Even though it may be autumn, it is not too late to sow and grow. With the right strategies, even in cooler climate zones, it is possible to grow your own throughout the whole of the year. The key is to choose the right strategies and the right crops and varieties for your specific situation.
In September, I turn my attention to sowing pea and bean varieties in my polytunnel garden. Garden peas, Pisum sativum, and broad beans, or fava beans, Vicia faba, are two of the options for fall planting that I often overwinter in my polytunnel to provide an earlier harvest of these crops next year.
The main key to success when it comes to overwintering crops is choosing the right varieties of the crops you wish to grow. Some varieties will be better suited to cold winter conditions than others.
Here are some peas and beans to look for if you want to plant in the fall rather than in the spring or early summer months.
When choosing peas for cold-weather sowing, look for smooth, round-seeded varieties, as these tend to be hardier than those with wrinkled seeds. The wrinkled type can tend to mold if they are grown in the colder, wetter conditions of the latter part of the year and do best when sown in spring.
Some pea varieties that I have found to be useful for winter growing include:
Of the above, I have had the most success with dwarf varieties like Douce Provence and Meteor, which are easier to fit in the polytunnel and also easier to manage over the coldest part of the year since they can more easily be covered due to their smaller size.
My favorite currently is Meteor, which has excellent cold hardiness and will grow less than 20 inches in height, so works even in small spaces.
Protection around overwintering peas is
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