Planting and planning for a winter/spring with a messed up food supply chain

[UnaOfStormhold]

So I'm anticipating a tough winter and hungry gap when imports are disrupted and we'll want to be as self-sufficient as possible with fresh fruit and veg. I'm very aware that we're getting close to the last point for sowing, so I thought it was timely to have a thread on how best to prepare. So far we have:

Perennials: rhubarb, kale, garlic chives, asparagus and artichokes
Long-growing annuals: PSB, leeks, kalettes and kale
Sown now: salad for leaves, winter carrots, chard, tsai tai, pak choi, mooli,
To sow later: broad beans, overwintering peas (meteor)
For storing: runner beans, tomatoes and soft fruit (freezer), apples, pumpkins (garage).

What else are people growing for the winter? Any ideas what I could put in our unheated greenhouse? I was wondering about trying cold-stored potatoes but haven't tried this before.

Is kale perennial? I find it produces flowers the second year and once you've eaten those and all the secondary buds, the plant goes over and is best thrown out.

Which artichokes? Jerusalem or globe?

The standard winter crops are the root crops and the cabbages. Most of the root crops need to have been sown before now. You can still sow purple sprouting, just about, and quicker things like kohl rabi and beetroot. Also chard - good for bulk greenery that isn't cabbage-flavoured.

Otherwise you've about covered it with your winter salad crops - which would benefit from the greenhouse. I'd add some of the chenopodiums - Good King henry, "Aztec broccoli" etc - they're one of the more acceptable "can be eaten like spinach" wild plants. Also land cress - a watercress substitute.

Remember the "hungry gap" which isn't winter, but spring, when you've finished eating your winter roots but the broad beans haven't yet arrived. In march/april (shielding, but finding it hard to get deliveries) we were adding to our salads bittercress, garlic mustard, lambs lettuce. Young nettle tips are good, too.

Thanks for that.

For some reason I put the kale in twice - I have a few kale plants in the brassica bed! . I have heard of perennial kales (eg Daubentons) but they're hard to get hold of. We have globe artichokes so more for the spring - Jerusalem artichokes seem to get devoured by the slugs here.

I'd thought it would be too late for kohl rabi and beetroot but both are good ideas, will see if I can find some fast growing varieties. Would you put the good king Henry in the greenhouse or outside?

I should probably think about getting in my seed order for next year as I think some people struggled to get hold of what they wanted last spring.

So you think it is too early to order seeds now? I want fresh ones so was holding off for another couple of months.

Not so, do

I'm new to this, but have planted lettuce, chard, rocket and broccoli in pots.

Potatoes for winter too.
Will be adding spring onions and garlic.

Rosie, it's tricky as I agree fresh is better, particularly for carrots etc, but I do worry about seed shortages. Though of course you never know when the seed you buy was harvested.

Would you put the good king Henry in the greenhouse or outside? It's a UK native so it will certainly grow outside, but you might get earlier growth in the spring if it was in the greenhouse.

Though of course you never know when the seed you buy was harvested. Unless they're lying, it's usually printed somewhere on the seed packet.

Most seed is good for several years. Carrot family tends to go off quickly but most other things are OK. I buy only to replace seeds I've run out of, so in any year, 50% or more of what I sow will not be this year's.