I don't know your region but a winter garden is generally a garden which survives/grows slowly in the winter rather than one which is planted in the winter. For example, if you want to be eating greens from your garden in December they need to have been planted in the summer or autumn. Only in really warm winter climates can you actually sow or plant in the winter. I think you need to give more information about where you are to get any useful help on what you can harvest in the winter or early spring.

Do you need more then my zone number?

When I get antsy to grow something edible in the winter, I plant peas and radishes in containers. And kitchen sprouts and Cressida are fun too.

Having the state or country with your zone number can help since there are major differences between South Carolina, Seattle (Washington), and parts of the UK. All of those may be a hardiness zone 8, but the amount and quality of sunlight they are recieving this time of year is quite different.

Beyond that, I'm not sure what you can and can't grow in winter in Zone 8, but I agree that mostly winter vegetables are planted in advance of winter so that they are ready for eating by winter.

central california zone 8b. I guess what I am really trying to understand is how the timing of planting a winter garden works. I understand that you start them in the fall to get the early winter crop and or because soil temps are still high enough to germinate particular seeds. I have just not really been able to find any information on starting gardens later. most of the charts have gardens revolving around the frost dates. I hope I am explaining my question clearly enough.

Check out your county extension office, or their website. Most will have planting schedule for when to plant seeds or starts.
I'm north of SF and planted most starts in Sept.. There are a few things that like a chill to germinate. Nancy

You're explaining it correctly, or at least I understand what you're saying (I think). The reason that "winter" gardens are started in the late summer/fall is so that you have plants that are ready to be harvested during winter. You can harvest hardy crops all through winter in your zone (I assume). If you plant during winter, the plants won't mature or if they do they will take a long time to mature due to the cooler weather and shortened day lengths.

Rodney

This post was edited by theforgottenone1013 on Tue, Dec 3, 13 at 12:06

Yes for fall/winter gardening I have always planted them right about the time we get our cooler weather here. Cole plants, herbs, Lettuce, and root plants do great here in Texas.

A winter garden is best planted sometimes between July and September, often following mid-summer crops like garlic or potatoes. Right now in the Central valley you can probably start arugula and spinach, but not cabbage, chard, or beets. You may try favas.

If you want to call it a winter garden and start putting out some transplants soon then go for it. What's the worse case scenario? I think most cold weather crops have a chance of producing yet in zone 8. Maybe somethings can be aided with some protection such as row covers or low tunnels.

Galsoneth, my suggestion would be to check out a planting guide specific to your area. See one example below; there were others choices found during my web surfing. Not knowing your exact location, I did not know which guide had the better fit. Guides typically show optimal planting times. You probably will find with a bit of experimentation that your location and "micro-climate" allows you to deviate from dates in whichever guide you follow and still achieve acceptable results.

Here is a link that might be useful: Central California Planting Guide Example

Germination is the easy part. The bigger question is growth. During the cooler weather and lessened sunlight, plants grow much more slowly. For more information, you can look at Eliot Coleman's books (he has 2 that address this), the more recent one naturally has more information. Things will play out a little differently (favorably) in your climate but this information should give you a good starting point for experimentation. Good luck and don't forget to have fun with it.

The following links may help

Hardy Vegetables for winter garden

http://www.hortmag.com/plants/fruits-veggies/hardy_vegetables

Zones 7-8 Planting Schedule

http://www.thevegetablegarden.info/resources/planting-schedules/zones-7-8-planting-schedule

Also Check seeds packet grow infomation, weather forcast/history in your area to find the best time to sow the seeds.

This post was edited by JCTsai on Mon, Dec 9, 13 at 8:55

Well good luck with anything if you're getting the same freezes as we are up in Sonoma County! Brrrrrrrr! Nancy

I am also in N Cal, 45 miles SW of Sacto. I did put out some garlic this weekend, and I've heard folks in cold places do this even after a freeze, but most things have been out for at least 4 weeks. I like to wait until it cools off, and after the first rain for sugar snap peas, chard, collards, and mustard, and try not to go later than Thanksgiving for the garlic shallots and favas. None of it is harvested until the spring, although I often get usable greens over the winter.

This December seems unprecedented though, and I have had to cover EVERYTHING this week. I usually like the fall/winter/spring garden because it takes less effort than gardening when it's 90 plus degrees, and dry.

Thanks for all your help. I have really good planting schedules for my area received from our local extension office. It really comes down to that I need to experiment. Just wanted to get some thoughts. They recommend plant by nov 1st. But then we start our same plants around the end of January. Ill be mostly planting from the Brassica family and some lettuce. Ill try planting some end of Dec and see what happens.