Peppers love fall

Jalapeño

Sunday, September 15, 2024

My peppers kick into high gear come September and keep right on producing through October.  They seem to love the lower humidity and cooler nights.  

This time of year, I back off fertilizer.  Nitrogen promotes new greenery which can make the plant more susceptible to a hard frost.  Typically, peppers do fine up until a hard freeze.  I have had good success with bringing cayenne, Jigsaw and my Chiltepin pepper plants indoors for the winter.  They keep producing into January and then start flowering as soon as I take them outside in the spring.

Right now, I have Poblano Anaheim peppers, California bell peppers, burgundy sweet peppers from seed I have saved, a Chiltepin wild hot pepper native to the Southwest, Habanada sweet pepper, Jigsaw purple hot pepper and Tunisian Baklouti hot pepper plants.  They are all happy in their pots.

The Poblano I am drying for chili powder.  The sweet peppers I eat fresh and rough slice and freeze for salsa and tomato sauce.  The larger hot peppers I freeze whole and use for salsa and homemade hot sauce.  At the end of summer, I will take all the hot peppers frozen from last year and make hot sauce.  It is super easy.  Make your own hot sauce!  A I use the hot sauce to make wings for football games.  Homemade hot sauce wings with homegrown celery

Sweet pepper 

Poblano

Yum!  Yum!

Here's my easy recipe for fresh salsa.  Quick and fresh homemade salsa

In my garden, my peppers seem to do the best in pots.  It's a great space saver too if you are growing all your edibles in the garden bed.  You can put your potted peppers interplanted with petunias along your side walk or patio for decoration as well as food. 

The veggies I grow every year that seem to favor or do at least as well in pots are peppers, eggplant, bay laurel, bush cucumbers, Egyptian walking onion and all greens.  I try to find room in the garden bed for tomatoes, okra, garlic and pole beans.  I only need one trellis of pole beans to grow everything we need.  

It doesn't take much garden space to grow lots for your family to eat year round.  You can garden year round in small space  If you have limited space for storing extras, focus on veggies that are easy to keep without a freezer.  21 no tech storage crops

Midwest Fall Edible Garden

Fall savoy cabbage 

Saturday, September 14, 2024

Fall is a great time to garden!  You don't have to worry about pests and there is typically good rainfall so you don't have to worry about watering.  The crops that thrive in spring, thrive in fall.

For fall gardening, you actually start some varieties as early as July.  These will be the same type of veggies you planted for your spring garden.  You may have to start some varieties indoors as some seeds will not germinate in the hot temps of summer.  You can extend the fall harvest by covering your veggies with crop fabric when chilly temps arrive in late October so you can harvest all winter.

Don't worry if you are just getting started now; there are plenty of cool season crops you can start from seed in September and many you can order on line or pick up at your local nursery or big box store if you are getting a late start or just want to grab plants and plant.

Crops fall into 2 categories-cold season and warm season crops.  Warm season crops are those that abhor frost or getting their feet chilly.  Most of the warm season crops are killed by frost and won't grow unless the soil is nice and warm.  Cold crops are those that prefer when temperatures are cool or downright cold.

A rule of thumb is that if you eat the tuber, leaf or flower, it is typically a cold season crop.  If you eat the fruit or seed, it is a warm season crop. 

Choose the Right Varieties

In addition to choosing the right plants for cold-weather harvests, you can also increase fall harvests by planting specific varieties bred for colder climes. Look for varieties marketed as: fast-maturing; short and compact; textured (such as curly kale and Savoy spinach), winter-hardy, frost tolerant, overwintering, for every season, year-round, remarkably cold hardy, etc. 

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.

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 to watering, fill with seed starting mix, sow your seeds and keep moist.  When the seedlings get their true leaves on them (second set), they are ready to transplant into the garden or a larger pot.

Outdoor seed starting tips

There are some veggies that the temps are too high 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 or indoors if you're having a really hot September.  Once the highs get down into the 80's, you're generally safe to start outdoors in the shade.  

Indoor seed starting tips

Ideal soil temperatures for seed starting

Good choices for fall planting:

Root crops-Beets, Burdock, Carrots, Celeriac, Garlic, Kohlrabi, Leeks, Onions, Parsnips. Radishes, Root Parsley, Rutabaga, Salsify, Scorzonera, Turnips

Greens-Arugula, Celery, Chard, Dandelion greens, Fennel, Lettuce, Mustard, Collards, Chicory, Kale, Sorrel, Spinach, Peas, Fava beans  Growing fabulous lettuce and greens

Brassicas-Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Chinese Cabbage,   Broccoli and cauliflower growing tips 

Herbs-Marjoram, Parsley, Savory, Thyme, Sage, Cilantro, Oregano  Start a kitchen herb garden!

Below are some general planting times for cool season crops for our Zone 6/7 garden:

July

Beets, carrots, Asian greens (pak choi, tat-soi), cilantro, collard greens, endive, escarole, frisee, fennel, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, mustard, onions, parsnips, scallions, and Swiss chard.  Use transplants for broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage.

August

The rest of the greens (arugula, corn salad, lettuce, miner’s lettuce, spinach, mustard, endive), kohlrabi, onions, snap peas, scallions, cabbage plants, radishes, and turnips.  Peas and Fava beans can be planted in August for spring harvests in Zone 6 or higher.  

September

Plant more greens, carrots, and radishes.  September is also a great month for starting perennial veggies, fruits, and herbs as well as flowers, trees and shrubs.

What I've sown for fall and winter edibles 

Fruit for small spaces

 Midwest Perennial Vegetable Garden

October

The month to plant garlic for next year’s harvest and over-wintering onions.  Order your favorites early as many sell out quick.

October is prime time to plant garlic

If you don’t want to start seeds, some big box stores and local nurseries have begun to have fall planting veggies.   If none in your area do, there are many mail order seed companies that carry fall bedding plants.   

What I've sown for fall and winter edibles

"Well used" self watering pot I started my lettuce seeds in

Sunday, September 8, 2024

I started a variety of seeds yesterday for harvesting all fall and winter.  With a portable greenhouse, you can keep the Midwest lettuce salads going all the way to next spring.  This fall, my sowings are for lettuce, arugula, snow peas, chard, leaf mustards, chards, kales, pink dandelion, and pink celery.

The challenge to starting cool season lovers from seed this time of year is that it can be so hot.  The seeds will not germinate well in ground temps above 70 degrees F.  There are a couple of options for summer time seeding.  You can grow in shade, cover with a shade cloth or start your seedlings indoors move outdoors after they have sprouted.  Right now, it is cool with the highs in the upper 70's and lows in the mid 60's so perfect temperatures for lettuce germination.  Outdoor seed starting tips

I like to start in rectangular, self watering pots on our covered patio, close to the watering can on the northeast side of the house. Most of what I have sown will be up in 7 days if kept well watered.  I let them grow until they have the first set of true leaves and are about 2” tall.  I then transplant them into their permanent home, keeping them well watered for another couple of weeks.  The trick this time of year to planting is getting the plants close to full size by November when daylight hours are too short to support growing.

Here is what I planted.  Be sure to label your seed rows!

-Winter Density-a romaine type that is full size in 54 days

-Tango-a leaf lettuce that is frilly and light green, full size in 45 days

Landis Winter-a butterhead lettuce that reaches full size in 50 days

North Pole-another butterhead lettuce that is full size in 50 days

Tom Thumb-a small romaine type that is full size in 50 days

Winter Crop-a headed lettuce so approximately 50-60 days

Winterwunder-a loose leaf that is full size in 60 days

Red Romaine-a romaine that is full size in 40 day

Provencal Winter mix-a variety of greens

Arctic Tundra mix-a variety of greens

Roquette Arugula-full size in 42 days

Pink Dandelion-full size in 85 days

Pink Celery-full size in 60 days

Avalanche Snow Pea-30" vine, 61 days to harvest

Oregon Sugar Pod II Snow Pea-28" vine, 60 days to harvest

Little Purple Snow Pea-27" vine, 50 days to harvest

All of these will have leaves that are harvestable in about half the number of days to get to full size.  On the flip side, it generally takes longer for fall crops to get to full size than the packet says as the temperatures are getting cooler and the daylight shorter going into fall than in spring time.  A rule of thumb is 2 weeks longer to full size.

I like self watering pots because you can fill the reservoir without directly watering the soil surface.  With lettuce the seeds take light to germinate so they are very close to the surface.  Watering the soil itself can dislodge the seeds and move them all around the pot.  This isn't a catastrophe if you have all the same type planted in a pot, but since I have 8 varieties in the same pot, I don't want them moving around so I can see what germinates and how well they do through the season.  

You can start your seeds in any container you prefer.  If you do a coir or peat pot, you can just plant the entire thing in the garden bed after the seedling is up and going strong.  The drawback is that they have to be watered more as so much moisture wicks out of the permeable pot.

 

For this round, I watered the soil well, then planted the seeds, labelling each mini row in my rectangular pots that I start seeds in.  I will continue misting the top to keep the soil moist and filling the reservoir from the bottom.  You don't want the soil to dry out before the seeds have germinated.

After the seedlings are up, I'll wait until they have a few leaves and are about 2" or so tall before transplanting into larger pots for the winter.  I cover all my larger self watering pots later in the season with a portable greenhouse to keep the greens going all winter.  How to extend the garden season

If you want to direct seed in your mulched flower bed, dig a shallow trench about a quarter inch deep, fill with potting soil, seed, pat down, then cover lightly with more potting soil.  Water well with a gentle stream of water so you don’t wash the seed away.  I use a rain head on my watering can.  Even better is to get the soil moist, then scatter the seeds, cover lightly with potting soil and pat gently.  Growing fabulous lettuce and greens 

A  I also have purple sprouting broccoli, Ruby Streaks mustard, Giant Blue Feather lettuce, chard, Utah celery and Hilton Chinese Cabbage that has self-seeded.  I should have plenty of greens for salads all the way through winter with covering my self-watering pots over these winter hardy plants.  

What to start in the edible September garden

Fall seedlings in an Italian garden

Saturday, September 7, 2024 

September is a great time to continue planting for fall and winter harvests.  Get the most out of your edible garden by using all the seasons for fresh, homegrown goodness.  With fall gardening, you don't have to worry about pest and disease pressures plus the temperatures are enjoyable for outdoor activity.

What is a four season garden?
You can garden year round in small space
Planning for a four season garden

A fall edible garden

This month plant more greens and root vegetables.  September is my favorite month for getting winter lettuce and greens going.  I keep pots just for year round greens.  The spring/summer greens have already bolted and gone to seed.  I cleared them out when the seeds are dispersed and the stalks turn brown.  I have volunteer celery, amaranth greens, and sweet mustard greens that has sprouted in some of them.  Plus the Red Malabar spinach, New Zealand spinach and Giant Blue Feather lettuce is still going strong.  I need to start my lettuce seeds this week.  After sprouting, I'll transplant them together in self watering pots so that I can cover them with a portable greenhouse to keep the harvest going all fall and winter.

Time to plant lettuce seed for fall, winter salads

 Root for fall!  

September is also a great month for starting perennial veggies, fruits, and herbs as well as flowers, trees, shrubs and spring blooming bulbs.  There are 2 great things about perennials.  1) You only have to plant them once and they come back year after year.  2)  Perennial greens are the first things up in late winter, early spring.   Midwest Perennial Vegetable Garden

The hardest part is finding a spot to start the cool season crops with so many summer veggies going strong.  I like to start them in smaller self-watering, rectangular pots that are about 6" tall by 12" or so long in the shade and then transplant them out when it gets cooler and more room is opened up.  

Here are the crops you can start in the September Midwest edible garden:

September
Austrian winter peas
Arugula
Beets

Broccoli transplants
Brussel sprouts transplants

Cabbage transplants

Carrots
Cauliflower transplants
Corn salad
Escarole

Fava beans
Frisee
Italian dandelion

Kale

Kohlrabi
Lettuce
Mache
Mustard and Mustard Greens

Winter and Perennial Onions

Peas

Radish

Scallions

Snow peas
Sorrel
Spinach

Turnips

November edible garden

Look for cold hardy varieties when planting for fall and winter harvests.  You will be surprised to harvest all through the winter months things like greens, onions, Austrian peas, carrots, and cabbage without any cover.  You can also extend the harvest by looking for the same crop with different days to harvest timing so that they mature at different times.  

Finally, you can use cover to extend the harvest all the way to next spring.

  Extend the season with protection for plants
Winter edible garden

When planting seeds when temperatures can get hot, be sure to keep the soil moist and in a cool spot until the plants are well established.  Summer and fall planted crops take longer to come to harvest than they do in the spring.  Rule of thumb is to add 2 weeks.  It's because the days are getting shorter in fall rather than longer like in spring.  

A great and easy way to start your fall garden is to sow the seeds in a pot on a covered deck or patio.  This makes it easy to keep an eye on the seedlings and protects them from the harsh hot summer sun.  After they have a couple of sets of their true leaves, you can transplant into the garden bed.  Harden them off first by moving the pot to full sun before transplanting.  "Hardening off" seedlings  After transplanting into the garden, keep them watered regularly during hot, dry weather until well established.

For more summer seed starting tips Outdoor seed starting tips

What's happening in the early September edible garden

Trellised purple pole beans and potted Egyptian walking onions

Monday, September 2, 2024

Self seeding flowers like zinnias, hummingbird vine, morning glory, marigolds, Love Lies Bleeding and Cock's Comb celosia are in full splendor right now.  Tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, Egyptian walking onions, the Mediterranean herbs like basil, rosemary, sage, oregano, chives, tarragon and thyme are still doing well in the garden, even through the 90's of August.  We are preserving everything we have extra right now.  Love knowing that we can eat food we grew year round.

It has been a very hot and dry August, well into the 90's many days at a stretch, even reached triple digits last week.  Looks like we are headed into the 80's for the extended forecast which the plants will appreciate, but no rains likely.  We are not getting the fall rains we used to get this time of the year.  Just sunny, dry with low humidity.  Great weather for enjoying the outdoors, but watering is needed for the edibles.

I fertilized middle of August with all natural fertilizer.  With natural fertilizers you don’t have to worry about “burning” your plants as they slowly release into the ground.   This may be the last time I fertilize this season. You should fertilize about once a month through the growing season.  You don’t want to shoot too much nitrogen to your fruit producers as you can end up with all leaves and no veggie fruits.  It is especially critical for any potted plants as they can't pull up nutrients from the surrounding soil; only the small amount of potting soil in their isolated pot.  

 The veggies that love the spring weather also thrive in fall.  It is important to get all your winter and overwintering veggies and greens up to full size prior to early November.  The days are so short come November that there will be minimal growth from November to mid January.  The fall edible garden

This year was decent for peppers and tomatoes.  Peppers were late getting started but have produced well.  The ones in the garden bed wilted early in the season.  I thought it was disease or the voles had eaten away their roots and pulled them all.  About a week later, I noticed that the soil was really dry in that bed so that may have been part of the problem.  The plants my husband had in upside down 5 gallon buckets did great until July.  He hadn't fertilized them since April.  The fertilizer stakes he used said to add more every 3 months.  With potted plants, a good rule of thumb is to double that, so every 6 weeks in this case.  I trimmed them back, he fertilized them and we are seeing some growth again.

I planted a second round of tomato plants both in the garden bed and in pots.  The ones in the garden bed are just starting to get flowers and the ones in the pots have been providing ripe tomatoes for a couple of weeks.  Peppers and tomatoes will continue producing up until a hard freeze. 

For the last few years, I have started growing 2 tomato crops, one early and one started in June or July.  This way when some of the tomato plants die back, the new ones are kicking in.  I already have enough frozen tomatoes in the freezer to last until next year's harvest, but it is nice to have vine ripened slicers for fresh eating.  I'll make sauce and can it with the frozen tomatoes left from 2023 and any additional frozen quarts from this year that won't fit in the wire basket in the freezer.  I always do that when it starts cooling off.  

 Preserving the tomato harvest       Easy, low tox canning of summer's bounty

My pepper plants are still producing.  The plants grew decent this year in the pots.  The sweet red snacking pepper, Anaheim, Jigsaw, Tunisian Baklouti and Chipetin pepper plants have both green and ripening fruits on it.  The volunteer California Wonder has small fruits on it.  I have been freezing extras off the sweet pepper plants and drying the Anaheim peppers for chili powder for about a month now.  They'll produce until a freeze.  The variegated Jigsaw plant I overwintered indoors is doing great outside in its pot.  The Jigsaw, Chipetin and Tunisian Baklouti peppers are hot peppers.  I grow the Chipetin for using in my seasoned salt mix.  The other two I will use to make hot sauce. Peppers love September

I grew three types of pole snap beans this year and Christmas Speckles lima beans.  I planted 1500 Year Old bean vine that can be either harvested tender or left on the vine for dried beans; I'm using it for snap beans.  I did my standby Blauhilde purple Romano type bean.  I planted a Japanese early winged bean that has beautiful blue flowers.  The pole beans had their roots eaten by voles so I did not get a huge harvest from them.  The winged bean is still producing.  The winged bean takes a while to get going and just started producing beans.  The Christmas Speckles lima bean is on its third round of pod production.  They will all produce up to a hard freeze.

Basil in front, okra to left, cock's comb on right, zinnias in background

I started by bush cucumber in the garden bed this year.  It did decent.  I got enough for all the pickles my husband will eat.  My mom really likes them, too, so next year I will put in an additional plant for her.  Luckily, it looks like I have a yellow cucumber volunteer vine and it is now producing so their are fruits to give to her.   Make your own pickles without a store bought seasoning mix

My potted eggplant did well this year.  Eggplant loves hot weather and lots of sun.  I do have about 6 plants.  For fresh eating, we probably only need 3 as long as the Trombetta is also producing.

The Trombetta summer squash is doing well.  I am getting a 1-2 fruits every week so enough for us to eat and give 1 to friends or family each week.  If I have many extras, I will make into zoodles.  This zucchini is one I will grow every year as it is the most disease and pest resistant I have found, it doesn't over produce, and it tastes great.

My raspberry plants are producing fruits again.  I got 6 apples off my columnar apple tree last week.  We removed the wire mesh from around it and the deer came and snacked.  I may have gotten a few more if I had kept the deer away.  The goji (or wolf berry) berry bush is producing many fruits.

The chives, tarragon, thyme, oregano, celery, and onions are all doing quite well.  All will do well through the fall and into the winter.  I will harvest many of the herbs in the next month or so to make my dry herb mix that I use in just about everything.  Use your own herbs for your Thanksgiving dinner

Basil does not survive a frost so I will harvest all of the plants when the forecast is calling for frost and make pesto that I freeze.  I have a variety called African nunum that does great indoors all winter that I can always have fresh basil when I need it.  It smells wonderful, too.  Basil basics-harvesting, preserving, growing basil

I need to get my lettuce and pea seeds going this next week.  The temperatures are going to be cool enough for germinating and growing lettuce right now.  When the seedlings get to a good size, I will transplant them into their winter home in my self watering Earthboxes. 

I had let the greens in the Earthbox reseed themselves over the summer and there are new sweet mustard greens, celery, chard, cultivated dandelions, sprouting broccoli, and amaranth growing.  I will cover the Earthboxes with a portable green house later this fall so we can have salads throughout the winter.  Homegrown, organic salads in a Midwest winter

I have had a huge number of volunteer Red Malabar spinach vines from seed from last year's vines.  Will need to do more pulling of the volunteers next year!  Had many volunteers of cock's comb, too, and zinnias.  When they get a decent size, I move them around to pots and in the garden bed.  I love their bright colors.

Make sure you save the seeds from your best and longest producers to plant in your garden next spring.  I also save seeds from organic produce I get from the store that is really good.  Some of my favorite tomato plants have come from seed saved from store bought tomatoes.  Look for heirlooms as they will come back like their parent from seed.  What do the terms GMO, natural, heirloom, organic, hybrid really mean?

Tomato, horseradish, marigolds, morning glory and zinnias in the south facing garden
This fall, we will have mustard greens, lettuce, chard, Red Malabar spinach, New Zealand spinach, garden sorrel, cultivated dandelion, purslane, cress, celery, chives, and sprouting broccoli for salads.  Peppers, snap beans, squash, eggplant and tomatoes will produce until the first freeze.  The Egyptian onions will produce all through winter. 

How to start fall lettuce in hot weather

 

Sunday, September 1, 2024

Lettuce is a cool season, leafy green.  The seeds will not germinate well in ground temps above 75 degrees F.  Lettuce does thrive in the cool temperatures of fall into winter, so how to get them going to be at full size for fall?  

There are a couple of options for summer time seed sowing.  You can grow in shade, cover with a shade cloth or start your seedlings indoors and then transplant outdoors after hardening off.

I start my lettuce seeds in rectangular self-watering pots in the shade, close to the watering can on the northeast side of the house (the north side is the coolest side).  The seedlings will be up in 7 days if kept well watered.  I let them grow until they have the first set of true leaves and are about 2” tall.  I then start hardening them off, gradually increasing their sun exposure over a week.  After they are hardened, I transplant them into their permanent home, keeping them well watered for another couple of weeks.

If you want to direct seed in your flower bed, dig a shallow trench about a half inch deep, fill with potting soil, seed, pat down, then cover lightly with more potting soil.  Water well with a gentle stream of water so you don’t wash the seed away.  I use a rain head on my watering can.

I would wait to start seeds until it looks like the 90's are over and the late summer cool down has started.  If you plant too early, the young plants will bolt if the temperatures are still hitting the 80's when they get start growing their second set of permanent leaves.

In looking at our extended forecast, the last of the 90's are over and we are headed into the mid-80's.  I'll start my seeds this coming week.  Use the same growing techniques for your greens in fall as you would in spring.  Growing fabulous lettuce and greens  Plant cold hardy varieties this time of year to extend the harvest into winter.  Quick tip-lettuce varieties I started for fall/winter