These are a batch of what I want to grow for my fall garden. One of the biggest challenges I have is starting brassicas for the fall. They need to go into the ground about now to give them enough time to grow into the broccoli and cabbages and such and I have found it is not necessarily the first frost that gets me, its the lack of sunlight caused by my house and trees as October grows late. However, every year when I plant them now, they sit there in 90 degree heat and don’t grow, become stressed, yellow, and get destroyed by Harlequin bugs ( I can’t stop this bug!) and white flies.
This year I started them in my garage, then up potted them into the cups. This way I could pull them out in the morning and have my wife move them back in the afternoon to avoid the blasting midday sun. I hope to plant them out on Monday as Tuesday and Wednesday look cloudy and dare I say rainy. I will also put floating row cover over them and try to baby them along until they are established.
I went big on broccoli this year and plan to plant about 50 plants. I also have two types of cabbage, collards, Chinese cabbage, dino kale, regular kale, and the first sowing of chard and lettuce.
Anyone do anything different for their fall garden? A better plan perhaps?
9 Likes
That’s about what all I’ve got going in my little fall container garden. I’ve also got a few rutabagas, parsnips, and turnips started. I’ve currently got sweet potatoes trying to take over a raised bed, and the surrounding yard, but the pattypan squash at the other end of the raised bed is holding his own and finally started producing for me last week. I’ve also managed to keep some spaghetti squash alive through our rough drought summer and got at least 1 successfully growing. I’ve also got okra going in my other raised bed. I think harlequin bugs got my peas and some of my beans. 
I’m mostly just experimenting though as this is my first year.
2 Likes
I threw my fall seeds down a few weeks ago, French breakfast radishes are coming up, but nothing else. They need a good rain to sprout them.
However I did save one collard plant from spring and there’s a praying mantis there to take care of the butterflies, so no green cabbage worms.
2 Likes
Carrot seedlings
French Breakfast
This could be arugula or spinach mustard
3 Likes
Here in the North, I don’t know of anyone who has grown a fall garden. With average first frost date in mid-September, we are sometimes doing well just to get a good harvest from our spring garden. What are the experiences of you other northern gardeners in zones 4a and 3? Is this something I should be doing?
2 Likes
I suppose something like sugar snap peas, brassica family, carrots? could all be put in during summer for fall harvest. I probably wouldn’t push it much past early July. By late Sept we are losing sunlight fast. Some protection (greenhouse?) might really help, because we tend to get a cold shot and then get mild for a while before the teens show up (usually mid Nov)…its tough…i’ve tried it and failed (started things too late).
2 Likes
I’m barely finished planting the spring garden by mid-June, so early July is only two weeks later.
1 Like
I just threw some sugar snap peas down today, I threw a bunch last week but only one plant came up.
1 Like
I prepped and planted a 10 x3.5 ft bed of greens and carrots earlier this week.
In that bed… 1 row of carrots… 1 row of a mixed leaf lettuce blend… and 1 row of a nice red lettuce.
Red lettuce is supposed to be more cold hardy than green… good down to 14 degrees or so.
2 Likes
I threw some more Merveille de Quatre Saisons, my husband said this lettuce is better tasting than Romaine lettuce.
2 Likes
A few rows of sugar snap peas are emerging. So far I can identify that the arugulas are sprouting, French breakfast, carrots, and some beet roots. Not sure what happens to the rest.
1 Like
A nice straight row of red lettuce in the center of this bed has emerged… 12" to the right a mixed leaf lettuce blend is up too. Carrots 12" to the left… should be up in a few more days.
3 Likes
I threw a bunch of seeds for American Flag leek, Tastoi, mesclun lettuce, parsnip. I got these seeds very cheap, like close to a dollar for a big packet. Let’s hope some will sprout.
Last year I spent the time searching for leeks and they were out.
started walking stick kale, bok Choi and drunk woman lettuce. also got some carrots and sweet onion seed out
I’m only doing close to the house this year, going to straw bed the rest over winter
Good stand of carrots up in 7 days… lettuce looking good.
2 Likes
Took advantage of the rainy day Monday to get the brassicas into the ground. These ones are broccoli and cabbage.
More broccoli and Chinese cabbage.
3 Likes
Leaf lettuce and carrots making progress…
I started these on Sept 2.
5 Likes
