I’m a bit flabbergasted by the ability of veggies to winter over here on VI.after gardening in NS…wondering if the kale, chard and celery is good to go with as it is still producing, or should I plant anew? The kale seems eager to set seed.
My Lacinato kale looks wonderful and growing like crazy after the winter. Only one is determined to go to seed so I will pull it today and give to my neighbours as a treat. All the new growth is incredibly mild and tender.
Last year was my first time growing kale, I overwintered 5 plants and all started going to seed very early in the spring. The leaves were still tasty though and I’ve only just stopped picking them. Will let them go to seed now and collect the seeds.
I’m assuming my over-wintered kale will always go to seed early in the season but it’s still worth doing for the extra harvest window, so my strategy for now is to plant fresh each season, and let as many plants over-winter as possible. I’ve got 4 distinct zones in my little veggie garden and I’m rotating the kale each year to help with disease.
My bolting kale plants have shot up and are now around 6 feet tall. I’m planting snap peas around the base of some and will plant pole beans later, may as well make use of those tall woody stems! Interested to see if they will support the weight.
Also over-wintered in my garden is cilantro, chard, scallions and lettuce. I’ve struggled to get a good crop of cilantro (once it finally starts growing at a good pace it usually bolts on me immediately) so it was a really nice surprise to see that the very small cilantro plants I left in the garden in the fall have become tall and bushy, and no sign of bolting yet.
1 Like
Thanks for the responses, which reflec4 my experience…interesting idea to plant pleas and beans around the bolted kale!
I always seem to get kale, parsley, and cilantro volunteers, which I love and can eat early in the season. I still do plant more every year. Also overwintered leeks which I’m not really sure about. I think I should have eaten them last year but they were too small. They are now getting to be an edible size and survived the winter beautifully.
I think I read somewhere that you can let overwintered leeks go to seed, and they will establish a permanent presence in their spot. Someone set me straight if this is wrong because I’m trying it 
That’s interesting. I’ll look it up. A few are producing scapes now so I’m guessing I should treat them like garlic and cut them off so more energy goes into the bulb. So much to learn!
I tried to overwinter celery both inside a greenhouse and outside. The outside plants didn’t make it, but the ones in the greenhouse did, without any watering. The only downside to overwintering the celery is that we found that the plants are more woody and they go to seed quicker.