Tips from Olle Garden Bed: Four Season Garden

Four Seasons Garden sounds the same. This is a garden that can be used at any time of the year. Instead of waiting all winter, you have the opportunity to plant and harvest fresh crops from your garden. The following content also has some reference value for raised garden beds.

Using cold season crops and methods to extend the growing season, such as cold frames and hoop houses, the Four Seasons Garden provides food throughout the year.

Here is your guide to planning and nurturing the ultimate Four Seasons Garden.

Considerations for Four Seasons Garden

Eliot Colman wrote a four season harvest book, which established and explained his method of providing harvest throughout the year.

In horticulture, crops fall into two categories: cold season and warm season crops. Although most of us are familiar with planting warm season crops such as melons, tomatoes and peppers, cold season crops can be used to extend the growing season to winter.

winter

Some people will feel excited when they hear the word "winter", and some people will feel sad, but just because the sky gets dark and the snow starts to fall doesn't mean that you can't continue to harvest fresh and delicious vegetables and herbs.

These cold season crops can even be grown at temperatures close to freezing point, which makes them very suitable for winter:

Kale

Cabbage

Broccoli

Parsnip

Carrot

Leek

Garlic

potato

beet

Chinese cabbage

Celery root

Chicory

Cletonia

Dandelion

Endive

a turnip

Ladikio

radish

Daxi

radish

Spinach

romaine lettuce

The trick is that if you want these crops to grow well, some of them will need to be protected. We will discuss the use of cold frames and tunnels to extend harvest time.

Most of the plants on this list need to be planted in late summer or autumn, but short season crops such as lettuce, spinach and radish can be planted in winter.

spring

After winter, when spring comes, with the blooming of flowers, your mood starts to cheer up, and you can start your gardening seriously. With the slow rise of temperature, most gardeners began to spend more time in outdoor space and sowed seeds in the rest of the year.

Here are some of the most popular crops planted in spring:

cucumber

Beetroot

Tomatoes

Pepper

parsley

Mint

melon

strawberry

Broccoli

Cabbage

In addition, you can plant any of the above winter crops.

By the way, although we mainly focus on growing vegetables, why not add some lavender, sunflower, sedum or echinacea to add some edible colors to your summer garden? These plants attract pollinators and are edible.

When planning your spring garden, it is important to remember that late frost may still come. Be prepared to provide protection with frosted cloth, blanket or cardboard. If you are using a cold frame, greenhouse or tunnel, please plant tender spring crops there, such as peppers and tomatoes.

summer

Summer is one of the busiest times for gardening, so you must plan ahead when planting and growing crops in the garden. At this point, you may not plant too much, but take care of your existing plants.

You can wither, weed, water and trim hedges in your garden in summer.

But this is a great time to plant crops and harvest them in winter.

Beans, beets, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, beets, chicory, clay, eggplant, viscera, kale, leeks, lettuce, leeches, parsnips, potatoes, jerusalem artichokes, radishes, salted, sour mold, spinach, tatsoi and radishes can all enter the ground from June, depending on where you live.

To help you stay on track, it's a good idea to write a list so that you can review it throughout the year. This will keep you at the top of the Four Seasons Garden and make sure it looks great every season.

autumn

For some people, the first sign of degradation is when trees and plants begin to change color. Whether the signal falls on you, now is a good time to think about what you will plant in the winter garden.

Now is the time to prepare and plant some vegetables that will feed you throughout the winter. Although some of the vegetables in the long season mentioned above should already be underground, there are some things that can be planted for quick harvest before the winter is cold.

Radish, spinach, lettuce, pea, water cyanine, kale, clay, beet, cabbage and beet are all high-quality crops in autumn.

This is also the time to deal with some important autumn chores.

Instead of removing residual manure or leaves, mix them into organic compost. You should also take time to cover garden furniture before winter comes. Even if the temperature starts to drop in autumn, you can still see a colorful garden.

How to prolong the growing season

Planting and maintaining the Four Seasons Garden can be done without any additional tools, but if you really want to extend the growing season, there are several ways to do this.

Microclimate

To make the most of seasonal gardening, you need to understand the microclimates in your garden and how to use them.

Microclimate refers to a small area whose conditions are different from the general areas around it. For example, there may be a windy microclimate on the top of the mountain. The south side of the garden near the brick wall may be hotter than the surrounding area.

You can start by planting autumn crops near walls that absorb and reflect heat, so you can make anything from concrete or bricks. Or choose a slope facing south, fully exposed to the sun.

Avoid planting sensitive crops in low-lying areas, as frost will stay here for a long time.

We discussed microclimates and how to use them more in the guide.

Install the cold frame or closer

Cold frame is a time tested method to extend the growth period of crops. They can be built to any size, so if you want to harvest a lot of vegetables or fruits in winter, they are perfect. The cold frame should be strong and heavy so that strong winds do not damage it.

You can also try cloche, which is portable and can be placed in smaller areas of the garden. Unlike cold frames, these frames are easy to install and you can buy them for very little money.

Cloche is more flexible and mobile, so you can change the location based on which crops need more protection.

Tunnel

You can use low or high tunnels that are easy to create to significantly increase harvest time. Eliot Coleman used the tunnel to plant sesame, carrot, beet, chicory, clay, dandelion, viscera, esccaro, kale, kohlrabi, leek, mache, water martingale, onion, parsley, jerusalem artichoke, sour mold, spinach and tatsoi from September to February.

You don't need expensive and complex settings. Simply bend some plastic pipes to create a frame and some plastic or frost cloth, and you can keep growing all year round.

Add a greenhouse to your garden

By adding greenhouses, you can further protect your garden plants and crops. It costs more and requires more space than some other options, but once the greenhouse is installed, it can be used throughout the year.

If you are really committed to a four season garden, it is worth considering a greenhouse so that you can manage and control the climate of your crops. We can never predict the weather in each season, but the greenhouse is the closest thing to providing an ideal habitat for your plants.

If you install lights and heating, you can really have a year-round harvest, even including tender grass and vegetables.

Other considerations

In gardening, winter brings some unique challenges.

For example, you can install solar lights on dark nights while taking care of your plants. When walking in the garden, you need to have enough light so that you won't accidentally trip and hurt yourself.

However, this is not all about work. In winter, please take some time to enjoy outdoor activities in the garden.

In order to make things comfortable, you can put a fire pit in the garden, so that you can sit outside and watch the stars in winter. Take advantage of this setting when meeting friends and family during the holidays.

In winter, some birds will stay around the family garden to find food and shelter, so this is a good time to arrange some additional bird food and houses for these creatures. Then you can't sit down and watch their antics because you enjoy your garden.