How to grow Carrots, Spinach and Peas in winter

Cool Season Carrots

Carrots are a very cold-hardy vegetable; they do best in cool conditions, so they're an ideal winter crop. In fact, carrots that have been through a few frosts actually taste sweeter than those grown in warmer conditions!

Growing carrots can be quite challenging during warm seasons. Seeds are small and sown quite shallow, making them very prone to drying out. The good news is, winter weather makes it much easier to keep soil moist, allowing the tiny seeds to establish well.

Yates Carrot 'Topweight' are a great choice for sowing all around New Zealand in June.

Growing Tips:

Grow carrots in a sunny garden bed that receives at least 6 hours of sunshine a day.
Carrots need soft and very loose soil, otherwise they won’t grow nice and straight. Before sowing, dig over the soil really well to break up any clumps and hard pieces.
Sow the seed 6mm deep, then keep the area moist until the seeds germinate and begin to establish. Lack of moisture, even for a short time, can kill the germinating seeds. To help keep the soil moist, you can cover the area with shade cloth, damp hessian or cardboard, in addition to regular watering. Check under the cover every day: as soon as the first few seedlings emerge, remove the cover. Seeds can take up to 3 weeks to germinate, so it pays to be patient.
Seedlings will need to be thinned out when they’re 4 weeks old, to give all the carrots enough room to grow. Let the biggest seedlings stay where they are, but thin to leave about 5cm between each carrot.
Side dress your carrots with Yates Dynamic Lifter Organic Plant Food every 6–8 weeks to provide gentle, organic slow release nutrients.
Yates 'Topweight' Carrots will mature in 16 – 20 weeks after sowing, however you can harvest some smaller tender young carrots before then.

Peas, Please!

Whether you like the crunch of delicious snow peas or the sweet little peas inside sugarsnap pea pods, June is the perfect time to get your pea patch started.

Climbing peas like snow and sugar snap peas are the ultimate space saver vegies. They can be grown along a trellis on a fence or up a tepee or tripod, taking up minimal horizontal space.

They’re also great for growing in pots, so you can grow climbing peas on a sunny veranda, courtyard or balcony.

Yates Chinese Snow Peas Climbing produce crisp, sweet pods that can be eaten whole (they’re a terrific in-garden snack), steamed, used fresh in salads or added to stir fries. Kids love snow peas too and a small handful in their school lunchbox is an easy way to add more vegies into their diet.

Yates Peas Sugarsnap Dwarf have juicy, sweet flavour packed pods that can be eaten whole when young or shelled when mature. Shelling peas is a fun activity for kids and the little peas inside are delicious.

Growing Guide:

Snow peas and sugarsnap peas should be sown in a spot that receives at least 6 hours of sunshine a day.
Sow seeds direct where they are to grow, beside a trellis or support, into damp soil that’s been enriched first with some Yates Dynamic Lifter Organic Plant Food.
Don’t water again for a few days, as pea seeds can rot if they’re too wet.
Seedlings should pop up in around 10 days; you can start harvesting in around 8–10 weeks.
Snow and sugarsnap peas are prolific croppers, so you'll have lots of tasty peas, for several months.
To encourage a great harvest, as soon as the seedlings are established start feeding each week with Yates Thrive Flower & Fruit Soluble Fertiliser, which is boosted with extra potassium to promote flowering and pod development. Keep picking pods regularly, to help prolong the harvest.

The 'Winter Queen' of Spinach

Yates Spinach 'Winter Queen' is a tasty, prolific and early maturing spinach variety. It can be sown throughout New Zealand in June. It’s easy; just sow a few seeds in a clump, direct where they are to grow, in a sunny spot. Seeds will take 1–3 weeks to germinate (don’t give up on them too quickly!) and you can be harvesting leaves in as little as 8–10 weeks.

The beauty of loose-leaf vegies like spinach is that you can harvest leaves as you need them, they'll keep on producing more.

Don't have a vegie patch? Not a problem! Yates Spinach 'Winter Queen' can also be grown in pots. Choose a sunny spot on a patio or balcony. It’s helpful to rotate the pots 180 degrees each week, so that as many of the spinach plants as possible are exposed to sunlight.

Here are some spinach recipe ideas to inspire you:

Pest watch: keep an eye out for caterpillars on your leafy greens. Caterpillars are voracious, they can devour entire plants if left to their own devices. Keep them under control with regular sprays of ready-to-use Yates Natures Way Fruit Vegie Gun, ensuring you spray the upper and lower surfaces of the foliage, to reach hidden caterpillars.

To grow a bumper harvest of spinach, it’s important to keep the soil moist. Feed each week with Yates Thrive Vegie Herb Liquid Plant Food, which provides fast-acting nutrients to promote healthy, delicious growth. Keep on harvesting leaves regularly; the more often you pick, the more fresh new leaves will grow. Enjoy!