Now's the time the second gardening season begins. Typically, the daytime temperatures start to cool off in late August into September, but the soil stays warm, creating perfect conditions to plant a second crop of cool weather vegetables.
Some examples of cool-season vegetables include broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, lettuce, peas, radishes, spinach.
Cool season crops can be grown from seed or from starter plants. When selecting which seeds you would like to plant, make sure to pay close attention to the number of days it takes a plant to reach maturity. This will be printed on your seed packet. For the best yield, pick seed varieties with a quick time to maturity.
In general, you can plant anything that takes 60 days (about 2 months) or less to mature. Any longer than that, the weather will likely become cold enough that the plant will slow its growth or stop growing entirely, often before it has had a chance to reach maturity. If we happen to get frost before you harvest your second round of vegetables, keep a frost cloth handy to protect them from freezing temperatures.
Most cool weather crops don't need a full day of sunlight to grow. That spot in your garden that didn't have enough light to grow tomatoes, will do just fine for spinach, lettuce or arugula. Make the most of your space by planting some Packman broccoli or Bloomsdale spinach along the edge of your perennial garden.
Potted petunias and other flowering annuals starting to look tired? Plant some colorful Ruby Red Swiss Chard or Red Russian Kale seed or starts of Early Snowball cauliflower, in their place.
Don't have room in the garden? Cool weather crops are shallow rooted so it's easy to plant seeds or starter plants in a container on the patio. Take advantage of the cooler fall temperatures to try some Asian greens like Bok Choy. Asian greens add unusual shapes, textures, and spicy flavors to salads. More choices to plant now include cabbage, beets, radishes, and peas. These cool weather crops will do fine, and you can harvest fresh greens well into winter.
For short maturing greens consider Chef's Choice Mesclun lettuce, Matador spinach, Rocket Salad arugula. All these greens will be ready in less than 30 days (about 4 and a half weeks). Radishes such as French Breakfast and Cherry Belle can be planted now and will be ready to harvest in less than a month.
Planting greens in the fall should include refreshing the garden soil with some worm castings and compost. Add some organic fertilizer to the row as you plant. 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.
