Cool Season Gardening

Among the cool season vegetables there are five that live from one growing season to the next and are known as perennials. They are asparagus, chives, horseradish, rhubarb and shallots. Once established, these vegetables can produce for many years
Most cool-season vegetables are grown for one season and are known as annuals. They are either root or leaf Crops. Radishes are the earliest of the root Crops, followed by beets, carrots, turnips and rutabagas. Parsnips, another root crop, mature just before the ground freezes and is the only one of this group that can last through the winter. In fact, its quality is improved by spending the winter in the ground.
Broccoli, cauliflower, onions, kohlrabi, potatoes and peas, along with the previously mentioned perennials, leaf and root Crops, are the cool season Crops.

Kohlrabi (German turnip) (Brassica oleracea Gongylodes group) is a perennial vegetable, and is a low, stout cultivar of cabbage. Kohlrabi can be eaten raw as well as cooked.

The Potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Nightshade family.

The Onion is most frequently a biennial or a perennial plant, but is usually treated as an annual and harvested in its first growing season. You needn’t worry that snow will harm your onion bed ... a few light coverings make sturdier plants and condition the soil around the roots. Spring rains, too, help keep the earth loose — the way these bulbs like it — so don’t hesitate to plant even though the soil is still too wet for most crops. Deep cultivation isn’t required for setting out onions. The bulbs are planted shallow, with only half an inch or so of very moist soil over the roots.

Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/storage-onions-you-can-grow-onions-that-keep-all-winter-long.aspx#ixzz2eFjmyJZY

 Rutabagas may be harvested in fall after light frost (mulch to protect roots from low temperatures of late fall). Begin harvest when roots are about 3-5" in diameter. Frost typically sweetens maturing rutabagas. Rutabagas may be left in the ground until needed, but if left too long they become somewhat woody with significant loss of quality taste. Dig up rutabagas, remove tops and side roots, and store in a root cellar prior to the onset of significant hard freezes. In the southern U. S. (south of USDA Zone 6), rutabagas may be planted in fall and grown over winter.