July is prime time for planting your fall and winter garden

Sunday, June 30, 2013

It may seem crazy to be sowing seeds in July for your fall and winter garden, but it is the time to do so.  Everything you can grow for spring, you can grow for fall.  

There are some veggies that the temps are too high to germinate in our Zone 6, like lettuce.  These you will have to start inside or on the cool side of the house in the shade.

September until your first frost is high time in the garden.  Your summer veggies will still be producing at the same time your cool season crops can be harvested.

The trick to harvesting all winter is to have your veggies to full size by mid-October.

For fall and winter harvests, plant the following: arugula, beets, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, Chinese cabbage, collards, escarole, fennel, kale, kohlrabi, bunching onions, parsnips, peas, radicchio, lettuce, mustard greens, radishes, spinach, swiss chard, turnips.

With cover, the following will allow you to harvest all winter: arugula, beets, chicory, corn salad, lettuce, mustard greens, parsley root, radicchio, radishes, spinach, and swiss chard.

The following don’t require covering: brussels sprouts, winter harvest cabbage, carrots, collards, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, bunching onions or Egyptian onions, parsnips, rutabagas, turnips.

If you don’t want to start seeds, big box stores and nurseries have begun to have fall planting veggies so you can wait until late August, early September to get transplants and still get them in on time for fall harvests.

Fall and winter harvested veggies are at their crispest and sweetest after a light frost.  The cold temps concentrate the sugars, making them extra yummy!

When you read days to harvest on tags or seed packets, add a couple of weeks for fall planted varieties.