I hope you got your garden in this spring and are enjoying its bounty this summer. This is one of my raised beds, which sprouted and bloomed pretty much as it was supposed to–except for my non-bumper crop of seven carrots. For me, gardening is rarely a string of perfect victories. “A work in progress” would be closer to the mark.
This year I’m adding a fall garden. Especially if you live where winters are short and mild, this is actually one of the best times to grow a food crop. Even MI Gardener in Michigan says that the fall garden is one of his favorites. Fewer weeds, less heat, and you never have to worry about anything bolting and going bitter on you overnight.
If you’ve never planted a fall garden before, much of the time you actually end up planting it in the summer. On timing, it’s a matter of counting down to frost days instead of waiting for them to be over like in spring. So, you’ll need a little bit of information to get started.
First, you’ll need to know the first frost date for your region. This site (https://morningchores.com/frost-dates/) will tell you when you can statistically expect your first and last frost dates of the season. For example, I should plan on getting frost days from December 1 through February 18. That gives me 115 days left this year that I can reasonably expect to stay above freezing. This is more than enough for many crops.
Another thing you need to know is what types of plants work well in fall gardens. Many gardeners recommend leaf crops like lettuce, spinach, and arugula; root crops like carrots, beets, and parsnips; greens like kale and chard; and the brassicas–cabbage, Brussels sprouts, collard, and broccoli (although this last is hit or miss, due to the long growing season required). It’s also a great time to grow peas and green beans, as well as aliums like onions, garlic, and leeks. Many of these plants do poorly when daytime temps exceed the 80s, which is a daily summertime occurrence in my particular northern California climate.
And the final thing you’ll probably have to do is to grow your crops from seed. You can find potted young veggies all over the place in the spring, but many people seem to think gardening is over for the year as soon as those plants mature. But normally you can get a decent harvest if you just read the seed packet for planting depth. I save those six-pack packages from planting in the spring for starting seeds, but you can buy seed starting trays, and you can also use old egg cartons. Or you can sow your seeds straight into the ground.
When you plant your seeds depends on several things–your first frost date, how long particular vegetables take to reach maturity, and how much space you have.
For instance, I just planted my fall potatoes and onions, which I plan on leaving in the ground until I want to eat them or I have to worry about snow. (Some years we get it, sometimes we don’t.)Â These crops I already planted in spring and harvested, so I had a wide-open bed that I could manure, plant, and re-mulch. My varieties of onions and potatoes take between 100-110 days, so that gives me a few days of wiggle room before my first frost.
Other veggies will likely have to be worked into the garden as it stands. I’m not about to pull out productive tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers to plant something else. But I’ve already harvested a lot of my cabbage, and some of my annual flowers are already dying back. Those openings will be where I plant my carrots, more cabbages, and chard.
For leaf crops, I recommend waiting until it’s actually fall to sow them, since so many of these plants dislike hot summer days. In my area, the weather cools down in early September, so that’s when I’ll sow the first of my spinach seeds. Leaf crops mature quickly, so you don’t have to worry so much about the first frost day breathing down your neck. You can also use covers to protect leaf crops and expend the growing season. Jess, at Roots and Refuge Farm, turns those plastic portable file boxes upside down to extend her greens harvest into winter, which I thought was a genius idea (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IXn2t8GLh0).
There’s nothing quite like harvesting your own food. I rarely have to go to the store lately, which is good for the whole pandemic safety thing, and it saves on the budget, too. And what with all the current uncertainty, between Covid, civil unrest, and the possibility of an economic downturn, starting a fall garden seems like a good idea.
Happy gardening. : )
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Avid writer and reader of Faerie tales and noblebright fantasy.
Cathleen Townsend 
I love spinach, cabbage and green onions. I’m going to try the potatoes and see if I can grow them – I’ve been told my thumb is the opposite of green – I can’t even grow weed(and by weed, I mean the non-smoking type ;)!
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Jina, a lot of people grow potatoes in containers, like 5 gallon buckets. If you go to YouTube and put “grow potatoes in containers,” you’ll get a bunch of hits. Just follow the soil recipe and you should do fine. Two that I know of are 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 manure, and 1/3 potting soil. My friend had success with that one. The soil recipe I’m using is 1/2 topsoil, 1/4 potting soil, and 1/4 aged chicken manure. : )
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Thanks for the tips! I’m going to have my kids help with it. Hopefully it’ll be fun and productive.
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Teaching kids how to garden is giving them a practical gift that can last a lifetime. Go you!
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I actually have two black thumbs, but that wasn’t always the case. Before, I used to be able to make anything grow, no matter what. Nowadays, if they do happen to break the surface, they don’t grow much, or never fruit. It must be old age settling in 😉
But I want my kids to try it, even if nothing grows -it’s therapeutic, to say the least.
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Cathleen, I’m impressed by your beautiful garden, as pretty as it is practical. How do you keep out the critters? I feel like I’d have to stand guard all night to protect any growing thing. Best I might be able to manage is a tiny hanging garden of herbs.
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If you look carefully, Sharon, behind the trellis you’ll see six-foot deer fencing. Then we put a row of barbless wire a foot up from that.
I get you on keeping out the critters. This is the first year I’ve been able to do that. We just got the fence up in April.
On a brighter note, though, you don’t need a fence to grow potatoes and onions. Potato foliage is actually poisonous, and deer and rabbits generally dislike aliums. It’s not a real varied garden, but it’s something.
And thanks for the attagirl. : )
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Oooh. Great post, Cathleen since here in the mountains we’re already cooling down significantly, and I have room in my garden now that my spring spinach and broccoli are done (and the slugs wiped out my cauliflower). We have a while before the first frost if I get going. The weather here is a yearly mystery, but it’s worth a try. 🙂 I just have to pull myself away from the laptop. Lol. 😀 Happy Gardening.
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You can get your planting done in a day, including shopping.
Besides, the last book in your series is longer than the others. It’ll take me longer to critique. So, you’ll have time. Happy gardening to you, too. : )
PS: If you like them, both kale and carrots do well in light frosts.
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My current batch of kale will last all winter. I’m thinking spinach and chard. 🙂
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I’m planning on planting spinach and chard, too. : )
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My hubby is going through our seeds. 🙂 It’s supposed to be hot here for a few days. Then I’ll plant. 🙂
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Thanks for the advice! Now that I have a sunny back yard, I’d like to grow a little more.
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Having a sunny yard does make a difference. The guy from Epic Gardening, on YouTube, does all his gardening in a small San Diego front yard, He just fenced it in and added raised beds. Apparently his back yard is too shady to grow anything. But he grows a bunch of stuff in a yard that’s maybe 20 by 65 feet. : )
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Having food from your own garden is the best thing ever. I currently don’t have that capability, but hopefully soon. Thank you for this wonderful post filled with tips.
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My pleasure, Sam. It just so happens I spent today putting in my spring garden, mostly tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, melons, and zucchini. But some of my fall garden is still hanging on. The leeks are ready to harvest, and I pulled the last of my celery and chard. But the onions and garlic look like they need to wait a little longer before I can pull them.
It’s great, harvesting my own vegetables. I hope you get to do that again very soon. : )
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