Starting a Fall Garden
When your broccoli plants look like this, it's time to start over!
I’ve been spending some time cleaning up the garden – removing spent plants and those ravaged by the heat and dry weather; cucumber plants that suffered an attack of mites brought on by the hot, dry weather; broccoli and lettuce plants that have gone to seed because of the heat, and stuff that I didn’t get around to picking because I’ve been out of town a lot – oh, and also because of the hot, dry weather . . .
Are you sensing a theme here?
As I take out the emaciated or brazenly blossoming vegetable plants, I’m not only making the garden look better, but making room for a fall garden.
Don’t think of a garden as something to be planted only in spring. You can grow a fall crop of your favorite cool-season vegetables and lovely fall flowers from seed started during the next week or so. It will be a pleasure to tend them once the weather has cooled this fall.
Here is what I’m planting in my cleared spaces:
- Root Crops, like beets, radishes and carrots
- Leafy Plants, including lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, salad greens and kale
- Herbs, like cilantro and parsley
- Flowers, including calendula and forget-me-not’s
It helps to select varieties that are fast-maturing to ensure a harvest before the cold weather hits. You may also want to extend your planting season even more by growing some of these crops under cold frames or row covers.
Sowing seeds or setting out transplants at this time of year is more stressful to young plants than seeding during cooler, wetter spring weather. Be sure to keep the soil moist as seeds are germinating. Protect the young seedlings with shade cloth or plant them near taller plants, such as corn or tomatoes to provide shade from the hot afternoon sun.
Transplanting pre-started seedlings works best for lettuce and spinach, whose seeds don’t germinate as well when soil temperatures are high.
Now is also a good time to start seeds of many flowering perennials. Sown in fall, many will be ready to start flowering by the following spring or summer.
Happy Gardening!
Sue
I attempted this fall to put in seeds for arugula, lettuce, spinach, and mesclun in, but I think it was too late. How early in the fall shouldi this be done? I have seen the beautiful greens in the Findlay Market farm garden and want to do the same thing in my back yard — the stuff I planted is struggling. So I think if I had everything established better in the fall, I would have done better?
So I guess this is a long way of saying, what is the right timing for starting seeds for fall? Thanks, again, so much to learn… is there someplace to look all this up?
Mary
I plant these any time in August – sometimes even the first week of September for lettuce, which grows quickly. This gives everything time to get well established before the first frost around mid-or late October. These plants survive our first few frosts without a problem, and may even last through the first few freezes. Tip: don’t handle the plants in the morning when frozen, allow the leaves to thaw first. I’ve blogged about starting a fall garden here at http://thetrustygardener.com/blog/2010/07/30/planting-a-fall-vegetable-crop/.