What to plant in the October edible garden

Fall edible garden

 Saturday, October 5, 2024 

October is a great time to plant garlic to have big cloves by next summer.  Many cold hardy crops can be transplanted into the garden, too.  Cover can be used to extend the harvest all the way through to spring.  

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

This month you can transplant more greens, any perennial veggies, fruits, and herbs as well as flowers, trees and shrubs.   Midwest Perennial Vegetable Garden   Greens can still be sown by seed if you have a cold frame or a portable greenhouse cover.  Sow the seeds, then after sprouting and developing a couple of sets of leaves, you can put a cover over them at night to keep them warm and growing faster.  You want your plants to be as close to full size by mid November as you can get.  That's when the daylight hours get less than 10 hours and growth outdoors pretty much slows to a crawl.

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

October seeds outdoors
Austrian winter peas

Fava beans

Garlic

Lettuce-winter hardy varieties

Snow peas

Spring bulbs

October transplants
Arugula

Broccoli
Brussel sprouts

Cabbage

Cauliflower

Celery
Corn salad

Endive
Escarole

Frisee
Italian dandelion

Kale

Kohlrabi
Lettuce
Mache
Mustard and Mustard Greens

Winter and Perennial Onions

Parsley

Scallions

Shallots

Sorrel
Spinach

Sprouting broccoli

Trees, bushes, and perennials

Transplants for winter and overwintering

Look for cold hardy edible varieties when planting for fall and winter harvests.  You may be surprised that you can harvest all through the winter months things like greens, onions, Austrian peas, carrots, and cabbage.  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.  

Covering plants when there is a cold snap in the fall will keep them warmer and growing quicker.  You can use cover to possibly extend the harvest all the way to next spring.  I use a portable greenhouse for my lettuces that works great.  Extend the season with protection for plants  Homegrown, organic salads in a Midwest winter

When planting when temperatures can get hot, be sure to keep the soil moist until the plants are well established.  Lettuce won't sprout when the ground temperatures are above 75F.  If it is too hot in your garden, you can start them indoors.  My lettuce seedlings are starting to get their first set of true leaves.  I'll likely transplant them in another week or two to their winter pot.  

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 to what the "Days to Harvest" on the seed packet.  It's because the days are getting shorter rather than longer and cooler rather than warmer.  

Once there are less than 10 hours of daylight, most plants growth will slow to a crawl.  This occurs at our latitude on November 24 this year.  We get back to more than 10 hours of daylight on January 17.  Once we get back to 10 hours of daylight, plants come to life and start growing quickly again.

What you want to do is to start your seeds and transplants early enough in late summer and fall so that the plant is at full size before daylight gets short and the cold really sets in.  Then you harvest what you want through the winter.

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 hot sun and frosts.  After they have a couple of sets of their true leaves, you can transplant into the garden bed or pot.  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 dry weather until well established.

For more seed starting tips Outdoor seed starting tips  Indoor seed starting tips  Ideal soil temperatures for starting your seeds

You can also get fall transplants on-line and at local nurseries.  So if you haven't started seeds yet or don't have the time, this is another great option to have a fall and winter garden for fresh eating.