9 Tips For A Great Fall Garden

With just a few steps, you can have a great fall garden full of crisp broccoli, sweet carrots, delicious kohlrabi, spinach, cabbage, and so much more!

Vegetable gardens are typically full of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and green beans!  As these delicious vegetables begin to wane, many folks consider their garden done for the year.  But in most areas, a fall garden and even early winter gardens can be almost as abundant as those spring and summer bounties!  Most growing zones can allow some fall crops to mature before the frosts hit.  And then again, some fall crops are even sweeter after the frost hits them.

Planning for that extra fall season usually means much easier gardening tasks.  There’s less weeding, the weather is more tolerable, and harvests are still abundant.  Consider interplanting some of your late summer crops with early fall plantings.  For example, I typically plant a few greens amongst the waning squash.  The large remaining leaves will help shade the tender greens until the weather cools.  Then I can just pull out the squash plant and put in a broccoli in the space where it was.  Same with beets.  Plant beets in the tomatoes that are losing their leaves and yellowing.  By the time you pull out the tomatoes, the beets will be ready for more sun and room.

9 Tips For Great Fall Gardens

1.  To begin with, choose crops that are suited to fall growing conditions for your zone. Certain varieties of any vegetable will be more tolerable to cooler weather if you are in a shorter growing zone. Check gardening stores for proper varieties as well as your local ag extensions.  Consult seed catalogs for temperate climate crops.
2. Save some very early spring seed, like lettuces, turnips, and broccoli. These grow great in the fall.
3. Many crops just wont do well in summer heat, or will bolt as soon as the temperature rises. These are great for fall gardens.  Save the June garden heat for hardy tomatoes and squash.
4. Stick with leafy greens and root vegetables in most zones for a great variety of produce and better results. Brassicas are in that group too.
5. With a little protection, your fall crops may just survive the winter in some areas, and make a new spring crop.
6. Some cold hardy varieties can survive down to 14 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the Organic Seed Alliance trials.
7. Plan for plenty of smaller leaves, heads, or roots to these vegetables instead of monstor crops. Your turnips and collards may not make big face-sized leaves.  But the smaller leaves are much more tender in the cool weather.
8. Amend the soil just before planting your fall crops. A strewing of lime will benefit most any fall vegetable.  Calcium and manure are good ingredients for great soil, no matter what season it is.  A little Epsom Salts will boost production, too.  Sulfur and gypsum help, as well as a side dressing of compost.
9. Continual planting every week will keep many crops producing on thru the frosts, and after the frost for many crops without additional protection. Harvest often to keep plants growing.  Cold frames can carry harvesting on thru the winter.

Here is a partial list of fall crops that do so well in most any area.  Check your growing zone for a good vegetable or two, and continue the joy of gardening on up through the fall!

Arugula                                                Lettuce
Beets                                                    Mustard
Broccoli                                                Onion
Carrot                                                   Radiccio
Cauliflower                                          Radish
Chard                                                    Spinach
Collard                                                  Turnip
Daikon
Gai Lan
Kale
Kohlrabi