Preparing For Spring Planting? Consider Extending Your Growing Season

By Kim Glovas

OTTSVILLE, Pa. (CBS) - With seed catalogues arriving in area mailboxes, gardeners are starting to think about planting season. An Ottsville, Bucks County expert gardener says this might also be a time to think about extending your growing season.

Jenn McCracken is the owner of "The Turnip Truck" in Bucks County, an organic vegetable garden design company with years of experience in the dirt. McCracken says most people have a limited idea of how long the growing season is.

Listen to Kim Glovas' interview with Jenn McCracken in this CBS Philly Podcast:

"We have really almost a 12-month growing season here. It's just that people aren't aware of it that we can grow food through the winter. Kind of have the mentality of -- and I call it your grandmother's vegetable garden -- the mentality is we plant in May, we eat it in the summer, we put it to bed in September and that's it."

She's an advocate for year round gardening, using a low tech cold frame, which can be made from salvaged storm windows. McCracken says the solar heat generated through the glass can keep the soil warm and allow gardeners to grow cold crops like lettuce, collards, beets and carrots year round.