Tag Archives: fall crops

Garden Advice, Winter Gardening

Bulbs and Beyond: Fall Planting for Spring Production

Leave a comment

Fall is one of the most magical times in the garden. The morning air is cool and crisp, the weeds and pests are beginning to dwindle, and we’re finally enjoying harvests from our long season crops. I love spending autumn days in the garden so much that I often plant almost as much in the fall as in the spring. Thankfully, there are some excellent fall crops I can sneak in this time of year that provide a spring abundance.

What Crops Can I Plant This Fall?

The fall planting list is surprisingly long! If you’re willing to put in the work, there are several flowers, herbs, and vegetables that can all be fall-planted for incredible spring flowers and harvests. 

Fall-Planted Flowers

Fall planting brings spring blooms! If you want early flowers, fall planting is a must. There are many different types of fall-planted flowers, so I divided them into two categories: those you plant from bulbs, corms, tubers, or roots, and those you start from seed. Flowers you can start from seed are often those varieties with a tendency to self-seed that would naturally drop seed each fall and spread. 

Flower BulbsBulbs, Corms, Tubers, & Roots

  • Anemones (Anemone spp.)
  • Checkered Lily (Fritillaria meleagris)
  • Crocus (Iridaceae spp.)
  • Daffodils (Narcissus spp.)
  • Dutch Iris (Iris × hollandica)
  • German Iris (Iris × germanica)
  • Hyacinth (Hyacinthus spp.)
  • Oriental Lilies (Lilium orientalis)
  • Ornamental Alliums (Allium spp.)
  • Peonies (Paeonia officinalis)
  • Snowdrop (Galanthus spp.)
  • Tulips (Tulipa spp.)

Seeds

  • Bachelor’s Buttons (Centaurea cyanus)
  • Butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa)
  • Calendula (Calendula officinalis)
  • Coreopsis (Coreopsis spp.)
  • Dara (Daucus carota)
  • Echinacea (Echinacea spp.)
  • Hollyhocks (Alcea rosea)
  • Johnny Jump-Ups (Viola spp.)
  • Larkspur (Delphinium spp.)
  • Rudbeckia (Rudbeckia spp.)
  • Snapdragons (Antirrhinum spp.)
  • Sweet Peas (Lathyrus odoratus)

Fall-Planted Herbs 

While flower bulbs often seem to be the focus for fall, there are a number of cold-tolerant or perennial herbs you can start this autumn. 

  • Chives
  • Cilantro
  • Feverfew
  • Mint
  • Parsley
  • Thyme
Nancy Malone Wheat Purple Collards
Nancy Malone Wheat Purple Collards

Fall-Planted Vegetables

Hardy vegetables are one of my favorite fall crops. Overwintered vegetables will often start putting on good growth during occasional warm February and March days when we start getting more daylight. They’re ready to harvest long before any indoor seed or spring-started crop ever will be! I’ve divided the vegetables into groups so it’s easier to find the type of crops you’re interested in.

Alliums

  • Bulb Onions
  • Garlic
  • Perennial Onions
  • Shallots

Brassicas

  • Broccoli
  • Brussels Sprouts
  • Cabbage
  • Cauliflower

Beans

  • Fava/Broad Beans

Greens

  • Arugula
  • Claytonia
  • Collards
  • Kale
  • Lettuce
  • Mustard Greens
  • Spinach
  • Swiss Chard

Roots

  • Beets
  • Carrots
  • Daikon Radishes
  • Rutabagas
  • Potatoes
  • Turnips

When Can I Plant These Fall Crops?

The answer to this question depends on both the crop and your location. Those in New England will need to plant much earlier than those in the Deep South, but it also depends on what you’re growing.

For example, you should only plant tulips when soil temperatures have cooled. For those in northern areas, you may be able to put them in as early as September, but waiting until as late as December may be preferable for those in the south. 

Learning about your hardiness zone and using a garden planner app may help you make the best decisions for planting dates. 

Do These Fall Crops Need Protection?

Again, this depends on the crop and location. In warm, southern climates, all of these crops will need less protection than they do in northern zones. In fact, those in the deep south may have to continue weeding and watering as usual into the fall months. 

However, in many areas, these crops, particularly the fall vegetables, benefit from some sort of protection. For root crops and alliums, this may mean a thick layer of straw or hay mulch around the base of the plant to provide some insulation. For greens and herbs, planting them in a hoop house or cold frame or installing low tunnels with wires and clear plastic is ideal. 

Most of the flower bulbs, corms, roots, and tubers do best when they receive a layer of mulch after planting, but they should come with instructions. On the other hand, the flower seeds are usually fine without protection. Some seeds, like echinacea, actually require a period of cold and moisture to germinate properly.

 

Getting good production during the winter months can be challenging, even in the south. Shorter days mean less plant growth, even when the weather is warm. That said, you may still want to consider some of these fall crops. When sown in fall, these flowers, herbs, and vegetables will provide extra-early spring production. Get a jump on 2025 with these fantastic fall-planted crops.

Garden Advice

When to Plant a Fall Garden

Leave a comment

Growing a fall garden allows us to extend our season and get more vegetables, herbs, and flowers out of our space. In Virginia, where we’re located and farther south, it gives us a second opportunity to enjoy some cool-weather-loving crops like peas and spinach for a second time. However, as we’ll discuss below, the name fall gardening can be a bit misleading, you will be harvesting in the fall, but for many crops, you’ll be sowing during the summer.

When Do I Start My Fall Garden?

The short answer is it depends. Where you’re located and what you choose to grow will dictate the sowing times for your garden. The first step is to consider you’re hardiness zone and determine your first frost date. Then look at the days to maturity for crops you’re considering planting.

While frost may seem like the primary factor in a fall garden, you must also consider the day length. During the fall, the days rapidly get shorter, and this, rather than cold temperatures, slows crop growth.

To take this into consideration, you want to add 14 days to the days to maturity time for any variety you’ll direct sow and 14 to 28 days for any variety you will be transplanting. This longer period helps account for setback and transplant shock. 

Once you have your days to maturity plus the added days for daylight, you can count backward from your first frost date to determine your last possible start date. 

For example, let’s say we wanted to plant Capitan Bibb lettuce (62 days to maturity) in a zone 6b garden with an estimated first frost of October 20th. We’ll take 62 days and add 14 days because we’ll be direct sowing it, to get a total of 76 days. If we look at a calendar and count backward 76 days from October 20th, we get August 7th. Therefore we can sow Capitan Bibb lettuce up to August 7th in this garden and expect harvests. 

At 62 days, Capitan Bibb is also a rather quick-maturing crop. If you want a fall garden, it’s best to start planning early! In zone 7a, we begin direct sowing slower maturing crops like cauliflower as early as June 1st.

Garden Apps and Calendars

These days, gardening apps can be very helpful for determining planting dates. Our own garden planner features planting dates based on your zip code. The Farmer’s Almanac also has a planting date calculator and a first frost date calculator on its website. 

If you’d like a more analog option and are located in zone 7, like we are, feel free to check out our planting list pdf. Also, many states and extension agencies offer planting calendars, so be sure to check your local resources as well. 

What Should I Plant?

You can include a wide array of crops in your fall garden, with the exception of some long-season crops like field pumpkins.

We often lean towards cool-season crops like brassicas, peas, greens, and root vegetables when planning fall gardens. While these may last us longer into fall than their warm-weather counterparts, we can still include them in our plans as well. Especially in southern areas, you can start later plantings of squash, beans, sweet corn, and even tomatoes to ensure second harvests at the beginning of fall. 

In the past, we’ve often set out some tomatoes in the second half of June to ensure we had good production for fall tomato tastings. Here are a few of the crops you can consider planting for fall:

  • Cauliflower
  • Cabbages
  • Summer Squash
  • Beets
  • Beans
  • Peas
  • Southern Peas
  • Chinese Cabbage
  • Swiss Chard 
  • Collards
  • Corn
  • Carrots
  • Lettuce
  • Parsnips
  • Rutabaga
  • Broccoli

Planting in the Fall

There are also a few crops that you can plant in the fall to harvest next season. Some, like bulb onions, brassicas, greens, and certain flowers, we overwinter when they’re still small to get an early spring harvest. Others, like garlic and perennial onions, need a cold period to produce well. 

Planning these out ahead of time can help ensure you get a good selection when ordering. For example, we’re already taking garlic orders, even though we’ll ship it out at the appropriate time during the fall based on your location. 

If you’re always sad to see the garden season come to an end, consider adding more fall crops to your garden this season. Start planning your fall garden now to ensure all your crops are in on time and you have abundant harvests!

Garden Advice

Fall Harvest: Plants that are Sweeter After a Frost

Leave a comment

Fall gardens are generally touted as being a great way to get another harvest out of a small garden. They’re great for a few other reasons too. Fall is a wonderful time to work in the garden as the heat and humidity lessens. There’s also generally less pest pressure in the fall, meaning you might still get to put up some sauerkraut even if cabbage moths attacked your spring cabbage crop. A lesser discussed benefit is that some fall crops actually become sweeter after a frost.

Why are plants sweeter after a frost?

Unlike animals, vegetables can’t move south for winter, find a cozy den, or grow and extra thick coat. To survive the cold, certain plants have evolved a way to cope with colder temperatures. First, the plants’ cell walls thicken. These thicker walls contain less moisture and freeze less easily. The other part of this process, is the one that we as gardeners relish, the plants convert more of their starches to sugar. This has several benefits. Using the sugar produces energy, in effect, keeping the plant warmer. The sugar also decreases the formation of ice in the cell and prevents the cell membrane from freezing. This process is good for the plant and tasty for the gardener!

What plants do this?

Brassicas (Cabbage Family)

  • Cabbage
  • Kale
  • Brussels Sprouts
  • Kohlrabi
  • Collards

These plants thrive in cool temperatures making them ideal for fall planting. They can withstand temperatures down to 20°F and some like burssels sprouts can withstand much colder (down to 0°F). Row cover can be used to extend the season further and protect crops from damaging cold winds.

Carrots & Beets

Both beets and carrots benefit from a layer of mulch around their tops in cold weather. In southern climates, these roots can be left in the ground over winter and harvested as needed. To protect the tops for eating beet greens or to keep them growing you may need to use row cover or a cold frame to protect them during consistently cold temperatures.

Turnips & Rutabagas

Turnips and rutabagas are vastly sweetened by cold temperatures. Rutabagas should be harvested before temperatures drop to 20°F but turnips can handle colder temperatures particularly if they’ve been covered in a thick layer of mulch.

Leeks

In many areas, leeks can be overwintered and survive temperatures down to 10°F. If you’re harvesting leeks from frozen ground our friend Pam Dawling recommends pouring boiling water on the base of the plants if you’re harvesting a few for immediate use.

Swiss Chard

Swiss chard is fairly cold-hardy but it does best with some protection particularly if you live in an area with strong winds. To prolong your chard harvest use row cover or a cold frame. We’ve found Ruby Red Swiss Chard to be more frost tolerant than other varieties.

After a long summer it can be difficult to find the time and motivation to sow a fall garden. It really is worth it though! Plant a few of these crops for a sweet fall harvest.