In Paris, the menu at Les Résistants will soon feature the best that winter gardening has to offer: Azur Star kohlrabi ravioli with navel orange, kohlrabi kkakdugi, grilled buckwheat, Espelette pepper, and coriander confetti—made possible by a handful of passionate growers. La Ferme des Gobettes, a farm located in Normandy, produces about 100 vegetables for Les Résistants, with no pauses on account of cold weather. “In winter, nature is resting,” Thibault Dupont, the farm’s cofounder, says, and yet there’s still plenty of plant care and cultivating to be done. We spoke to Dupont, as well as a couple of other green-thumbed professionals, to get his best tips for gardening in winter—whether you’re after a restaurant-quality meal, castle-worthy shrubs, or just a relaxing wintry pastime.
When it comes to winter vegetables, Dupont said there are two categories: veggies planted in the spring or summer and harvested in the winter, and those that are planted and harvested in the winter. The former category includes hardy vegetables such as parsnips, turnips, radishes, celeriac, and everything in the cabbage family—red cabbage, white cabbage, kale, and brussels sprouts.
After mid-September, Dupont noted and his team don’t plant anything outside. “The work is more harvesting and protecting. For example, we put veils over the land to protect against the cold,” he said.
There’s the second category of growing that they continue planting well beyond the fall inside their greenhouse. There, you’ll find lettuce, spinach, cauliflower, endive, mesclun, arugula, and “new” onions that will be ready just in time for spring.
Mark Lamey, the head gardener at Belvoir Castle in England, holds a diploma in horticulture at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and a master’s degree in the Conservation of Historic Gardens and Cultural Landscapes from the University of Bath. Well-schooled in winter gardening, Lamey explained that there’s a huge range of plants suitable for colder weather, from bulbs to trees. Bulbs include winter aconites, Balkan anemones, and netted irises. Winter gardeners interested in shrubs might consider sweet box (a bushy evergreen shrub), witch hazel (a deciduous shrub with yellow-to-red spidery flowers), and cornelian cherry, which produces a cherry-like fruit in the summer and dainty yellow flowers toward the end of winter.
Julia Omelchenko, a resident botany expert for the Plantum app rattled off some of her favorite varieties of winter plants. “The holly is an obvious winter garden favorite for its evergreen, sharp-edged leaves and beautiful red berries. The rowan, known for its red berries that persist in winter and provide food for birds, is also a wonderful addition to a winter garden.” Other budding beauties include: Japanese pieris; red barberry; beach rose; American beautyberry; and the corkscrew hazel, “a decorative shrub that enhances the beauty of the garden with its peculiar twisted branches.
Do’s and Dont’s of Winter Gardening
For Dupont, a critical step in winter gardening, which takes place well before winter, is creating what he calls a battle plan: an organized plan of which plant or vegetable goes where and when to plant it. Importantly, in creating that plan, there are no strict rules about location. “From our experimenting, we don’t believe in placing certain plants by other plants. Our advice is to try to have as much variety as possible,” Dupont said. Achieving biodiversity will naturally help protect your garden, as the different elements will balance each other out. “For example, butterflies and caterpillars normally eat cabbage and radishes. We have lots of trees and lots of birds, and birds eat caterpillars, so we don’t have too many caterpillars,” Dupont added. He continued, “The more things we have, and the more insects and animals, the fewer problems of imbalance and disease and predators in our gardens.”
As Dupont explained, the lion’s share of the work for winter vegetables begins in the summer or even late spring. Omelchenko echoed that sentiment and recommended finishing your planting by fall at the latest (at least for outdoor gardening). “This will allow the selected plants to establish before the harsh winter conditions arrive,” Omelchenko said.
Lamey specified that you should plant winter flowering bulbs in September or “in the green”—meaning bulbs that have been lifted from the ground during active growth and are ready to be replanted directly—after they have flowered.
It’s fair to say that professional growers develop their personal ethos as they gain experience. Dupont and his cofounders are firm believers in not overworking the land. “We leave the soil as it is.” That said, they cover the soil with hay, manure, or compost. He explained, “That permits the soil to always have something to eat and the vegetables to always have something to eat in the soil.” That protective layer also helps them to economize on water.
Lamey, who cares for some very regal-looking gardens, recommended pruning after flowering to keep plants in shape, especially shrubs. He also warned against overwatering. His rule of thumb: Avoid very wet soils in the winter. For bulbs, Lamey recommended using a mulch that’s lightweight enough for bulbs to grow through it but heavy enough to be blown away by wintry gusts.
You might be wondering, What if it snows?
Omelchenko noted that removing snow from plants is an important part of winter garden maintenance. “You should remove snow from branches to prevent breakage, but be careful not to damage the plants.” She added, “You don’t need to remove snow from under the plants, as it serves as a water source and insulation.”
Omelchenko said you can stop watering when temperatures drop below freezing and snow covers the ground.
Winter gardening serves a practical purpose, delivering a bounty of nutrition-packed produce in the coldest of months. Even when nature is dormant, your culinary ambition doesn’t have to be.
There is also joy to be found in the process—the quiet rhythm of taking care of plants while snow falls and animals hibernate. For Lamey, it’s “the element of surprise, and the unexpected scent and color at that time of year.”
Whether you have a green thumb, a brown thumb, or somewhere in between, don’t forget to stop and admire the winter roses once in a while.
