A fall veg garden is the perfect place and time for catch your favorite root vegetables in the ground and seeding perennial staples . While you design and lean to your surrender garden , it ’s also the time of year to flick throughcatalogsand order seeds forearly spring planting .
Why to Plant in a Fall Vegetable Garden
By take advantage of fall ’s ice chest temperatures and bout of rain , you may extend your garden season quite a bit . Although North America offers a Brobdingnagian cooking stove of winter temperatures , in all but the frigid regions , it ’s often potential to reap crops right through December , January and February — that is , if you select the right ones . Some crops , such as members of the onion plant family , like a cover of snow , and even tender crop such as spinach and moolah , as well as many herbs , can handle sub - freezing temperatures , especially if you grow them under run-in covers or in moth-eaten frames .
If you ’re work on a architectural plan to put your summer growing outer space to bed and require some help determining which crop to admit in the gloaming garden that can take you into the cooler calendar month , here ’s a flying guide for planting and transplanting .
1. Garlic
If you desire to reap bighearted , juicy heads of garlic in July , you postulate to plant them in October . It ’s important to order seminal fluid garlic — large head of Allium sativum that are destitute of sprout inhibitor — from seed companies in late - summertime to early fall , as supplies often run low . Separate the garlic bulb into cloves , leaving the skin on , and imbed each clove with the pointed side up and the blunt side down 1 to 2 column inch recondite in well - worked dirt . Cloves should be spaced 4 to 6 inches asunder in rows 1 human foot apart .
Plant shallots for the fall garden using the same growing teaching .
2. Leeks
Other members of the allium kinsperson — onions , leeks , chives and shallot — all do well in the garden over the winter , as well . Leeks specially love the cold conditions , so inseminate seeds directly in the fall veggie garden or start up seed in peat pots in former summer for autumn transplantation . outer space the plant 4 to 6 inches apart in rows 1 foot apart , and mound dirt around the stem every couple of weeks to boost the white end . ( The part of the stubble that grows above soil will turn green . ) you may harvest leeks when the base of the stubble reaches 1 to 2 in in diameter .
3. Onions
Allium cepa set , or bulblets , are widely available in fall , and by planting as cold weather approaching , you may get fresh scallions over the wintertime . In the coldest regions , the sets may hibernate underground in wintertime , but they will pop up in the spring . flora Allium cepa 1 to 2 in abstruse in soil mixed with some compost — a pH of 6.0 to 6.5 is preferred . Avoid forget the neck opening of the plants too deeply to avoid rot , and allow consistent irrigation until the electric light get bigger .
4. Chives
Chives can be seeded in the fall veg garden . you could also split exist clumps to graft in the garden or pot up to convey inside for year - prospicient purpose . Snip chives for use of goods and services in cooking 30 mean solar day after transplanting or 60 days after seeding . If you cut the chives down 1 to 2 inch from the nucleotide , you should be able-bodied to get three to four harvests per year .
5. Strawberries
immature strawberry plants are typically sold for spring planting , but plenty of companies sell them in the gloam , as well . With this seasonal jump-start , you may be able-bodied to pick up a whole time of year of productivity . Many gardeners swipe off all the blossoms during the first season to appropriate the plants to put energy into root development ; fall vegetable garden planting lets you leave the springtime blossoms on and reap a craw the first year .
6. Rhubarb
Late fall is a gravid fourth dimension to split existing rhubarb plant crowns . If you do n’t have plants of your own , seek out a friend who can share their wealthiness . Divide the crown into sections that contain one to three buds , and replant about 2 to 3 feet asunder before the bulb dry out . improve the land with a 12 - 12 - 12 fertilizer , compost , os meal or rock phosphate , and address the expanse with mulch . Rhubarb takes a few year to get established , and fall planting allow the harvest commence a class in the first place than otherwise .
7. Horseradish
Like pieplant , horseradish can also be divide in the drop vegetable garden and will take a couple years of ontogenesis before you may harvest . It likes very cool temperatures for root growth and flavour development , so it ’s an first-class choice for cool climate . It ’s also fairly drought - patient of , but veritable irrigation will serve prevent woodiness .
8. Greens
Spinach , chard , kale and lettuce are must - haves in the fall garden . Plant seeds in late - summer to early fall for a quick crop of these greens — the cool weather condition sweetens them and prevents them from bolt . If you befall to get seeds in the footing too late , do not worry . take care for the sprout to come up in spring .
9. Radishes
Radishes are famous for their rapid growth — as few as four weeks from plant to glean for some varieties . Those imbed from seminal fluid in the fall veg garden will furnish a nice crop of rosy root and edible special K after summertime crops are through . The cool weather enhance their flavor , and you could sow in them successively for a changeless crop .
10. Cilantro
Lacy and delicate , cilantro is really reasonably elusive . It sprouts quickly from seed , producing edible leaves in a few weeks , followed by the ejaculate , known as Chinese parsley . If planted in later fall , cilantro seeds may stay dormant over winter and sprout rapidly in saltation . The flora will also ofttimes self - sow .
11. Parsley
Parsley is another great cool - weather condition harvest for the fall vegetable garden . While produce it from germ can take forever , you could transplant clumps in spill that may last out fertile much of the winter .
Protecting Your Fall Vegetable Garden Crop
It ’s a honorable idea to protect fall - imbed areas over the wintertime with a layer of straw to provide a layer of insularism and prevent icing heaving as soil block and thawing . Frost heaving is not as big a big concern with small seminal fluid and seedlings as it is with crops like rhubarb and horseradish , which have large etymon . Do n’t consist the husk down in a buddy-buddy layer ; rather , take away sections from the bale and fluff them up and spit the loose stuff over the soil .
Avoid tally too much water and fertiliser to the dirt in the gloam . You do n’t require too much attender growth too tight . Frail stems are susceptible to the cold .
