Fall Planting for the Vegetable Garden

I’ll Meet You in the Garden with Shellie Wise

Fall planting is a treat. Milder temperatures, fewer pests, and fewer diseases are suitable for the plants and you. Most plants grown in the spring can be grown in the fall, and some even perform better. Many cool-season crops tolerate light frosts, which for some, can improve their flavor. Peas & cauliflower survive frosts at 28-32°. Broccoli cabbage, chard, carrots, kale, lettuce, spinach, and parsley survive hard freezes at 25-28°.

Fall plantings start now and continue into mid-September. Clear out space in your bed by removing spent crops. Weed out any un-kept areas and replenish your soil if needed. According to the National Climatic Data Center (www.ncdc.noaa.gov), we have a 50% chance of a first-killing frost (28°F) around 10/9, so we’ll use that date to develop our fall planting schedule. The maturity dates of the plants you choose determine more precise planting dates, but this is a general guide. To determine specific planting dates, check your seed packets to find the number of days to maturity for each vegetable you’d like to harvest in the fall. Count back that number of days from the frost date and add on the number of days the seeds will need to germinate.

Some plants to consider for your fall garden include arugula, beets, bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, collard greens, kale, kohlrabi, mustard greens, parsley, peas, radish, spinach, and turnips. Succession planting works in the fall, similar to how it works in the spring. Succession planting is planting seeds on multiple dates throughout the season. It’s an easy way to avoid having your entire crop ready for harvest at the same time. For example, lettuce is a great candidate for succession planting. Plant just enough lettuce seed to supply a couple of weeks of salads. Two or three weeks later, do the same thing. You’ll eventually fill up the place you have designated for lettuce in your plot. You’ll harvest the lettuce in the same way -starting with the first seeding you did. After a few weeks, you’ll begin to harvest the second planting and so on. This technique can provide you a continuous supply of lettuce until frost. This garden practice also works well with many other veggies included in the chart below.

Dates before 10/9	What to Plant
12 weeks before frost - around July 17	seeds of: snap beans, cucumbers, summer squash, lettuces, radishes
11 weeks before frost - around July 24	seeds of: snap beans, cucumbers, summer squash, kale, lettuces, radishes
10 weeks before frost - around July 31	seedlings of: broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale seeds of: snap beans, beets, carrots, chard, kale, lettuces, peas, radishes, scallions
9 weeks before frost - around August 7	seedlings of: broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale seeds of: arugula, beets, carrots, chard, kale, lettuces, peas, radishes
8 weeks before frost - around August 14	seedlings of: broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale seeds of: arugula, beets, chard, kale, lettuces, radishes, spinach
7 weeks before frost - around August 21	seeds of: arugula, beets, chard, kale, lettuces, radishes, spinach
6 weeks before frost - around August 28	seeds of: arugula, chard, kale, lettuces, radishes, spinach
5 weeks before frost - around September 4	seeds of: arugula, lettuces, radishes, spinach
4 weeks before frost - around September 11	seeds of: arugula, lettuces, radishes, spinach
around October 2-9	garlic

Last updated November 9, 2021