Growing Vegetables in Fall and Winter

I started gardening 4 years ago when a job transfer sent us from the Detroit, MI area to Tampa, FL.  The sunshine and tropical temperatures make vegetable gardening minimally difficult there, even in winter.  In Florida, gardening in the summertime is actually difficult and discouraged.  Summertime gardens can be challenging if attention is not paid to the type of vegetables being grown and the specific varieties selected, but a little practice is really all that is needed to grow food for the family dinner table consistently.

Recently, a job transfer sent us back to Michigan so we’ll need to adjust our strategy a little for spring and summer, but I’ve become so used to having fresh homegrown produce to eat in the fall and winter that I’ve started researching ways to grow vegetables during the winter.

I can predict what you may be thinking – he’s crazy if he thinks he can grow vegetables in the snow, wind, freezing rain, and below freezing average temperatures that can reach single digits for weeks on end. I’ve been called a lot of things, and crazy is definitely on the very long list of those descriptions.

But before you call my family to suggest a formal intervention I submit exhibit A, from a successful winter time gardener in Maine that has been growing vegetables in all four seasons for many, many years.

I've never visited Maine in winter, but I'm guessing the temperatures are not much different than temperatures in Michigan. I think I'm going to try it. 

I'll need to build a cold frame of some sort and perhaps a crudely designed portable greenhouse, but it sounds like it is possible.