Hello every body; My question is what veggies can I grow in Indiana zone 5 I am really kind of lost, I know some of you good people can help me please! I been looking around but I'm not sure I under stand what all the places are saying . I guess I have just went crazy, I had a good summer garden but I have never tried a winter garden. Please Help! I hope it''s not to late. :-? Thank you Margie
I don't know about winter gardens if your ground freezes but when we lived in Wisconsin I had brussel sprouts and parsnips and carrots that I left until the ground started to freeze. The brussel sprouts I picked through snow. A freeze makes them taste better. Here in Texas we can grow just about anything if we cover it on cold frosty nights. Our ground doesn't freeze. I do think that now you could plant cool weather things like spinach, beets and beans that would mature before it frosts or that you could cover if a frost was coming. Things like that would be killed by a hard frost or freeze though. I'm starting peppers and tomatoes and eggplant for the fall and also kale and swiss chard and in a month or so I will start some lettuce. You could try for the kale and swiss chard, they are cool weather crops. You might get some lettuce depending on when your first frost date will be. Maybe with the summer heat your frost date will be later this year. dooley
Margie, When we lived in upstate New York, zone 5 (I think) I always planted spinach and lettuce in late August. I'd put in broccoli and cauliflower transplants in mid-August. It takes a hard freeze to kill the broccoli and cauliflower, and we usually got a nice harvest. The spinach we'd harvest a bit, and leave it. It usually popped up on its own in the early spring. Lettuce we'd throw a cover over when frost came, but although it was a short season for it, the lettuce was wonderful. It wasn't exactly a winter garden, more of an early fall garden.
I live in Zone 5(b) as well. I don't know about a winter garden, but a fall garden is certainly possible. Cool weather crops that mature in 60-65 days can be planted up to the 1st of August. Crops, like cabbage, that can withstand a light frost, can be planted even later. I will be sowing sugar snap peas about the 15th of Sept as an experiment this year.
Turnips for greens and collards, cabbage,carrots, broccoli,,and certainly lettuce of all kinds except maybe Simpson will do fine till the ground freezes. Most all of these can take frosts without harm. The outer leaves of the lettuce may burn a bit from frost but will come back.
