Think Ahead: What to Plant in Your Vegetable Garden this Fall
In March you swore you’d finally plant a garden. Well, March turned into late May and you never opened your seed packets. Now’s the time to open those pristine vegetable seed packets and embrace the second gardening season! Get your gardening gloves on, hook up the hose, and get your organic plants ready for a fall harvest.
Benefits of second season planting
Warm soil germinates quicker: embrace that summer sun! Planting in the summer allows you to work with soil that’s frost-free.
Plants can go directly into the ground.
Produce will be ready for a fall harvest: when everyone else’s summer bounty is running low, your produce will be going strong.
Cool weather = less plant care: increased rainfall means less watering, and cool weather means less hungry insects!
Things to keep in mind with a fall harvest
Pick seed varieties that mature quickly: Treehugger suggests to “add two weeks to the maturity date of your crop to account for the waning light at the end of summer.”
Protect seedlings from the sun.
Grow veggies in the shade of plants that will be harvested or pulled out of your garden soon.
Research when the first frost typically occurs in your gardening region. If a frost is coming don’t sweat it – just cover plants with a blanket or move plant filled containers inside.
Vegetables that fair well in the second gardening season
Second season herbs
If you still need to buy seeds or want to buy additional seeds, consider the following vegetable seed companies:
- Seed Savers Exchange
- Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
- Johnny’s Selected Seeds
Click here for more stellar seed companies.
Image: krossbow
