If you’re like most gardeners, you probably consider August to be the end of the growing season. The truth of the matter is that it is a great time to start your fall garden.
A fall garden can produce excellent vegetables and extend your crops long after your spring garden is over. The vegetables you harvest from the garden in the fall are usually sweeter and softer than those grown during the summer.
The type of vegetables you plant in your fall garden will depend on the space you have, as well as the types of vegetables you like. Be sure to plant vegetables with the shortest growing season, this will increase the chances that they will grow fully and be harvested before the hard frost hits. Starting your seeds indoors the first week of July will also give you a nice head start.
Most seed packets will be labeled “early season,” or you can find the seeds that are labeled with the fewest days to harvest. Since seeds are generally not stored until late summer, you will likely need to purchase seed for your fall garden in the spring. You can also easily find them online at Gurneys.com locations.
Even vegetables that like the heat of summer, such as tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and bell peppers, will produce very well until the hardest frosts hit, which can be quite late in the year in certain areas.
There are certain vegetable plants that normally stop producing towards the end of summer. These include green beans, summer squash, and cucumbers. Even these, if planted in the height of summer, can produce very well until the first frosts arrive. Many hardy vegetables will thrive in temperatures as low as 20 degrees.
If you have root plants, such as beets, carrots, or radishes, that have had their tops killed by a frost, you can save them by applying a thick layer of mulch.
For fall gardening, you need to know approximately when the first hard frost falls in your particular area. The Farmer’s Almanac is a great resource for this type of information. It will give you specific dates and is pretty accurate most of the time. You also need to know approximately how long your plants will take to mature. Like I said, this is available by reading the individual seed packets.
To prepare the soil for your fall garden, the first thing you’ll need to do is clear away any leftover summer crops and weeds. If you leave leftover vines and plant debris from your summer crops, bacteria and disease can develop from these leftover debris. If your spring plants weren’t heavily fertilized, you may want to spread a few inches of compost over the garden next.
Once this is done, you will need to till the soil and moisten it. Now simply wait 24 hours and you are ready to plant.
Too often, gardeners will avoid planting a fall garden to avoid frost. I can tell you from experience that strong, healthy vegetables can withstand some frosty nights, while still producing wonderful-tasting produce.
Fall gardening isn’t for everyone, but why not give it a try? It can give you the opportunity to enjoy garden-fresh vegetables for a little longer each year.