Everyone knows about winter garlic. What if I told you that you can “throw” three more surprises into the same frozen bed? While your neighbors are just unwrapping bags of seeds in the spring, you will already have the first crispy bunches. The secret is cold resistance and a little trick.
Carrots “by prophecy”
Carrot seeds are excellent at natural stratification by cold. Shoots appear 2-3 weeks earlier than in spring; root crops have time to fill before the peak of the summer heat.
Planting secret: You need to sow on frozen soil, when thaws are unlikely (often the end of November – December). The seeds should go dormant and not germinate until winter. Depth: 1-1.5 cm, prepare the grooves in advance while the soil is loose. Take the seeds dry, cover them with pre-prepared dry soil or compost (store in the shed).
Leaf parsley “ice queen”
Its seeds contain essential oils. Prolonged cold will only “stir up” them, destroying growth inhibitors. In spring you will receive friendly and strong shoots of the earliest greenery.
Planting secret: The same principle, only dry seeds in dry soil. The seeding rate can be increased slightly in case of a harsh winter. In the spring, as soon as the snow melts, you can cover the bed with film to speed up the process.
Spinach “winter special forces”
The ideal candidate. Its young leaves are not afraid of frost. Sown before winter, it uses the first melt water and builds up a powerful rosette when other crops are just thinking of sprouting.
Planting secret: Sow it a little thicker, to a depth of 2-3 cm. It is less capricious than carrots. The main thing is to guess the moment when the ground is already covered with frost, but is not covered with a permanent blanket of snow.
While others are just sowing in May, at the beginning of June you will already be picking your first quarantine carrots, cutting fragrant parsley into a salad and making spinach pie. The risk is minimal, and the reward: a quick-ripening bed that will give you a head start on the whole season.
