I’M WATERING THEN SHADING the garden beds where peas grew fat and sweet until early July, when their time was done. The heat and calendar told them to stop, but I’m carrying on—making the now-empty spot hospitable for something else by cooling the soil a bit so something delicious for fall harvest will be happy to germinate, and get growing.
But what will it be? Perhaps kale or more amazing ‘Piracicaba,’ broccoli (above, for which I have seedlings started) or carrots, beets, and more green beans? Or fall peas (a short variety like ‘Sugar Ann’)! Those are only a few of many possibilities for a sustained harvest, even here in the North.
WHEN TO SOW OR TRANSPLANT what is always the question, and so I am including some links by state or region at the bottom to factsheets that might help you with cool-season choices. The possibilities here would work in much of the Northeast and similar zones to my 5B, in a spot where frost is expected no sooner than around early October. You can push it a bit in slightly warmer zones than mine, adjusting the timing according to how much later your frost date is than mine. And in the warmest ones all this happens in fall for winter harvest–plus you get a wider palette of crops (again, those factsheets linked below will help).
my possible july-august plantings, northeast zone 5b
- Arugula, from 21 to 40 days (baby or mature leaf size)
- Bush beans, about 60 days (have insulating fabric ready if early cold threatens)
- Beets and beet greens
- Braising greens mix (mustard, kale, collards, Asian greens…)
- Broccoli raab, about 40 days
- Broccoli (60 days from transplants started about 15 weeks before first frost; do try ‘Piracicaba,’ whose florets are looser, delicious, and which easily produces lots of side shoots)
- Cabbage (60 days from transplants started about 15 weeks before first frost) or Napa cabbage (about 10 days faster)
- Carrots (a storage kind like ‘Rolanka’ plus some smaller types for fall eating)
- Cauliflower (60 days from transplants started about 14 weeks before frost; needs covering if frost threatens)
- Chard
- Chicory, endive, radicchio
- Cilantro
- Collards, about 60 days but nice as a baby green
- Cucumbers (bush type rated 60 days; I sowed these June 15)
- Daikon (60 days) and other faster radishes
- Dill
- Kale, about 60 days but nice in half that time as a baby green
- Lettuce, leaf and head type and mesclun mix, about 30 days to first cutting
- Mustard greens, about 45 days (faster as baby greens to spice a salad)
- Peas, shelling, sugar snap, and snowpea type
- Radishes
- Scallions and other hardy bunching onions, for fall use and to overwinter for spring
- Spinach
- Squash, summer variety, bush type (I sowed a 48-day variety July 1)
- Turnips, 40-50 days, faster for greens, or rutabaga (90 days) if sown in earliest July or late June here; rutabaga
And don’t forget: Leave room for your garlic! It goes in around October locally, and stays till the next July or August. How to grow garlic, my favorite crop of all.
hints for making late-season sowings
- Don’t skip the prep: Do cool down soil by shading for a few days and moistening so seeds have a chance, in particular.
- Select a variety that’s a shorter number of days to maturity than its peers, or rated for late-season growing.
- Count back from frost date but add extra time to the calculation, an extra two weeks perhaps that’s often called “the fall factor,” since days are getting gradually shorter and cooler as fall plants mature. Don’t expect them to produce as fast as in warming, lengthening springtime days.
- As cold arrives, have insulating fabric (and hoops in some cases) at the ready.
- The later timing may slow things and require a little extra help, perhaps, but it’s also a benefit: Often you outsmart pests, who might be done multiplying, and some crops (greens, peas, crucifers) may taste sweeter when ripening in cool weather.
sample fall planting calendars and guides
I SEARCHED FOR REGIONAL calendars for fall vegetable sowings–or in the case of the warmest zones, that would be a fall-sown, winter-harvested garden. Note that many of these links will pop up as pdf’s, not web pages, as they are formatted that way by their expert creators. Also note that in some cases, the late-season information is far down the page, below the timing and how-to for spring, so keep scrolling/paging through.
- Alabama
- Arizona (Maricopa County)
- Arizona (Arizona Cooperative Extension, multiple regions by elevation)
- Arkansas
- California, statewide planting chart by region
- California, San Diego County
- Florida
- Georgia
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa (and chart on timing only is here for Iowa)
- Kansas (scroll toward end of pdf for sowing chart)
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- New Jersey
- New York (Ithaca/Tompkins County, last planting dates)
- New York, Long Island, and final sowing dates Nassau County
- North Carolina
- Oklahoma
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- Pacific Northwest fall/winter guide
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Texas (Central)
- Utah
- Virginia and adjacent states (from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange)
Why isn’t Tennessee in your planting calendar list?
Hi, Martha. There may not have been a link when I first wrote the story, but there is now. Here it is.
why isn’t Mississippi in your list? i was really looking forward to it
Mississippi State has a little info at this link, but the state Extension service really didn’t have a full calendar for me to offer to readers, that I could locate.
Illinois link doesn’t work.
Fixed. Sorry but extensions change their websites all the time and the forget to code the changes with new links to redirect you, but I found it with a search.
Colorado? 4 links for CA and none for CO. lol I suppose that California is a big state but . . .
For some state, their extension service did not have a chart or other serious reference, sorry to say. I tried! Colorado extension has only this tiny blog post that I have been able to find.
Do you have a list for Ohio? I am in northeast Ohio, an hour south of Lake Erie. I looked at the Indiana map, thinking it would be relatively similar, but I don’t know that I could/should assume that. Thanks.
Hi, Marjie. The Ohio State Extension doesn’t seem to have such a document, so I’d choose another northern one and adjust for your frost dates (e.g., when I use the one from Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners, though I’m not in Maine, I shift a week or so).
Why isn’t Oregon on your list?
Hi, Kristin. Try this pdf (brief chart, not too much detail) or this extensive booklet for the PNW.
Happen to have one for New Mexico? Thanks in advance for reply!
Hi, Gen. Start with these two pdf factsheets: the first and the second. Not ideal but they give the general guidelines.
Thanks!
Gen, thank you for asking. I am in Albuquerque and just getting started. I downloaded the two PDFs. Thank you Margaret for the reference.
Barb
Where is Rhode Island? Massachusetts? Connecticut? New Hampshire? Vermont?
This year is my first attempt at growing a garden and tips for New England states would have been helpful! Sooo sorry we were left out!
UConn and UMass don’t have a calendar that I could find, or used to and then the link went bad and I deleted it. UVM and UNH used to and the links went bad. I try to update this page a couple of times a year. I see that URI does have an updated chart now and I added that link thanks to your query.
Hi! We’re new to SW MO…is there a chart for here? Thanks!
Thank you for your information. It is very helpful.
Where is New Mexico?
Between Texas and Arizona.
I live in SW Missouri and I want to know if you are gardening for raised beds only. I don’t have raised beds, will these plants do okay in the ground?
In the ground or in raised beds, and whichever you choose, add loads of compost and use a good organic mulch to love your soil.
Do you have list for Connecticut?
I have never found a good one from a solid source for CT. Depending where you are, you could use one of the Long Island ones, like Nassau County (if you are coastal or thereabouts) or if you are in NW Connecticut (Litchfield County, e.g.) you’re more like me (a Zone 5B).
Connecticut?
What do you have on there for mulch?
In the row of potatoes next to the empty soil, there is straw over the potatoes. I sometimes use straw for some crops, but mostly used rotted, shredded leaves (shredded and composted from the fall before or longer) or composted stable bedding.
Hi Margaret~ can you tell me what size and type wood you used for your raised beds, and the dimensions of the bed itself? I have an area approximately 7′ x 18′. Thank you.
Hi, Cat. I use whatever rot-resistant, untreated lumber is locally available as 2-by-10s for a good price (here that’s locust). I get it at a local mill and don’t have both sides perfectly finished — I think it’s rough-planed, so but I forget the exact description–I just told them I wanted it for this purpose and they knew it didn’t have to be sanded/perfect on all sides/edges. I like my beds between 4 and 5 feet wide (wider is hard to reach across; even 5 is stretching it) and try to waste little lumber by using multiples or halves of common lengths like 8- and 10-footers.
When figuring out days to harvest about veggies such as broccoli that are sometimes transplanted after sowing under lights, are the days to maturity from seeding or from transplanting? For example if a broccoli type takes 60 days, is that 60 days after you transplant the seedling to the garden?
What about wv…near Ohio river valley…
You could try the one that your state Extension has for all garden chores, but I don’t see a vegetable-only version.
After listening to your podcast, I decided to give it a try. I put in broccoli, lettuce, swiss chard and sugar snap peas. It’s been sooooo hot! We’ll see what we can grow in the season we have left. Thanks for the information – love your podcast.
Thanks, Karen, and keep it all watered. That’s been the issue here — things drying out before they mature to harvest.
can we see some pic’s of your veg garden?
For Texas you only list Austin, and Central Texas. Texas is a very large area, and there are quite a few different growing areas. I used to live in the Austin area, and now I live on the upper Gulf Coast close to the TX/LA state line. What advice do you have for the fall garden for my area?
Actually, there is a link below the east Texas one that says “…All Texas Regions,” and a chart at that link of all 5 areas of the state via Texas A&M and when to do what, at least in spring (the chart I believe puts you in Region V). The chart is here; the explanations of the regions is here. The summer-sowing one for a fall garden is here.
Margaret, hi, how do you start your fall cruciferous veggie seedlings? My napa cabbage, pak choy and broccoli are not sprouting–I tried outdoors in good soil mix in a sunny spot, then a shady spot, then in the garden shed. The same seeds sprouted in the spring. Perhaps too hot outside? I put away my seed starting set up, so I can’t start them indoors with good light. Should I have tried to start them indoors without artificial light and then brought them outside when they sprouted? Or is it hopeless in June-July without a well lit set up indoors? Thanks!
Hey Margaret, you missed the whole area of Western New York, which is vastly different than “Upstate”. Can you take us into consideration in the future?
For Virginia and adjacent states, Ken Bezilla a Southern Exposure Seed Exchange has compiled this one:
http://www.southernexposure.com/southern-exposures-fall-winter-gardening-guide-ezp-38.html
Thank you, Pam. I just finally had to delete my former Virginia link b/c the Extension deleted the pdf from their website. Hooray for this one.
The link to the Hudson Valley fall planting calendar seems to be broken.
If it still exists, I’d love to have that.
Sorry, Eleanor. I was able to find this chart on their website’s blog of the latest local sowings.
I notice you don’t include Hawaii
The University of Hawaii Cooperative Extension didn’t have such a calendar that I could find, only a page of links to old fact sheets about growing different vegetables.
What do you use in your garden soil besides compost and a shredded leaf mulch? I am thinking I need to make better soil to grow better veggies….
Will try a fall garden this year
How about info on Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont ,New Hampshire,Maine and Rhoad Island??