The winter season brings with it crisp mornings, darker skies, and more time spent inside. Our bodies crave comforting, warm hearty meals and an endless amount of hot drinks. Winter guides us to slow down, re-evaluate, and allows us to come up with new and exciting plans. In the garden, plant growth rates slow down, temperatures are a lot cooler and the sun tracks lower in the sky, resulting in more shaded areas. It is important to observe your garden throughout the seasons and see where the sun and shades shift throughout the year. This means you can plan what to plant and make sure you have selected areas where each plant gets adequate sunlight for its desired growth cycle. For example, Citrus like full sun, year-round, so make sure they will not be shaded by a big tree over the Autumn and Winter months. Otherwise, they may struggle, and when plants struggle they are more susceptible to pests and diseases. Recognizing the areas of sun and shade in your garden and getting to know what conditions your plants like will go such a long way in creating a thriving, easy to grow garden.
Shady Situations
One of the most important factors to consider when planning your edible plants or permaculture garden is to OBSERVE your environment and analyse your sectors (wind, sun, fire, water, frost). It is number one on David Holmgren’s list of Permaculture Principles (1. Observe and Interact). Learning how these external energies behave on your specific property will make your garden design and planting so much more successful, easy and long-lasting. The sun tracks lower in the sky over winter, so trees, sheds, fences, and other obstacles may cause more of your garden to be in shade over winter. Once you have recognised these areas you can then plan to plant things that grow well in shade. Utilise and harness this rather than see it as a problem.
Observing where the sun and shade are throughout the year will also allow you to plan which plants or elements will grow best in each spot. Rather than finding a spare spot and planting a full sun-loving tree in an area that is 80% shaded. Gardening is a lot of trial and error, but by observing and interacting you will be able to identify what issues you have and figure how to solve them.
My Top 10 Edible Plants to Grow in the Shade:
- Nasturtiums – Tropaeolum majus. If you don’t know by now these are one of my favourite plants. They thrive pretty much anywhere and are so abundant even in shaded areas. Most of the plant is edible!
- Sweet Violets – Viola odorata. Sweet violets, also known as English Violets, Wood Violets or Common Violets, have cute little purple or white and purple edible flowers and make a beautiful carpeted ground cover.
- Lettuce – I grow many different varieties of lettuce and they don’t seem to mind the shade. In fact in Perth, WA I find they do better in the shade.
- Chives – Allium schoenoprasum. I have chives planted in the shade year-round and they do well. They add great oniony freshness to omelettes and the flowers are also edible.
- Kale – Brassica oleracea var. acephala. Kale grows well in the shade due to its large leaves being able to sustain adequate energy. It does grow at a slower rate (like most plants in the shade) which I like because although I like kale it is much easier to keep up with it.
- Radish – Raphanus raphanistrum subsp. sativus. Radish are fast-growing and will do well in the shade. They are a perfect fresh accompaniment to a salad or pickled.
- Asian Greens – Bokchoy, Tatsoi, Choy Sum, these are some of my favourite Asian leafy greens and they all do well in the shade or part shade.
- Parsley – Petroselinum crispum. Parsley will tolerate shade and I find it grows at just the right rate for me to use without having masses going to waste.
- Sweet Potato – Ipomoea batatas. Although full shade is not ideal growing conditions my Sweet Potato still does well. Slower growing but a great ground cover and still produces decent size crops.
- Rocket – Eruca vesicaria ssp. sativa. Rocket does fine in the shade too and is a great addition to any salad, served with Pizza or make a delicious rocket pesto!
What to Plant
Winter Maintenance
- Prune your deciduous trees or ones that have just finished fruiting such as the Feijoa and Guava. Keeping fruit trees pruned to a manageable height will allow the tree to put more of its energy into fruit production and also means you can harvest the fruit easier before the birds or other animals get to it.
- Let your best vegetables go to seed so that you can collect your seeds. Some of your Summer and Autumn veggies will be coming to an end so finish harvesting and allow the best ones to go to seed. This means you will have seeds to plant the next year which will be acclimated to your exact conditions. It also means some seeds will end up in the soil and will pop up on their own next season when the conditions are just right! This is my favourite thing to do. Let nature do its thing and everything becomes so easy and flows without any external work or force.
- Keep gardens mulched to help retain heat and moisture. Mulch will also help reduce the amount of weeds popping up.
Harvesting and Preserving
Preserve your winter harvests such as:
- Dehydrating citrus for teas, baking and a delicious pot of mulled wine.
- Squeeze lemons and freeze the juice in icecubes
- Use leftover citrus scraps to make house cleaner or lemon sprinkles
- Blanch and freeze extra greens such as Rainbow Chard, Spinach, Silverbeet, Collard Greens
- Chop and freeze spinach for smoothies
- Make garden pesto and freeze in large icecubes for soups, easy pasta dishes and platters for entertaining.
- Dry and preserve extra herbs
- Blanch and freeze extra broccoli and cauliflower
- Turn extra cabbage into sauerkraut
- Flavoured Salts
- Save the ends and scraps of your greens, herbs, onion and root vegetables and make a batch of Veggie Scrap Stock
Planning for Spring
Sometimes it can feel like you are always behind when it comes to planting seeds and seedlings. Here are some tips to do in Winter that will have you speeding ahead in your Spring and Summer gardens!
- Check your seed collection and order your spring and summer seeds (tomatoes, pumpkins, zucchini, capsicum, chilli)
- Start planting any early spring seeds inside or in the green house. The last month of winter can be a great time to do this and get a few things growing to kickstart your spring garden.
- Sprout Sweet Potatoes for sweet potato shoots.
- Clean and organise seed trays ready for planting.
