Turnips
These small round root vegetables are not their large sweet relatives the rutabaga. Typically turnips are harvested with tender skin at around baseball sized. Their greens are also edible.
Preservation
Not as hardy as their cabbage cousins the Rutabaga, turnips will typically last a few weeks once picked. This can be extended with moist soil/sand as other root vegetables.
Cooking and freezing works well however they will lose their consistency.
Blanched and frozen in vacuum bags seems to work well.
Days to Grow: 50
Spacing: 9 per square foot
Effort: Minimal
Plant: As soon as ground is workable
Yield: good to moderate
Will survive light frost!
Gardening Shortcut Links
Square Foot Gardening
Information and resources for square foot gardening here in NW Ontario.
Excel Garden Planner
An excel worksheet I developed to help plan and track my square foot gardening.
North Hardy Plants
Not all plants will grow here, but a lot will.
Useful Resources
The following are additional resources and information as well as basic information for growing this and many other garden plants here in NW Ontario.
Square Foot Gardening Basics
Preserving methods
High productivity, small area
About Garden Planning
Laying out your garden and pre-planning what to plant is best accomplished over the winter months. It gives you escape from the north winds, allows for ordering of seeds and allows you to put some time and effort into laying out your garden.
Since I use the square foot gardening method, I have created a garden planner using Microsoft excel. It allows you layout your garden using the cells in excel, then based on what plants you choose it will calculate planting/harvest times, potential yields, how many seeds you will need and more.
The Garden planner is provided as is, I can and will answer questions on using it and I have made videos on using it. I am hoping to have a full updated version ready for 2019 planning season.
