Plant Seeds for Your Fall Vegetable Garden Now!
By Vanessa Richins
The summer garden season is in full swing.
The plants are huge and lush, and you collect produce daily.
You wish the summer wouldn’t come to an end so your garden could keep thriving.
Never fear! It’s actually time to start planting seeds for your fall vegetable garden.
That’s right - you can still grow some vegetables even into the autumn months. The key is to choose the right ones.
Vegetables are divided into two different categories - cool season and warm season. Warm season vegetables are ones that grow best during summertime and can take the heat. Think of your tomatoes and peppers - they like it hot! (No wonder - they come from South America.) Others include: beans, cantaloupe,corn, cucumber, eggplant, okra, field peas, sweet potato, pumpkins, the squashes, and watermelon.
Cool season vegetables, as the name suggests, like it a bit cooler. With them, you get the added bonus of two growing times - spring and late summer/ fall. Some standards from seeds are your salad greens - arugala, cold hardy kale, cold hardy lettuce, mesclun, and cold hardy spinach. Other possibilities are carrots, chard, collards, fennel, kohlrabi, mustard, cold hardy parsnips, radishes and turnips.
Some cool season vegetables should be bought and planted in late summer. They are: broccoli, cold hardy brussel sprouts, cold hardy cabbage, cilantro, cauliflower, parsley and scallions.
How do you know when to plant your seeds? First, find out the average first frost date for your area. Next, look at the maturity date on your packet of seeds, and add 3 weeks. Count backwards from your frost date and that is when you need to start your seeds. Follow the instructions on the packet for each specific vegetable.
Since summer is too hot for many of these cool season seedlings, start them inside. Be sure to harden them off when they are ready to be transplanted.
Has anyone ever planted a fall garden?
August 8th, 2008 at 1:53 am
Broccoli, kale, chard and spinach all starting in the shadow of the towering tomatoes and beans safe from the summer sun. More fall and over wintering crops to go in here in a month or so. This is our first time growing year round so fingers crossed!