True / False: can all vegetables be stored in winter?

Little pleasure ofwinter : harvest vegetables from your kitchen garden or go to the pantry, well sheltered in a cellar! It is still necessary to know how to protect gel or possible rots the precious culture. In addition, flowers, unfortunately not all, are able to keep their colors in bouquets for many months.

True or False: Are various varieties of vegetables capable of not suffering from the cold if they are sown at certain times and given a certain exposure?

True ! Late varieties of various vegetables (spinach, chewed up, etc.) have the advantage of seeing their period of greatest fragility postponed after the cold. Plants sown and transplanted before the end of thefall pass the bad season in the ground, at a less delicate young stage. They will then resist the cold better than with more developed foliage.

True or false: do leeks, cabbages, escaroles and curly endives risk any frost attack if they grow on an earth slope facing north?

True ! You can even pull up these vegetables, without removing their roots, and replant them in such a location, apples against each other and tilted. At the base of such a set, do not forget to dig a small ditch to drain away excess water, so as to avoid spreading diseases to your crop. But you’ll still want to cover it all with a material insulating, at least when the temperature requires it.

True or false: can root vegetables (carrots for example) no longer be harvested when it freezes, the soil being too hard?

False ! If your soil is healthy and not moist, avoid this risk by covering your vegetables with a layer of peat, dead leaves or straw. You will get a sort of pancake which, in freezing weather, can be lifted quite easily. This technique is particularly excellent for carrots sown late, Jerusalem artichokes and the turnips. One detail to remember: cut back, that is to say cut down to the ground, the foliage of all plants.

True or false: to keep such vegetables in your garden, is it enough to place them in a pile directly on the ground?

False ! This silage technique is possible, but very risky and taking certain precautions. In healthy soil, establish your pile below the level of the cultivated soil, that is to say at a depth of approximately 50 cm, hence easier protection against the cold. In wet soil, your silo should instead be placed at ground level with a small ditch all around it intended to collect excess water. In both cases, plan to install vertical ventilation ducts over an interval of 60 to 70 cm (bundles of branches for example) and in such a way as to evacuate the humidity coming from the respiration of the roots.

Picking your vegetables when cooking them is ideal, but it is therefore also possible to keep some of them during the cold season in a well ventilated cellar.