Fall Gardening

Usually when late summer hits I start to experience a bit of burnout with gardening. It takes a lot of work to keep those plants beautiful and thriving. The thought of planting a fall crop seems exhausting but I had the space and time this year and decided to give it a try. Two of the most important things to think about if you are considering planting a fall crop is to know the first expected frost date for your zoned area and to know which plants have the shortest and fastest growing season so that your vegetables will have time to mature before cold weather sets in. One of the easiest ways to do this is to check your packets for an approximate expected harvest date. Radishes are one of the quickest growing vegetables and can mature in as little as 23 days. You will want to find other vegetables that can mature around 45-60 days. All vegetables have different varieties that will mature in shorter or longer amounts of times so don't expect all cucumber seeds to mature at the same rate. Some have significantly longer growing seasons. These are some of the vegetables I decided to take a stab at growing this fall. Since we can't predict the weather, it's not always a guarantee that we will make it to a harvest date for every vegetable but practicing is half the battle! All of these vegetables listed their harvest dates in less than 60 days. Our weather currently has been hot but we've had a lot of cloud cover which I think has helped significantly with keeping the soil wet enough to germinate seeds. I planted a week and a half ago and everything is popping up nicely. Fingers crossed that we have a mild fall and everything will keep producing!

Some of my red onions decided they were done growing so we pulled and laid them out on a drying surface in the garage to cure. This allowed for some extra space to grow radishes, carrots, green onions and beets.

Also have lettuce, swish chard and spinach growing where our spring crops were done producing and we cleaned out. I think the tomato and tomatillo plants will provide the extra shade needed for these cooler weather crops if we still have some lingering hot days of summer.

Squash and cauliflower plants are thriving in the warm soil.  Keep growing!

Do you plant a fall crop? What have you been successful at growing before cold weather hits?