Start a Spring Cold Hardy Garden in Zone 3
Start a Spring Cold Hardy Garden in Zone 3
With the uncharacteristically warm winter, and a warming trend on its way, despite the recent snow it may be time to plant cold hardy crops here in Zone 3. On the last segment of the Urban Garden Series I started the process of planting my summer loving crops like tomatoes and peppers indoors. Today I am going to talk about how I plan to grow my cold hardy crops under cover and some of the experiments I am going to do that should help me extend my season and increase my harvests by adapting these methods to my garden.
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Urban Gardening Series Playlist
How to Use a Cold Frame
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Building a temporary Greenhouse is a very cost effective way to increase production. I must warn you, you will need a method of controlling over heating in your greenhouse. I use a temporary greenhouse in Ottawa for tomatoes last year. and every morning before work I had to open it up so it didn’t get to hot. I planted my tomatoes in there may 1 and had an electric heater on a thermostat to keep it above zero during the night. It was a huge advantage and realistically for tomatoes in Ottawa, I doubled the season and tomatoes were being harvested soon after July 1. It is a huge advantage for a crop such as tomatoes and peppers that will continue to produce fruit the longer they live.
If it snows on the sprouts of cold hardy plants, will it kill the sprouts?
Yes the soil holds the heat better Stephen. Hope it works out for you.
Thanks Stephen for sharing. I look forward to all of this series updates.
Today in launching a video on cold climate survival crops! I’m super excited hoping it does well. I based it off of many different factors
Oh yeah, you have to be careful about cooking those crops… I remember last year I lost some plants because I was sick and slept in an hour and a half one morning. So I had the heat mat on under my plants, with the cover over them, and they were in the greenhouse on an unusually warm morning. It was 35°C in the greenhouse, I have no idea how hot it was for the plants, but I could smell them cooking when I took off the cover. Somehow a few of them still lived, but I lost a good amount. Needless to say, I’ll drag my corpse out there from now on if I have to lol
Looks like a good plane !!!
Are you still doing video??
I live in 4b Minnesota. I planted seeds under a cheap Home Depot green house and two layers of plastic. I planted kale and mustard greens. I have sprouted over 100 plants!!!! I would definitely recommend this method!
You guys have some cold days. good video. Cheers.
It looks like our sons have the same lawnmower. Always fun to see someone with kids gardening. Thanks.
Hi Stephen, Interesting points, I need to finally read Coleman book. I’m planning to grow all those hardy one in August in UK they should be able to survive outside with fleece used occasionally when temperature drop below -3.
We had such a warm winter I have a thyme plant that has survived two winters now! and I live in zone 2/3
I want to thank you for the great information that you bring to the table. I have also planted my cold hardy plants into my raised bed garden about 1 week ago here in zone 6 South Central Pennsylvania.The next 7 nights will be cool with the coolest night around 30F. So far I have not had to cover my vegetable seeds at night. If the temps drop below 30, I will place my weed barrier cloth over this area of my raised bed garden. I found that the black fibrous weed barrier cloth makes for a great blanket at night for my vegetables. Thanks so much for sharing your great videos with us on youtube. 🙂
I am zone 5 in New York, I have watched Patrick’s videos as well and would love to do this but my only issue is my work hours are not always the same and I might have to go to work 4:30 am one day and 8:30 the next. I think I’ll run into issues of not opening up the coverings when I should or get home after the temperatures have dropped enough to bother the plants. Work get in the way! 🙂
This series and channel is great. My wife and secondarily I 🙂 are gardening for the first time this year. We have been looking for a source of practical and easy to understand information… This is it!
PS. We have a toddler as well and would be interested in a video on how to involve young children in gardening.
I hope you learn a lot about cold hardy crops.
So glad to have found your channel! I’ll definitely be running in more often; I’m an Edmontonian as well and am just starting out gardening for the first time this year.
I like how you planted the same lettuces in the cold frame (two layers) and then under just one layer.
Stephen, I planted carrot seeds in February with success. I am in zone 5b, but we still get many nights well below freezing. In Colorado we get wide swings in temperature. We do get a lot more sunlight in winter than Alberta.
Glad to see you off to an early start, Stephen! I hope these methods works as well for you as they have for us!
I love watching the different garden vlogs around the country. From you in Canada, Gary in Maryland, Blake in Texas, Calikim in California,John in Vegas, Ray in Iowa to Rick digging thru 8" + in Wisconsin, it’s just amazing whats going on around us! Keep up the good work.
Try a vinigar mollasias garlic on your salad, awesome and fill of magnessuim. And good micro. We also make raspberries vinigerete with wild honey. Really good I. Up in NS in zone 5 and 6 can go near year round
That will be interesting to follow Stephen, thanks for sharing my friend 🙂
great video! but I have always wondered how you keep the mulch from sinking down in the soil?
looks like it will work I’m going to try that hoop house that is a awesome idea.
Hi from Ontario! Zone 5b. I have a great passion for Gardening and preserving my harvest, which I hope shows in my videos. I currently have 2,000 sq ft of garden space. So glad I found another Canadian YouTube channel.
I am watching your video in 2021 and we can say exactly the same, so far a very warm winter which I am loving and hoping I can start my seeds right away
west coast seeds are fantastic
Great information.
It is pretty cold here (imo) so I’ll be paying close attention to how you garden.
I use cement retaining bricks for my raised bed, that lengths my growing season and keeps it warm as I live near the coast and the marine layer can keep it colder in the summer.
great information we in Trinidad has no snow or cold whether sunny always guy
are you still waiting at the computer Stephen, we love it dont worry
I’m still very impressed to talk to a man living and gardening in Zone 3 while I’m living in a temperate area
I have onion, leek and shallot seedlings ready to be hardened off. I’m afraid the temp at night is too low. I’m in zone 6b and at night temp dip from 0 to -5. I consider you to be a pro at gardening and would appreciate your input.
Very good job my friend and thank you for your video , i live in zone 10 and my growing fun just start, i Lerner in my owns way,is very true …i love the way you have your garden in zone 3 .
Great info Stephen. We have a successful crop of ice growing in the beds 🙂 However between you, Patrick and Kevin in Fergus I am thinking of making a cold frame to cover the one bed and maybe a hoop house to cover the other one. Will look at it over the next few weeks. CheersHarold
I was watching Gardenfork channel and they used an automatic venting device that was originally for venting a crawl space–and they attached it to their hoop house. It might help you with the fluctuations of your weather.
Zone 7, couldn’t imagine zone 3 it’s almost scary to think about lol
I hope it works because it would benefit other people in the area. I wanted to tell you that constantly youtube or google keeps taking out my subs. This is the third time but I resubbed you again. Love your channel. It’s so educational.
Great experiment Stephen. no doubt you will have good results. Best wishes Bob.
can you please guide which flowers are perennial
Would Swiss chard mature if I put seeds in today? I’m in Airdrie. Ty 😃
It is encouraging. Living in 6b cold weather comes quickly in the fall and it won’t be the end of May when it is safe to plant seedlings outside without cover. I am using bubble wrap to cover green leaf vegis now. Have you tried it? Can this be condidered a double layer covering?
Im new to your channel and Im in Calgary…. Do you have a list of what plants do well here, particularly perennials
What do you do to save container fruit trees in winter?
May be you schould try and grow more native Plants they grow so quick were you are
I was in Alberta in 1975 /76 it was end of April there was about 2ft of snow two weeks later it was about 20 deg and everthing in the prerey was flowering try to talk with your native Indians they know what grows well and are very nice people
You *are* thorough, Stephen. I guess you have to be if you want to have a successful garden in a limited space. I’m still rather unsuccessful, even on a big space so you are not missing anything. The effort just gets diluted the more space you have. Hahaha. Because i also have to keep the edges with shrubs from leaning in and devouring the garden again. Cornus is beautiful, they are just very time consuming and fast growing. Snip and chip, they are a constant source of easy to chip woodchips, so that is a plus. Willing to give it my best again this year. If all goes well, i will be building some cold frames as well. 1 or 2 small ones should be possible! My neighbor mentioned she had extra wood laying around she wanted to get rid of so that will come in handy. *silent cheer*. 🙂 I’m having much more fun this year. The no dig beds make gardening so much easier. Now i have a bit of room to breathe and help my neighbor out with some things. She is getting old and is fast losing her grip on the garden. Sense of community is important in these times. We should be able to do it together.
Should work out nicely for you, Stephen!
I hope they do really well Stephen! I planted a load of things yesterday to get started. I love your camerawork by the way 🙂