In the Garden: It’s time to plant fall vegetables in your garden

Sue Goetz

In the Garden

As we pass the intensity of the summer growing season, it doesn’t seem to be the time to think about planting vegetables again. Yet mid-July to mid-August is the time to plan a crop of vegetables that will extend the season of fresh edibles for fall harvesting.

What should you grow and when should you plant?

The first information you need is time — have a calendar handy and note our first average frost. In our area, that tends to be the first week in November.

In that equation, counting backward from Nov. 1 to mid-August is about 80 days. Give a few days of a grace period — for unusually cool or wet weather — and we have about 70 days of growing time in the fall.

Look at the back of a seed packet for the number of days you’ll need from seed to harvest. For example, a packet of Ed Hume’s Spinach “Olympia Hybrid” says it takes about 48 days to mature.

Sow a crop in mid-August and again in early September, and you’ll have a bounty of fresh spinach to harvest.

A few simple reminders: new seedlings need lots of water when the weather is hot, so keep good, consistent moisture. Exhausted soil from summer veggies may need a bit of nourishment; add organic compost or fertilizer to give the new crop a boost.

Some fall favorites:

Leafy greens

Those leafy greens, like lettuce, spinach, mesclun cut and come-again leaf lettuces and arugula, are all excellent for fall cropping, since they germinate and mature quickly.

It helps to protect the crops from the hot sun. Plant them under already mature sunflowers or other summer garden plants.

Radishes

Radishes quickly, and they’re ready to go within a matter of weeks. Sow a few crops to have fresh radishes to add salads and coleslaw.

Carrots

Cool soil makes carrots sweeter; a planting left in the soil until after the frost gives a harvest right up to thanksgiving dinner. Water well and thin seedlings in order to have nice-sized ones.

Cabbage

Cabbage is an ideal fall crop — with a little pre-planning. The maturity date from seed is typically 90 days.

Seeds should be started early in pots so plants can be put out in the garden about six to eight weeks before that first frost date.

Direct seeding needs to be done in July. Cabbages that mature in cooler fall weather have a richer flavor and color that makes excellent coleslaw.

Cauliflower, broccoli

Cauliflower and broccoli are very similar cabbage. The seeds need an early start so the plants can go into the garden in time.

Both will be heavy feeders and must have nourished soil and consistent water to do well.

Brussels sprouts

The flavor of Brussels sprouts intensifies if they’re allowed to mature as the weather cools, making them an ideal fall crop. Once again, they need a long maturity, so they seed needs to be started in mid-July.

As we plan ahead to fall, start now with a bed of leafy greens, radishes and carrots for fresh salad fixings through the fall — almost everything you plant in spring can grow in the fall garden.

These are the plants known as cool-season plants; they will tolerate a light frost, short daylight hours and perform well in mild temperatures.

In the Garden columnist Sue Goetz, CPH, is a garden consultant, designer, speaker and writer from Gig Harbor. Visit www.thecreativegardener.com or e-mail questions to be answered in this column to info@thecreativegardener.com.