Even after September many summer vegetables continue to be productive: green beans, tomatoes, chard, aubergines, peppers, courgettes and pumpkins enjoy a cool and damp weather if the lighting is still intense.
If they are in pots, they should be kept in full sun, where cherry tomatoes and peppers continue to ripen until October.
In the cold months many varieties of winter cycle vegetables are available: cabbage, cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, winter lettuce and head and cut radicchio, radishes, rocket, lamb's lettuce. Cabbages and sprouts are productive until after Christmas.
The choice of vegetables depends on the climate (if dry and fairly mild, carrots, leeks, fennel are also cultivated) and exposure (cold wind reduces the range of cultivable vegetables).
Vegetable cultivation can take place on the ground or in pots. A greenhouse or the preparation of tunnels in kit form with plastic sheeting and boxes with an openable cover in case of mild climate widen the possibilities of obtaining vegetables from September to the following spring, offering the possibility to anticipate or prolong the vegetative cycle of many vegetables.
In December and January you can sow in tunnels or outdoors, if the weather allows it, winter lettuce, cutting radicchio, radish and rocket.
Generally speaking, a 12 m2 (3 x 4 m) garden greenhouse is ideal for the needs of a family. If you opt for a fixed greenhouse, it can be placed against a wall of the house, well exposed to the sun. A greenhouse high enough to stand up simplifies the care of vegetables.
And the aromatics? There are some that can challenge the cold. Rosemary tolerates frost well; sage resists if the soil is not moist; the parsley grows up to the frosts if it is in a sheltered and sunny area.