With a few seed packets and a little planning, you can enjoy fresh salads, cooking greens and other garden treats year-round. Follow this simple plan using these cold-hardy crops and you can pick crisp, delicious dinners even in the middle of winter.

Winter Crops
Standard winter greens include kale, collards, spinach and certain lettuces (?Brune d'Hiver' and ?Tango' work well). Giant red mustard, claytonia and arugula are self-seeding annuals that thrive in cold weather and will regularly return the following year. Good perennial greens are French sorrel, radicchios, the spinach relative ?Good King Henry' and several chicories (?Red Rib Dandelion' is a great bet). Cold hardy carrots, parsnips and perennial onions in general make excellent winter garden crops, along with garlic, shallots, kale, sunchoke and Brussels sprouts.

Planting & Cultivating
Begin planting the salad crops in mid-August to mid-September. After the seedlings are up blanket your winter beds with 4 to 6 inches of leaves to keep as much heat as possible in the soil. By planting in the fall, you'll have a continuous harvest filling your dinner table with fresh, healthy goodies.

In northern regions, you will want to cover your crops with fabric row covers or clear plastic as the weather gets colder.

For the best yield, plant individual varieties separately. If you choose to mix the plants, note the tendencies of each type; for example, just about anything can overwhelm spinach while mustard can easily take over the garden. Your location, the weather and the kinds of crops you've chosen all factor in when it comes to how soon (and how late) you'll be able to harvest.

Bugs & Critters
These winter crops don't need pollinating, so go ahead and keep the covers over the plants to deter deer or rabbits. Watch out for aphids and open the covers if they appear. Mulching with coffee grounds helps shoo away slugs.

Your Nutrition
All of these crops are beneficial healthwise. Spinach and collards are great sources of folate, and spinach also provides iron. Chicory, mustard and kale pack a real punch when it comes to Vitamins K, A and C.

Learn more about gardening during the fall and winter in Grow Great Salads Year-Round by Patryck Battle.

Share your favorite winter gardening stories in the comments section below.