Now’s the time to plant cool season crops

 August is the ideal time for planting greens and root crops. Warm days encourage good growth, while generally cooler nights bring out the flavor of your fall crops. There is a wide variety of vegetables you can grow now, including beets, kale, chard, radishes, spinach, cabbage and broccoli. Fall crops are available as starts or you can plant from seed. Choosing starts will result in faster harvest times for crops such as Cabbage, Kale, Collards and Broccoli. Starts can be found in our Annuals House. 

If you choose to plant from seed, look at the days to maturity information or days to harvest on the package or label. This is roughly the amount of time from planting seeds to picking your crops. The shorter the days to maturity, the faster you’re harvesting. Radishes for example, mature in about 25 days, so if you plant them now, you’ll be picking radishes in less than four weeks.  

For best success with your second season planting, begin by cleaning up any lingering weeds or vegetation at the planting site, then dig two inches of compost into the site. Sheep, Peat and Compost is a good choice. It’s produced locally and it works to improve your soil.  Summer vegetable crops will have depleted most of the nutrition in your soil, so adding a granular organic fertilizer at this time will keep your cool weather crops going strong. 

Down to Earth Bio-Fish is a good choice. It’s certified organic.  For an extra boost, add a scoop of humate. Humate will help your crops maximize nutrient uptake. Follow package directions for seed planting depth and make sure you take time to mark each row as you plant. Don't have room in the garden? Are your potted petunias and other flowering annuals starting to look tired? Replace them with some Asian greens such as Mizuna or Bok Choy. Asian greens add unusual shapes, textures and spicy flavors to salads. For a longer fall harvest, start seeds every two weeks and keep a frost cloth handy for those nights when cooler temperatures threaten your crop. This will help extend your "greens" garden well into late fall. There's nothing like a dinner salad picked from your own garden.  It's fresh and you know exactly what's in it.