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| Onion, oregano, lemon balm and zinnia in July garden |
You can still plant for summer harvests, but July is also the month to start planting for fall harvests. 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. For winter harvests, look for cold hardy varieties.
The trick to harvesting all fall and winter is to have your veggies to full size by mid-October. With the shorter days of late fall and winter, your plants will not grow much after mid-October through mid-February. This means you start sowing seeds July-August for fall and winter harvests.
The change I make from spring to fall plantings is for spring, I plant those varieties that are heat tolerant. In the fall, I plant those varieties that are cold tolerant to extend the harvest as long as possible into winter. Depending on the severity of the winter, many cold tolerant varieties revive in the spring and provide a really early, nice harvest surprise.
Because daylight hours are getting shorter in the fall, you will need to add about 2 weeks to the “Days to Harvest” your seed packet gives as the seed packet dates are based on spring planting. Plants grow slower in fall because the days are getting shorter instead of longer and steadily cooler. Frost date look up
Just like in spring, seeds have to be kept moist to sprout. You can also plant the seeds in peat pots or you can reuse the plastic annual trays you got in the spring. You can put the plastic trays in a water catch pan, find a shady spot convenient for watering, fill with seed starting mix, sow your seeds and keep moist until sprouted. When the seedlings get their true leaves on them (second set), they are ready to transplant into the garden or a larger pot. In hot temperatures, I transplant to a larger pot and let them get to a good size and transplant into the garden bed when it is calling for rain. I will keep an eye on them after transplanting and water as they need it. Peat pots require daily watering in summer months because the pots are so porous.
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| Summer seedlings |
There are some veggies that the temps are too high outdoors to germinate in our Zone 7, like lettuce. These you will have to start inside or on the cool side of the house in the shade. Lettuce has a hard time with germination with soil temps above 70.
You can also plant a second crop of summer veggies and herbs early in the month to keep the harvests strong through October. Look for varieties that have short "days to harvest" or purchase transplants. Summer lovers with quick harvest times include basil, beans, corn, tomatoes, and zucchini.
July-Seeds or Transplants
Asian greens (pak choi, tat-soi) Fall and winter greens
Brussel sprouts Growing Brussel sprouts
Bush beans Growing beans
Cauliflower
Chinese cabbage
Cilantro Growing cilantro (coriander)
Collard greens Grow a southern favorite-collards
Corn Growing corn
Cucumber
Dill
Endive
Escarole
Frisee
Fennel Growing fennel
Kohlrabi Another spring veggie-kohlrabi
Leeks
Lettuce, heat tolerant varieties Everything you need to know about growing lettuce
Lettuce, heat tolerant varieties Everything you need to know about growing lettuce
Mustard Mustard greens
Oregano
Parsley
Parsnips
Peas
Rutabagas
Salsify
Scallions
Summer squash
Swiss chard For year round steamed greens, grow chard!
Turnips All about turnips
Zucchini Growing zucchini and summer squash
If you don’t want to start seeds for fall harvests, some big box stores and local nurseries have begun to have fall planting veggies. These typically come into stores in late September. If none in your area do, there are many mail order seed companies that carry fall bedding plants.
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