the birds into your garden plans, and you’ll give the birds a very precious gift: Suet feeders provide fuel to stay warm in the cold winter season. Suet is one way to help out winter birds. It’s animal fat, and it’s an excellent food for woodpeckers, nuthatches, and...

Some types of crops take an awfully long time to mature. To harvest leeks in the summer, the seeds have to be started indoors way back in late winter — leeks just take that long to grow. With preparation and planning, home gardeners can grow excellent leeks for summer use. There are some crops that take even longer to mature. Gardeners in relatively mild climates can take advantage of the long winter months with a kind of gardening called overwintering. This involves the same degree of planning for summer leeks. These crops are planted in the summer and fall and...

Planting for fall & winter harvests has to start in the summer and fall. Just like we sow summer harvest crops in the late winter and spring – it’s the same concept. Did you know that many crops can be harvested from the garden fresh, even after the end of summer? Root crops like carrots and beets, and leafy greens like kale and scallions, even lettuce! View the West Coast Seeds Fall & Winter Gardening Guide here. Download the pdf (7MB) In our mild coastal climate we can grow some vegetables all winter without protection. You can eat these plants...