Plant Care: Mints

The mint family offers a tremendous diversity of refreshing scents and tastes for cooking, in beverages, and in potpourris. However, as a garden plant, mint is invasive and will take over the entire bed, so consider confining your plants to containers.

Plant Care: Aloes

Long appreciated for their medicinal properties, aloes have been cultivated by humans for thousands of years. These succulent natives of Africa and Arabia (about 500 species in total, plus a great number of hybrids) are practical in dry landscapes and produce colorful, tubular flowers which attract sunbirds (in Africa or Arabia) or hummingbirds (in the Americas). They vary in size from dwarves to giant trees and are generally well behaved container plants. Aloes usually flower once a year or more once they reach maturity.

Ripening Vine Crops

You don't have to worry about these vegetables going by before harvest time. The seeds inside them won't grow large enough to trigger the plant's stop-production mechanism until there's plenty of fruit already on the vines. Wait until all the vines die or until right before the first frost to harvest your winter squash and pumpkins. If you plan to store winter squash and pumpkins through the winter, don't let them get touched by frost or they'll rot.

Making Pumpkins Last

Winter squash are designed to last a long time in storage. But some basic principles will get you started with confidence. Winter squashes keep best if stored in a cool, dry, dark spot. Pumpkins also store well for months at a time. The other vine-crops must be preserved, pickled, canned or frozen if you want them to last, although some honeydew melons and large zucchinis will keep for awhile.

Top Cold Weather Crops List

Of Kohlrabi (Brassica oleracea var. gongylodes 'Early White Vienna') Garden.org member @chelle says, "Absolutely amazing kohlrabi! I set out my seedlings around the last of April; by the end of May I was harvesting a few. We had no rain to speak of from mid-June through mid-July, but these plants just sat there and waited. When the rains resumed in mid-August they began to fill out again. Not a one turned out tough or stringy either; I'm simply stunned by the staying power of these plants!"

Harvesting root crops

After all your hard work, it's time to enjoy your harvest. Here's how to pick your crops.

Plant Care: Roses

Roses are shrubs with prickly stems, pinnate compound leaves, and ornamental flowers, usually fragrant. This standard definition conveys none of the charm that has inspired poets, painters, sculptors, architects, and designers for centuries. The rose may be the most prominent plant in the arts, decor, and symbolism.

Growing Turnips

Relatively obscure in this country, turnips are a staple in many European kitchens. Turnips mature in about 2 months. Fall crops are usually sweeter and more tender than spring crops, and insects are less of a problem late in the season. Young turnips are so tender you can peel and eat them just as you would an apple. Many southern gardeners prefer to grow turnips for the greens.