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The wind chill may be approaching zero, but the vegetables in Jon Sherman’s garden are warm and thriving.
Sherman, a retired social worker, is in his third year of four-seasons organic gardening at his rural Pittsburg home and is producing a variety of lettuces, carrots, beets, Swiss chard, kale, spinach, cabbage and broccoli.
“The colder and worse the weather gets, the better it is for this,” he said.
He grows his winter garden in cold frames, which function as miniature greenhouses.
“The origin of cold frames goes back to 18th century Europe,” Sherman said. “They gardened in extreme cold.”
He builds his own frames, using wood that has not been chemically treated.
“You do not want chemicals leaching into the soil,” he said. “I scrounge for materials as much as I can. I’ve been to auctions and bought old waterbed frames, which I sand down to get rid of the varnish.”
On top of the frame is a clear cover called a light.
“You can make those out of windows, and we replaced our patio doors and used the glass for lights,” Sherman said.
He said the frames are generally three to four feet wide and six to seven feet long.
“They are hinged on one side and set up so they are angled 15 degrees toward the southern hemisphere, where the sun goes,” Sherman said. “The sun goes to 23.5 degrees toward the southern hemisphere by Dec. 21, the winter solstice, then starts returning back, which makes it more appropriate for winter gardening.”
Sunlight is a key to winter gardens, he said, and they should be located in areas where they will receive full sunlight.
“I cut down five trees so I could get full sunlight on my winter garden,” Sherman said. “But it was all right, because I recycled the trees by burning them in my fireplace and spreading the ashes on the garden.”
He said that the potash from the ashes is also an important factor for cold weather gardening.
“The potash provides minerals that produce a type of sugar, levulose,” Sherman explained. “A high levulose content is crucial because it makes plants resistant to freezing.”
He said that he over-watered his garden last week when the weather was nice, and, as a result, some freezing occurred in his vegetables.
“The plants came out of it and were OK because of the high levulose content in them,” he said.
He’s also a veteran composter, using leaves, grass clippings and vegetable refuse from his kitchen to enrich garden soil.
“I try to stay away from commercial fertilizers, pesticides, and so on,” Sherman said.
In fact, pesticides aren’t needed for the winter garden.
“In the winter, there are no insects and no pests,” he said.
He blankets the plants in the frames with clean, dry straw, and places a thermometer in each. On Wednesday, when it was 21 degrees outside, with a wind chill near zero, the temperature inside the cold frames was a little above 40 degrees.
“You do need to vent sometimes to control the temperature because, on days of intense sunshine, it could get as hot as 100 degrees in the cold frames and cook your plants,” Sherman said.
He said he learned about winter gardening from books “Growing Vegetables in the Great Plains” by Joseph Thomasson and “Four Seasons Organic Gardening” by Elliott Coleman.
“I also had a lot of help from local gardeners Kip Kennedy and Sandy and Bob Golay,” Sherman said. “This is a process, and some gardeners say you never learn it all.”
He does know one thing for sure.
“A lot of people get tired of their garden by August and are ready to take a break until spring,” he said. “You really have to love gardening to do this.”
The wind chill may be approaching zero, but the vegetables in Jon Sherman’s garden are warm and thriving.
Sherman, a retired social worker, is in his third year of four-seasons organic gardening at his rural Pittsburg home and is producing a variety of lettuces, carrots, beets, Swiss chard, kale, spinach, cabbage and broccoli.
“The colder and worse the weather gets, the better it is for this,” he said.
He grows his winter garden in cold frames, which function as miniature greenhouses.
“The origin of cold frames goes back to 18th century Europe,” Sherman said. “They gardened in extreme cold.”
He builds his own frames, using wood that has not been chemically treated.
“You do not want chemicals leaching into the soil,” he said. “I scrounge for materials as much as I can. I’ve been to auctions and bought old waterbed frames, which I sand down to get rid of the varnish.”
On top of the frame is a clear cover called a light.
“You can make those out of windows, and we replaced our patio doors and used the glass for lights,” Sherman said.
He said the frames are generally three to four feet wide and six to seven feet long.
“They are hinged on one side and set up so they are angled 15 degrees toward the southern hemisphere, where the sun goes,” Sherman said. “The sun goes to 23.5 degrees toward the southern hemisphere by Dec. 21, the winter solstice, then starts returning back, which makes it more appropriate for winter gardening.”
Sunlight is a key to winter gardens, he said, and they should be located in areas where they will receive full sunlight.
“I cut down five trees so I could get full sunlight on my winter garden,” Sherman said. “But it was all right, because I recycled the trees by burning them in my fireplace and spreading the ashes on the garden.”
He said that the potash from the ashes is also an important factor for cold weather gardening.
“The potash provides minerals that produce a type of sugar, levulose,” Sherman explained. “A high levulose content is crucial because it makes plants resistant to freezing.”
He said that he over-watered his garden last week when the weather was nice, and, as a result, some freezing occurred in his vegetables.
“The plants came out of it and were OK because of the high levulose content in them,” he said.
He’s also a veteran composter, using leaves, grass clippings and vegetable refuse from his kitchen to enrich garden soil.
“I try to stay away from commercial fertilizers, pesticides, and so on,” Sherman said.
In fact, pesticides aren’t needed for the winter garden.
“In the winter, there are no insects and no pests,” he said.
He blankets the plants in the frames with clean, dry straw, and places a thermometer in each. On Wednesday, when it was 21 degrees outside, with a wind chill near zero, the temperature inside the cold frames was a little above 40 degrees.
“You do need to vent sometimes to control the temperature because, on days of intense sunshine, it could get as hot as 100 degrees in the cold frames and cook your plants,” Sherman said.
He said he learned about winter gardening from books “Growing Vegetables in the Great Plains” by Joseph Thomasson and “Four Seasons Organic Gardening” by Elliott Coleman.
“I also had a lot of help from local gardeners Kip Kennedy and Sandy and Bob Golay,” Sherman said. “This is a process, and some gardeners say you never learn it all.”
He does know one thing for sure.
“A lot of people get tired of their garden by August and are ready to take a break until spring,” he said. “You really have to love gardening to do this.”
