Crops that can grow through the winter

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I live in a semi-desert that gets almost no rain in the summer, and around 18 inches of rain/snow in the winter. (Spring? Fall? What are those?) Because of that, winter annuals and perennials that prefer to grow through the winter are ideal for my climate.

These are the plants I have found will grow through the winter for me. And by this, I mean grow – not just survive, but actively grow, even if it’s usually slowly.

  • Some brassicas.
  • Most radishes.
  • Basically all peas.
  • Basically all fava beans.
  • Any winter annual grasses. This includes many grains. Rye often volunteers in huge feral fields next to the freeway.
  • Garlic. (Leaves die off in the summer.)
  • Walking onions. (They actively grow all year round.)
  • Chocolate mint.
  • (Seeds are poisonous; flowers and young leaves are edible.) Everlasting pea.
  • (Ornamental only.) Star of Bethlehem.
  • (Ornamental only.) Bearded iris.

Tulips, daffodils, and grape hyacinth get an honorable mention. They don’t actively grow in the winter, but they don’t need irrigation either, because their growth cycles are so short. Instead, they put out leaves in late winter, bloom before the last frost date, and vanish before the summer heat hits.

In case it’s a useful reference, I live in zone 7b.

What other crops have you found that will actively grow through the winter?

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I think you should specifically mention through outdoor winter hehe. But even in a Greenhouse setting, sufficient light hours will need to be provided.

Also so many other crops just need a hoophouse to extend winter growing season.

I don’t know of any trees that grow thru winter, even pines, Roses & Persimmon Trees go somewhat dormant until spring.

It’s very interesting you mention Peas, Fava Beans, Everlasting Pea as they form the Tribe Fabeae. Correct me if I’m wrong but every Legume from that tribe is a cool season legume meaning there are other species of winter legumes you didn’t mention yet.
Specially other species of Vicia besides Fava Beans, TONS of Wild Vicia, with lots of them being edible in similar ways like Everlasting pea according to Sam thayer. Also lots of Vicia activly grow through winter hence why Some Permaculture folks like to use them as winter covercrops along with winter rye.
Lentils (Lens culinaris) are also included in that tribe, but are they cold Hardy enough to overwinter & activly grow in your climate? IDK, I need to do more research.

And to Constast Winter Season Legumes Tribe, the Phaseolea tribe (Phaseolus beans, Vigna Beans, Soybeans, Lablab, Horsegram, SwordBean, Wingedbean, Apios (Groundnut), Fuzzy Bean) are all Summer Season Legumes. Crazy how these Tribes Match up to how they grow ain’t it?

I would add in Crow Garlic (Allium vineale). I can find Garlic Leaves of this species all the way thru winter. Growth speeds up significantly through early spring! Funfact, Crow Garlic in the same section as Leek & Cultivated Garlic thus Theoretically fully Cross Compatible (If you can get those bulblets out the way for garlic to make true seeds). Since Leek is cross compatible, should it too be mentioned in your list?

Another plant you didn’t included is Garlic Mustard (Allaria petiolata). Although it doesn’t really GROW thru winter anymore than most mustards, leaves are aviable to forage but really suck taste wise. But seeds & Tender shoots are decently nice. Seeds are my favorite part to eat. It needs plant breeders to reduce the bitterness & spicyness, I need to find good tasting phenotypes.

Another one is Wintercress (Barbarea vulgaris). Unlike Garlic mustard, this one more reliably actually grows fully through winter, not just hold it’s leaves up ready to eat but actively make new leaves thru winter. In terms of Taste, it’s bad like Garlic mustard, in some ways worse but I’ve heard Sam Thayer Say it was super delicious Cooked! Different species of Barbarea exist, some more bitter, others more spicy.

Wait seeds are poisonous? I thought you could still enjoy them immature like peas? I know the Fully Ripe seeds are technically edible too after LONG Cooking & changing water but not worth the effort.

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Winter in Mediterranean zone 11 is not very different than Automn. Just less sun hours, crops growing slowlier than usual, fewer pests, which is a good thing for lettuces and the like.

Summer, on the other hand, is the real killer. Crops that will actively grow through summer depends on whether they are irrigated. Without water, pretty much everything goes dormant except fig trees, olives, plumbs and purslane. With water, you can grow any sun/heat loving plant, such as tomatoes, although they may need some shading: A whole day with a 9 UV index is likely causing sunburn to most plants.

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In my place winter vegetables, still a bit growing, are:

  • Kales and some ball-head brassica
  • Leeks
  • Swiss chard
  • Then in the greenhouse still grows: Spinach and mixes of different salads and arugula, coriander

Usually there is not much left to eat in gardens from end of march to end of june.

Also all of the usual rootcrops overwinter in the ground there. They don’t grow that much then though!

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Cool! I’m not surprised to hear that there are other alliums that can grow through the winter, too!

Come to think of it, hoary cress can grow through the winter. It did for me. It’s a highly invasive edible weed in the Brassiceae family that tastes pretty good. It could be grown on purpose (just be aware that it’s allelopathic and spreads through underground roots, so if you plant it on purpose, you will wind up with a monoculture that’s hard to stop from spreading everywhere).

I don’t know if the seeds of everlasting pea are edible immature raw. It’s possible, but I wouldn’t risk it. My next-door neighbor ate a bunch of the seed pods as a kid, thinking they were snap peas, and she wound up with a terrible stomachache. This happened several times until her grandmother (who lived in the house back then) realized what was going on. I don’t know how mature the seed pods were at the time. When you have plants from the seeds I’ll be sending you, you can experiment to figure out the limits of how mature they can get before giving you a stomachache, if you want to. :wink:

@AbrahamPalma Yeah, summer here can get bad, too! Today and the next three days, we are going to have temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit and a UV index of 10 or 11. Yay. :expressionless:

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