Fall Vegetables to Plant in Your Garden

You’ve already done the hard work of preparing the garden beds for planting in the spring. The cool-season crops will be long since harvested by mid-summer, and many other plants will be exhausting their productivity soon, making room in your garden beds. All you have to do is remove any plant debris and amend the top couple of inches of soil with compost. Insect pests won’t be as numerous, weeds will sprout less frequently and grow less vigorously, and fall rains will lighten the burden of keeping everything sufficiently watered.

Timing is Everything

There are many cool-season and cold-hardy crops that can be started as the growing season reaches its peak. Your biggest challenge will be timing the various crops so that they have sufficient time to mature before your first average fall frost date. A number of cold-hardy crops are actually improved by a little frost. The starch in parsnips converts to sugar after a light frost or two, making the roots sweeter. Brussels sprouts benefit from exposure to freezing temperatures. A little frost can enhance the flavor and sweetness of kale and collards.

However, cold temperatures aren’t the biggest challenge to growing fall crops. It’s the reduced amount of sunlight and shorter day lengths that present the biggest handicap for producing crops into the fall and winter months. The plants will grow quickly at first, and slow as the days become shorter and colder.

Find the first average fall frost date for your region and then work backwards to figure the appropriate planting time for the crops you want to grow. Remember that fall vegetables will grow and mature more slowly, and add an extra 2 or 3 weeks to that date for cool-season crops, to be on the safe side.

It’s better to plant too early than to get these crops in the ground too late. Cold-hardy crops will continue to grow through the first frosts.

Best Crops for Fall and Winter Harvesting

Cold-Hardy Vegetables:

• Brussel sprouts – start from seed indoors, or buy transplants
• Cabbage – start from seed indoors, or buy transplants
• Collards – direct seed; can withstand cold down to 20 degrees F
• Kale – can overwinter outdoors even in cold climates
• Parsnips – direct seed; taste better after freezing temperatures
• Spinach – direct seed

Cool-Season Crops to Direct Seed:

• Carrots – can be left in the ground until the soil freezes
• Chard – protect with row covers after the first frost to harvest into the winter
• Lettuce – grow varieties intended for fall planting
• Mustard – use cold-tolerant varieties
• Radishes – daikon types grow slower, but keep longer
• Snap peas and snow peas – plant heat-tolerant varieties to withstand the temperatures of late summer
• Turnips – can overwinter in the ground in the South

Cool-Season Crops to Transplant:

• Broccoli – row covers will extend the season; some cultivars can withstand temperatures down to 20 degrees F; will grow all winter above 40 degrees F
• Cauliflower – self-blanching cultivars with good leaf coverage will withstand some frost; frozen heads are still edible if harvested before they thaw

Warm-Season Crops for Fall Planting:

• Beans – add an extra 2 weeks prior to the average first-frost date in your area
• Cilantro – also known as Chinese parsley
• Cucumbers – add an extra 2 weeks prior to the average first-frost date in your area
• Parsley – with row covers, this biennial may survive the winter; cut off flowerstalks as they emerge in the spring to keep the parsley alive
• Scallions – certain cultivars can be grown as a perennial and need only be divided to propagate

Row covers will extend the season of many of these fall vegetables. Spinach and lettuce can be grown in cold frames all winter. Some cool-season plants won’t germinate well in hot weather, and should be started indoors. Some seeds will respond well to being chilled in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks prior to planting. If you keep a record of planting dates and the results of your harvest, it will assist in adjusting your timing in seasons to come.

Early summer is the time to start planning which fall vegetables you want to plant, so get out your seed packets and catalogs and start counting backwards. A simple chart to indicate which crops should be started when will help keep you on track.