Cool-weather vegetable crops are a gardener’s best friend, although a lot of individuals are still unfamiliar with them. Many of the vegetables grown in summer gardens really perform better in cooler weather once the average temperature is 50 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit; mild frost can actually enhance a few cool-season crops.

Cool-Season Vegetables

Although most men and women have a tendency to plant their vegetable gardens within mid-spring to get a summer crop, some frequent salad vegetables are quickly destroyed by the warmth of the summer. Cool-weather vegetables contain salad greens, peas and root vegetables. Lettuces, radishes, carrots, rutabaga, beets, turnips and cabbages work well for your cool-weather vegetable garden.

Fall and Winter Harvest

For many, cool-season vegetable gardens are intended for a fall or winter crop. Gentle young seeds or plants are planted in the garden during mid- and late summer and are ready for harvest in fall. When planting cool-season crops during the hottest part of the summer, protect the crops with floating row covers to colour them and shield them from the warmth.

Spring Harvest

Planting cool-season vegetables in late winter will allow you to have a bountiful harvest in mid-spring, right around the time you’d plant a normal vegetable garden. Plant your vegetable transplants or seeds so they’ll reach maturity before daytime highs hit around 60 F. Spring harvest presents a single obstacle: The soil temperature still has to be warm enough for germination. Due to this, you might need to start seeds indoors or use some type of insulation around the plants to keep the temperature of the ground raised marginally.

Benefits

Many of the vegetables that prefer cooler weather will grow in the warmth of summer, but badly. Lettuces, for instance, grow fine during the summer heat, but the heat also makes them bolt to seed more quickly and also the leaves turn bitter. Cooler weather also has more rainfall, fewer insects and fewer grasses.

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For people who have gastrointestinal problems with ordinary cucumbers, the Burpless Tasty Green #26 variety can be an ideal gardening alternative. This hybrid cucumber contains thin skin, very little bitterness and was designed to reduce the probability of the veggie inducing gas. Like most of cucumber varieties, Burpless Tasty Green is a warm-weather plant and needs to be planted after the soil warms up to at least 60 degrees Fahrenheit in your lawn.

Dig the cucumber patch once the soil warms in the lawn, about three weeks after the last average frost date. The date will be different based on the part of the country in which you live. As an example, in San Francisco the last frost date is near the end of January, so start the cucumber patch at the middle of February if the weather holds.

Dig the soil in your cucumber area 12 inches deep. Mix at a 3-inch layer of compost to improve drainage. Insert an all-purpose fertilizer such as 5-10-10 according to the package directions. Create the cucumber patch up against a chain-link fence or a trellis to permit cucumber vines to climb away from damp soil.

Space the Burpless Tasty Green #26 cucumber seeds about 12 to18 inches apart. Place the seeds about 4 inches from the fence or alternative support and then cover the seeds with 1/2 inch of compost. Water the seeds thoroughly.

Spread a 2-inch layer of grass clippings or other organic mulch over the seed bed once the seeds have sprouted. This will keep moisture in the ground while shading out seeming weeds.

Side dress the cucumber crops using a high-nitrogen water-soluble fertilizer once the vines start to bloom, and again three weeks later. Do this by moving apart the mulch, sprinkling the fertilizer on the ground beside the plant stems and watering it into the ground. Replace the mulch after the water has sunk into the ground.

Water the patch often, particularly in very hot or warm weather. Keep the ground moist, but avoid massive puddles.

Decide on the Burpless Tasty Green #26 cucumbers as soon as they are ready to eat — approximately 62 days after planting. These cukes are greatest when they are approximately 8 inches long with a smooth skin. Regular picking will keep the vines creating more cucumbers.

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Luxurious grape vines (Vitis spp.) , which develop in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 2 through 10, provide welcome summertime shade and greenery, not to mention that sweet fruit. Seedless grapes in particular provide quick snacks without the bother of seeds. Mediterranean climates are ideal for cultivating a vine or two, and a backyard fence might offer sturdy support with a few alterations. However, it’s also important that you know your lawn’s microclimates and design can make growing seedless grapes in your fence more complex.

Location and Cultivar Choice

Grape cultivars possess their particular climate preferences, so not all kinds for your own zone will work in your particular location. For instance, hotter, sunnier inland regions of Mediterranean climates that don’t find cool and misty during the night in the summertime are suitable for growing “Thompson Seedless” (Vitis vinifera “Thompson Seedless,” USDA zones 7 through 9), the classic green seedless table grape. Coastal places that have cooler nights in summer would not be suitable for “Thompson Seedless,” however they could be suitable for varieties like “Black Monukka” (Vitis vinifera “Black Monukka,” USDA zones 8 through 10). There are grapes available for both colder and warmer regions, which means you should be able to find one that you can develop. However, you must focus on the cultivar’s own needs and not simply the zone amounts.

Microclimates and Cultivar Choice

What direction your fence faces and what it’s made from can help determine the climate right from that place, no matter your zone. For instance, if you are living in a hotter, warmer part of the region, but your solid hardwood fence is on the west side of your lawn, grapes on the side of the fence within your lawn won’t become much sunlight. In case your neighbor to the west contains tall trees that block out the sunlight after midday, that will decrease sunlight exposure and the day temperatures. That place in your lawn could end up using a microclimate that is slightly cooler than is suitable for a cultivar like “Thompson Seedless,” and it just may not get enough sunlight for any grape cultivar. Spend some time observing the place where the fence will be to make sure that sunlight and temperature demands will be fulfilled. Search for tall trees in neighbors’ yards that may block the sunlight when they have all of their leaves in the summertime, too.

They Want Their Space

Seedless grapes must be planted at least 75 feet from seeded grape types. Seedless varieties undergo a procedure called stenospermocarpy, where the seeds that develop within the fruit remain little and unviable. The vines still have flowers and require pollination to set fruit, however. That means that if you’ve got a seeded variety nearby, you could acquire small seeds forming on your supposedly seedless grapes throughout that season if the seeded variety’s pollen ends upon the seedless variety’s flowers. Organic Gardening notes that most grape varieties have been self-pollinating, but that’s not going to avoid a flower cluster from using pollen from other plants if that pollen lands.

Air Flow

You can buy disease-resistant grape cultivars, but “resistant” does not mean immune. Organic Gardening warns that good ventilation and air circulation round the plant is essential if you would like to decrease the chances of the vine growing diseases. Set the vines toward the middle of the fence, as opposed to close the corners. Put in trellis support wires that maintain the vines a short distance before the fence, instead of on the fence itself. Put the initial wire 1 1/2 feet above the ground, and then place extra wires above that with 1 feet in between each wire.

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Annual arroyo lupine (Lupinus succulentus) and silver bush lupine (Lupinus albifrons) are two species of lupine, also referred to as bluebonnets, that burst their seed pods in spring to self-sow for another season. If you would like to save seeds from these indigenous plants, or some other bluebonnet species, then you need to pull the plants up when the seeds are ripe and just prior to the pods burst. To ensure you don’t miss this narrow window, pull the bluebonnets when the seed pods start to turn yellow.

Select Healthy Acids

Seed pods form on the terminal ends of bluebonnet flowers. To ensure the seeds you harvest grow into plants that are vigorous, pull up just strong, healthy plants in the flowerbeds to dry. Bluebonnets are prepared to pull when the seed pods start to yellow but still haven’t turned brown. This occurs about a couple of weeks after the flower petals have dropped. You may wait for the pods to turn brown but you run the danger of the pods bursting in the garden and spreading their seeds on the ground. To decrease seed pod drying time, pull the bluebonnets at one time of day when the plants are dry. Be sure you’ve got permission to harvest seeds and plants from the land on which the bluebonnets are growing.

Hang Plants, Collect Seed

After pulling the bluebonnet plants, hang them, using the seed pods facing down, to dry in a well-ventilated room. Spread newspaper below the plants to collect the seeds, or even better, place an open cardboard box beneath the plants. Hang the plants low enough the forks are included in the box, without touching the box’s bottom. When the dry bluebonnet seeds pods burst open, then they eject their seeds quite a distance. The box keeps them contained.

Expand the Seeds to Dry

When the seed pods have ejected their seeds, spread them in a thin layer on newspaper to dry for about one week. Dried seeds are less likely to become moldy. For seed pods that did not open on their own, pull them open and dig out the seeds. Dispose of the plants in the compost pile. Bluebonnet roots are full of sulfur and will help enrich the compost. Dry the seeds indoors in a room with good air circulation. Indoor drying permits you to control the room temperature, as well as the humidity level is usually lower than drying seeds in a garage.

Store the Seeds

When the seeds are dry, store them in glass jars using tight-fitting lids. Place them in a cool, dry place away from light. Humidity and humidity may make the seeds to sprout and thus don’t store seeds in a bright kitchen or in a moist bathroom. Label each jar using the seed type and the date the seeds were picked. Silver bush lupine (Lupinus albifrons) seeds, which grow as perennials in U. S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 8 through 10, in addition to other types of bluebonnets, should stay viable for two to three decades.

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