We had a big Arctic air outbreak in December 2023 with temps falling as low as 16°F (-8.9C). My winter garden took the full force of the cold, and this video shows how the winter crops held up after 3 brutal nights. Amazingly, some winter vegetables not only survived, but thrived! These 18 winter veggies LAUGHED at 16 degrees! Grow them NOW for winter gardening success!
These cold hardy vegetables are perfect for planting a winter garden, and many you can even plant in January in Zone 7 and warmer for a late winter harvest or early spring harvest.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
0:00 How Cold It Got In My Garden
1:13 3 Reasons To Cover Plants During Cold
2:25 Veggies 1-4
4:22 Veggies 5-7
5:46 Veggies 8-13
7:38 Young Transplants
9:32 Veggies 14-15
10:04 Veggie 16
11:19 Grocery Store Leeks
12:00 Veggie 17
12:19 Veggie 18
12:30 Veggie 19
12:53 Veggie 20
13:26 Full List Of My Hardiest Veggies!
16:45 Adventures With Dale
If you have any questions about these winter garden vegetables and are looking for winter gardening tips, have questions about growing fruit trees or want to know about the things I grow in my raised bed vegetable garden and edible landscaping food forest, are looking for more gardening tips and tricks and garden hacks, have questions about vegetable gardening and organic gardening in general, or want to share some DIY and “how to” garden tips and gardening hacks of your own, please ask in the Comments below!
**************************************************
VISIT MY AMAZON STOREFRONT FOR PRODUCTS I USE MOST OFTEN IN MY GARDEN*
https://www.amazon.com/shop/themillennialgardener
**************************************************
VISIT MY MERCHANDISE STORE
https://shop.spreadshirt.com/themillennialgardener
**************************************************
SUPPORT MY SECOND CHANNEL!
https://www.youtube.com/c/2MinuteGardenTips
**************************************************
EQUIPMENT I MOST OFTEN USE IN MY GARDEN (INDIVIDUAL LINKS)*:
Miracle-Gro Soluble All Purpose Plant Food https://amzn.to/3qNPkXk
Miracle-Gro Soluble Bloom Booster Plant Food https://amzn.to/2GKYG0j
Miracle-Gro Soluble Tomato Plant Food https://amzn.to/2GDgJ8n
Jack’s Fertilizer, 20-20-20, 25 lb. https://amzn.to/3CW6xCK
Southern Ag Liquid Copper Fungicide https://amzn.to/2HTCKRd
Southern Ag Natural Pyrethrin Concentrate https://amzn.to/2UHSNGE
Monterey Organic Spinosad Concentrate https://amzn.to/3qOU8f5
Safer Brand Caterpillar Killer (BT Concentrate) https://amzn.to/2SMXL8D
Cordless ULV Fogger Machine https://amzn.to/36e96Sl
Weed Barrier with UV Resistance https://amzn.to/3yp3MaJ
Organza Bags (Fig-size) https://amzn.to/3AyaMUz
Organza Bags (Tomato-size) https://amzn.to/36fy4Re
Injection Molded Nursery Pots https://amzn.to/3AucVAB
Heavy Duty Plant Grow Bags https://amzn.to/2UqvsgC
6.5 Inch Hand Pruner Pruning Shears https://amzn.to/3jHI1yL
Japanese Pruning Saw with Blade https://amzn.to/3wjpw6o
Double Tomato Hooks with Twine https://amzn.to/3Awptr9
String Trellis Tomato Support Clips https://amzn.to/3wiBjlB
Nylon Mason Line, 500FT https://amzn.to/3wd9cEo
Expandable Vinyl Garden Tape https://amzn.to/3jL7JCI
**************************************************
SOCIAL MEDIA
Follow Me on TWITTER (@NCGardening) https://twitter.com/NCGardening
Follow Me on INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/millennialgardener_nc/
**************************************************
ABOUT MY GARDEN
Location: Southeastern NC, Brunswick County (Wilmington area)
34.1°N Latitude
Zone 8A
**************************************************
*As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
© The Millennial Gardener
#gardening #garden #gardeningtips #wintergarden #wintergardening
37 Comments
If you enjoyed this video, please "Like" and share to help increase its reach! Thanks for watching 😊TIMESTAMPS for convenience:
0:00 How Cold It Got In My Garden
1:13 3 Reasons To Cover Plants During Cold
2:25 Veggies 1-4
4:22 Veggies 5-7
5:46 Veggies 8-13
7:38 Young Transplants
9:32 Veggies 14-15
10:04 Veggie 16
11:19 Grocery Store Leeks
12:00 Veggie 17
12:19 Veggie 18
12:30 Veggie 19
12:53 Veggie 20
13:26 Full List Of My Hardiest Veggies!
16:45 Adventures With Dale
Dis guy hava big nose
MG, you are doing an awesome job in helping us gardeners! Thank you so much! I appreciate it! And Dale is so adorable! Thank you 😊 👍👍👍
My uncovered carrots laughed at the 11F we had in SE Virginia. So did my Brussels sprouts. Strawberries uncovered but mulched, also laughed at 11F temps.
Yea we got down to -6c and the Swiss chard died. But tbh I’m ok with it. Been using it to feed my worms lol.
Great info! Thank you for the show and tell. Thanks for sharing.
In Missouri we got -9 with a wind chill of -23. It wiped out literally everything in my greenhouse. I'm pretty sure the planet is trying to kill us, figuratively speaking.
👍
Thank you kind Sir for the great garden tips
I'm thinking that even as I'm zone 6, I only have about 2-3 weeks/year that get down to the 5-15°F temperature range & double that over 90°F.
Lost all my broccoli raab leaves at 6° – I should have covered it. Maybe it will regrow. (Greensboro NC)
I’m in Lexington Ky zone 6b. We had three days of -7 to -4 over Christmas. Record lowes. My winter lettuces survived covered. But my Chinese cabbage survived uncovered! My Swiss chard leaves died, but now two weeks later they’re growing back! My broccoli and cauliflower died covered. But is was fascinating to see what things can live at -7.
I didn't cover anything except my fruit trees all my raised beds all my veggies everything was wiped out except for my bunching onions and cilantro
Great video as always 😊 Thank you for the info. Your garden looks great. Using hula hoops from the dollar tree to make a hoop house. I'll make a video when I get started on it. Have a great day and happy gardening 🌿🌱😊🤗
👆 – MY HOT PHOTO HERE 😘👩w💑
It got a little colder in Talladega Al with lows as low as 10F, three days with highs in the low 20Fs one day at 33F, and the last day at 35F. It was too many days without temps getting above freezing. Lettuce and Endive–dead, Mint, Oregano, thyme, dill, parsley–dead, carrots, beets, radishes, turnips–dead, Tatsoi, Komatsuna, Chijimisai, Swiss chard, spinach, Late Nagasaki Cabbage–dead, my survivors were Yellow Heart Winter Choy, Hilton cabbage–damaged, Russian kale–damaged, and garlic. My garden took about a 98 percent loss. I've put my raised beds and grow bags to bed with a thick cover of leaves. I am working on expanding my garden by adding a 10×12 polytunnel greenhouse, three raised beds, and rearranging my grow bags. The severity of this artic blast was a once, or twice in a lifetime storm. Next year my garden will survive through the winter.
Is there a reason why you don't test collards? We Southerners love collards! I find them to be very cold hardy and to taste even better after a severe cold snap.. I am in NC like you – Zone 7b. Chapel Hill.
On break at work, so I won't get to see the whole video until later/listen on the drive home, but my Mizuna, broccoli, arugula and kale didn't survive unprotected up here near Philly. Mizuna has some crazy big root system I found out.
Thanks for providing this valuable information.
MG you BURY me as a winter gardener and I Live in Zone 5a!! I am re-watching this video and TAKING NOTES!
Kale, Brussels , and collards can survive those temps without any cover in my experience.
North Carolinian here (Piedmont). What little I did have left in my garden (Cabbage, broccoli, thyme, oregano, rosemary, 3 different varieties of kale, collards, garlic, and onion) flew through the cold with flying colors. I didn't even cover them and they still did really well.
It got down to about 10F in my garden and didn't get above the mid twenties for three days. I lost young onions and turnips, and leeks. But I also lost my mature kales and tree collards which all died to the ground. That was Christmas week.
Thanks! If you can do this in NC, then I can certainly do it in the southwestern low desert.
I LOVE your channel, thanks for all the valuable content! Have you ever tried Komatsuna? My newest favorite green and it made it through the recent cold snap uncovered in 7b (got down to 3 degrees F).
You are the second person I've seen that used the frost blankets with great results. This may sound dumb but looks to me there could be a good possibility that a couple layers might protect the questionable stuff maybe? Good video! Thanks!
I'm in Wake County, NC. In my area night temp dropped to 9°F, the next day temp high was 28°F, then dropped to 18°F for the night. There was still ice in the ground like a week later even though it was in the 60s/40s.
A covered bed with my red cabbage, cauliflower, and Kohlrabi. Only the cauliflower did not make it. The Kohlrabi is doing well.
A bed with lettuce and carrots I forgot to cover, and some died.
An uncovered bed of mature tatsoi and komatsuna, only like 2 of 9 tatsoi survived. I feel stupid not harvesting them since they were mature already, but we had visitors and I wasn't going to eat for the week.
I didn't cover my Broccoli or Brussel sprouts because I ran out of extra sheets to cover them. The broccoli was severely damaged and I thought they were done…..but I'm happy to report than since then they regrew leaves, and they all have a 1" head. 😅 Brussels sprouts and arugula were unbothered. Mizuna and lettuce, which were covered, were severely damaged but the plants were young so that's probably why.
I am so glad you came through almost untouched! Where I am in Georgia we went down to 6 degrees and about 60 hours below freezing and it killed everything that was not covered (I didn't have enough covers). Even my green and purple cabbage was devastated! I covered 3 of my beds and 1 of them did ok, 1 of them lost 50%, and 1 of them lost 80%. So I have a lot of bed prep to do and looking for new plants to put in!
I really dig Dale's harness, it looks like it's for a service dog?
Sorrel is super cold hardy. I didn't protect mine in 12 degrees and it survived.
My Brassicas and peas did not survive. My 🥕 carrots, Kale and beets are doing ok. My dill did not survive, but the thyme did. Everything was covered.
Interesting 👍
Dollar store hula hoops make great inexpensive support for row cover cloth so that the cloth doesn’t touch your crops. I just open the joint of the hula hoop, stick the ends in the ground and clip the cloth to the hoop with binder clips.
Looking forward to this one.
I totally agree with you. Growing in the winter is the best! No pest to worry about and the veggies you mention in my zone area doesn't even need covering! Thanks for the video
Interesting
Hopefully your fruit trees did okay. I'm sure the bananas are toast. I was looking forward to bananas this year. Oh well