Greenhouse - cultivation of vegetables for winter use

It’s really expensive to buy summer vegetables on the table in winter, and a greenhouse can provide wonderful food for you through the cold months. As an example, make small sowings of lettuces like 'Kwiek' and 'Little Gem' in early October. When the seedlings are large enough prick them out into standard seed trays and grow them on in the best light possible – make sure they are covered with a fleece in frosty weather. In December move into three inch pots, because being raised in the pots allows air to circulate under the leaves, reducing the threat of fungal infections. You can use this method to grow fresh and tasty as they are needed over an extended cropping period at a time when commercial supplies tend to be insipid and watery.

Spinach, kale, and some varieties of lettuce will live through the winter in a cold frame or if grown in tubs in the greenhouse. Even potatoes can be grown in a big bucket under glass – assume they will only get to new potato size and when you’ve lifted a potato plant and cleared it of reasonable sized vegetables, replant it an in six weeks or so you’ll have a small second crop that you can use as salad potatoes, at no extra cost!

Other possibilities are cabbage, bok choy, Chinese cabbage, and most root crops. Leeks, beets, carrots, turnips, parsnips, radishes, and rutabagas can be sown in summer for winter harvest and moved into the greenhouse. Remember to keep the greenhouse door shut and to do as much as possible to maintain a stable temperature