What's happening in the mid-September edible garden

Edible and decorative front garden bed

Sunday, September 14, 2025

We are having a very dry September again this year and way above average temperatures.  In the past, we could depend on the rains starting by mid-September and supplemental watering being pretty well over until next summer.  Not this year.  I am still watering the beds weekly and the potted edibles every 2-3 days with temps in the mid 90's this coming week.  

Peppers, beans, eggplant, okra and squash do well in this type of weather if you make sure they have enough to drink.  I have many peppers just waiting to ripen, my okra continues to flower and produce fruits, my Yard Long beans are producing very well, there are a few tomatoes on my tomato plants, and flowers and fruits on my eggplant.  When the heat gets in the 90's and stays there, tomatoes will drop their flowers so you don't get as many fruits during heat waves.  

Herbs are doing well.  The basil and oregano is in full bloom.  The bees are loving both of these plants along with the zinnias, celosias, marigolds and lavender.  Now is a great time to harvest all your herbs.  I do need to harvest sage as I am out of it.

Time to harvest and preserve your herbs

Cardinal basil in forefront and Genovese basil in background

Many of the winter lettuce seed I planted a couple weeks ago has sprouted.  They're not growing much yet.  When they get their second set of leaves, I will start transplanting them into their winter pots which I will cover with a portable greenhouse cover.  All will do great under cover all winter. 

I dug all my shallots and garlic last month.  I will divide and replant them next month.  They can be planted as late as November in our zone.

Time to plant perennial onions, garlic and shallots

If you are a garlic lover, October is prime time to plant your garlic for next summer's harvest.  I save the biggest cloves from my summer harvest to plant in the fall.  If you haven't ordered yours yet, some varieties may be sold out, but that is always a good reason to try something new.  

How to choose garlic to grow

My volunteer zinnias, cock's comb, and flame celosias did really well again this year.  I had a bonanza of different colors of zinnias and my cock's comb flower heads were huge.  I'm sure I will have many volunteers come up again next year.  The California Giant orange zinnias just glowed in my front yard pot.

Fuschia pin cushion zinnia

Hummingbird vine, Heavenly morning glory, and Red Malabar spinach volunteer vines went a little crazy this summer.  I did a better job this year of pulling most of them.  

I do like growing Egyptian Walking Onions, eggplant and peppers in pots so will continue to do so.  Tomatoes, pole beans, squash, okra, cucumbers, corn, garlic and melons all are more productive in the ground.  You can still do well in pots using compact varieties, but smaller plants do mean smaller yields.

Pretty soon, it will time to reflect back on this year's garden, see how much I was able to can, pickle, dry and put away in the freezer to develop next year's garden plan.  It is best to do at the end of the season when all is still fresh in your mind.  It is also a great time to write up the list of things you'd like to learn more about over the winter to try in next year's edible garden.

Reflections on the 2024 edible garden and the 2025 plan

Time to harvest and preserve your herbs

Multicolor sage

September 13, 2025

End of summer is a great time to tidy garden beds and harvest herbs.  Herbs have a tendency to take a walk on the wild side.  As the days get shorter, growth slows and before long the sun cannot support all the greenery from summer.

Rosemary

Fall is the perfect time to harvest your herbs.  You can cut them back so they remain lush, improving the tidiness of your garden, and providing herbs for the winter ahead.  Herbs are expensive in the store and you get a huge amount from just trimming back your herb plants.  Enough for you and Christmas gifts!

For soft herbs like chives and garlic chives, I cut around the outside.  You can either then dry or freeze your cuttings.  Soft herbs don't retain as much of their flavor when dried.

For basil, I keep a pot indoors over the winter to have fresh basil whenever I need it.  I do harvest basil during the summer and fall to make pesto.  It just doesn't retain much flavor when dried.  Pesto is a great way to preserve your basil.  I freeze in freezer bags and have a quick meal ready to go anytime.  Basil also will not survive even a frost.  So when they call for frost, I harvest all that is left on the plant.

Time to harvest basil 

For rosemary, you can trim the bush into a more pleasing shape or just take the outer third of growth.  I have not been successful in finding a rosemary that survives outside in my Zone 7 region.  My rosemary plants survive the winter but when we have our normal warm up in January or February followed by another deep freeze, it kills the plant.  So in late fall/early winter, I will harvest all the limbs so I don't waste any of that great flavor.  Rosemary is perfect with lamb, on potatoes, or on cheese bread.

For sage, savory, and thyme, I simply trim them into a healthy shape.  For basil, oregano and marjoram, I remove about a third of the top growth.  

Thyme

I dry my herbs to preserve them.  I put loosely in a paper bag in a dry, warm area out of the sun and let dry naturally.  Loose is the key here so they get good air circulation and do not mold.  They should be completely dry in about 3-4 weeks.  I like putting them in clothes closets to dry as they release such great fragrance.  

Once dried, remove the leaves from woody herbs and store in an airtight container out of direct sunlight.  If a soft herb like chives, you can just crumble into the airtight container.  I use wide mouth canning jars or freezer bags for herb storage.

I also keep a gallon freezer bag of a mix of all the herbs in my garden to use in sauces, on meats, in soup, stews, just about anything I cook.  It's a favorite request of family and friends for their own pantry.

Make your own "Herbes de Provence"

If the winter is not a bad one, most perennial herbs like chives, oregano, sage, winter savory, and thyme can be harvested year round straight from the garden.

What to start in the edible September garden

Fall seedlings in an Italian garden

Sunday, September 7, 2025

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 and transplant cold crops.  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 Sowing
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

September Transplants

Cold hardy lettuces, spinach, collards, broccoli, all perennials, trees, shrubs, greens, spinach

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

Peppers love fall

Jalapeño

Saturday, September 6, 2025

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

Fall edible garden

Fall savoy cabbage 

Sunday, August 31, 2025

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, 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, you can reuse the plastic annual trays you got in the spring or even use plastic salad containers to get your seedlings going.  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 can be 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.  

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 sowing and 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 sown in August for spring harvests in Zone 6 or higher.  Use transplants for broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage.

September

Sow 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. Beginning of September for transplants for broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage.

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.  Late August, early September is the best time to get transplants into the garden for fall and winter harvests.

The September 2025 Edible Garden Planner

Harvest from September garden

Saturday, August 30, 2025

End of summer is a great time to tidy garden beds, harvest herbs, plant for fall and winter harvests, and add new perennials.  As the days get shorter, growth slows and before long the sun cannot support all the greenery from summer.  Plants, trees and bushes will drop leaves, but peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, greens, herbs, okra, pole beans, squash and cucumbers will keep producing through frost.  Keep the fruits picked to keep them producing.  Beginning of September is an ideal time to sow seeds of cool weather greens for fall and early winter harvests.  

Harvesting Herbs

This is the perfect time to harvest your herbs.  You can cut them back so they remain lush, improving the tidiness of your garden, and providing herbs for the winter ahead.  Cutting them back will help the plants build stronger root systems.  Trimming also encourages new growth.  You just don't want to prune perennial herbs too close to frost as new growth makes the plant less hardy. 

Harvesting and drying herbs

I dry my herbs to preserve them.  I cut the plant back by about two thirds and put the stems loosely in a paper bag in a dry, warm area out of the sun and let dry naturally.  Loose is the key here so they get good air circulation and do not mold.  They should be completely dry in about 3-4 weeks.  I like putting them in clothes closets to dry as they release such great fragrance, repels moths and the darkness helps keep the flavor in the herb. 

Once dried, remove the leaves from woody herbs and store in an airtight container out of direct sunlight.  With a soft herb like chives, you can just crumble into the airtight container.  I use wide mouth canning jars for herb storage or freezer bags kept in a dark location.  

For more ideas on herbs, Make your own "Herbes de Provence", Use herbs for signature desserts and grown up beverages, Quick tip on fresh flavor herb preservation and herbal butters, Homemade salad dressing recipes with garden herbs, and Make your own teas from garden grown herbs

Basil is one that loses most of its flavor when dried.  You can cut back basil a few times each growing season for harvesting and preserving.  My favorite way to preserve basil is to make pesto and freeze it.  It tastes just like freshly made pesto.  Be sure to remove all leaves or bring plants indoors when they are calling for frost.  Basil is very frost intolerant and its leaves will turn black when touched with frost.

Time to harvest basil 

 If the winter is not colder than usual in our zone, most perennial herbs like chives, oregano, sage, savory and thyme can be harvested year round straight from the garden.  If it is a harsh winter, the tops of these perennials will die to the ground, but re-sprout in the spring.

Winter squash from the September garden

Fall planting guide for cool season crops

September is prime time to plant more greens, beets, cole crops, carrots and radishes. 

What to plant in the September edible garden 

What I planted this week for fall eating

Get your fall and winter garden growing!

October is the month to plant garlic for next year's harvest.  Buy your garlic now if you haven't already because the most popular varieties sell out early!  I replant the biggest cloves from this year's harvest.  I use both regular garlic and elephant garlic in the garden.  I like elephant garlic because it produces huge cloves.  Hardneck garlic has larger cloves than soft neck and is easier to peel.  The advantage of soft neck garlic is that it stores longer and is hardier in colder climates.  I gave up on doing winter storage of whole cloves and went to pickling the extras.  Pickled garlic lasts for years in the frig.  

 Time to plant garlic! With growing tips......  

Quick tip-”peeling” garlic

Have garlic any time you need it, just pickle some!

You can pick up transplants like broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, kale, as well as herbs at some nurseries since gardening has become so popular.  You can also buy them on line or grow from seed.  Everything that loves spring also thrive in fall into early winter and some all the way to spring.  

Broccoli and cauliflower growing tips

Everything you need to know about growing lettuce

Collards and kale in your garden

Midwest Perennial Vegetable Garden

Lettuce is my favorite for fall.  Plant a variety daily the first two weeks of September so that they are mature by the end of October.  Pick varieties that are cold tolerant with descriptions like "winter hardy", "cold tolerant", etc.  Time to plant lettuce seed for fall, winter salads

For more on fall planting,  Time to set out transplants for fall, winter, & spring harvests

Caring for your new seeds and transplants

Like in the spring, newly sown seeds need moisture to sprout.  Keep seeds and transplants moist until they get their first real set of leaves and are well established.  Then water as needed.  Outdoor seed starting tips

Many crops you can harvest into December and beyond, depending on how cold fall is.  Some get sweeter with some frost, like carrots, chard, and lettuce.  With cover, you can harvest all the way through winter!  
Extend the season with protection for plants

Transplants for winter and overwintering

What’s growing in the late February garden

Homegrown, organic salads in a Midwest winter

You can garden year round in small space

Prepare for hard freeze

Caring for the Summer Vegetables

Many of the summer veggies will continue producing until the first killing frost.  I continue to fertilize the beginning of September and October to keep the plants healthy while they are producing.  We are getting less and less daylight now so it is expected that the plants will drop lower leaves and have slower growth. Cucumbers, summer squash, peppers, eggplants, okra, snap beans and tomatoes all keep producing in our garden well into November.  

Greens in the garden are getting a second life as the temperatures cool and consistent moisture returns.  I got my greens sowed a couple of weeks ago and most of them are up now.  We had a real heat wave before that.  Lettuce seed will not sprout if soil temperatures are above 75F.  I sowed lettuce, spinach, greens and snow peas when it got back down into the 80's for highs.  I'll transplant the seedlings into pots that I keep under the portable greenhouse for the winter to keep salads all winter long when the temps start staying in the low 80's or cooler so they don't bolt. 

A quick reminder, save the seeds from your best performers to plant next year!  You can replant seeds from any heirlooms or open pollinated plants and they will be like their parent; hybrids likely will not.  Not only does it save you money, but it also gives you the plants that do the best under your garden and zone conditions.  Be sure to save seed only from disease free plants.  Seed saving-fun, easy and a cost saver  

What's happening in the late edible August garden

Garden in the morning

Sunday, August 24, 2025

August usually sees the full repertoire of the summer garden harvests.  This August has been hard on even the summer vegetables due to the extreme and prolonged heat July through last week.  Usually there is late sweet corn (plant corn in succession and different varieties to lengthen the harvest), summer squashes (like zucchini), peppers of all types (sweet to hot, hot), tomatoes, Mediterranean herbs, cucumbers, okra, apples, peaches, pears, grapes, beans, melons, figs, eggplant, honey, artichokes, raspberries, onion, winter squash and fennel are all in season in the Midwest.  

This year for warm season veggies, the heat put the brakes on tomatoes, cucumbers, squash and beans.  Tomato pollen is sterile when temperatures average about 85F.  The flowers will form but will fall off because they can't be germinated.  Only our small tomatoes have continued to produce.  The larger tomatoes have very few babies on them and those that do form do not get to normal size.  Our temperatures have started to drop with highs in the mid 80's and lows in the mid 60's so they so be able to produce again.

My beans, winged and yard long, have just started to produce in the last week.  My lima bean vines are still less than 12" long and not flowering.  I think this is mainly because I put them in a new bed.  I'll have to add compost this fall so it will be more fertile for next year.

My Trombetta squash vine hasn't produced any squashes but has started to flower so I should be getting squashes soon.

My cucumber vines both stopped producing.  Only one is flowering but no fruits so far in the last couple of weeks.

My eggplant and pepper plants are doing just fine.  The heat didn't seem to bother them.

I went and fertilized all my veggies with liquid fish fertilizer now that it has cooled down some to give them a boost.  Summer veggies do love September weather so I should see a good increase in production in the next couple of weeks if the temperatures stay normal.

I am harvesting small tomatoes, snap beans, peppers, greens, sprouting broccoli, Giant Blue Feather lettuce, Egyptian walking onions, eggplant, goji berry, basil, melons, husk cherries, and herbs.  

You can start a second round of summer veggies like tomatoes, cucumbers and summer squash at the end of June to have more vigorous plants going into fall.  I started 3 extra tomato slicer plants a week or so ago.  They have sprouted but it will be a while before they are big enough to produce. This year I lost a couple of Cherokee purple plants last month but the rest (15) kept producing.

I have gotten all the cucumbers I need for pickles so I don't really need more.  Since the Trombetta has just started flowering, it should do well all the way through fall.

If you are not growing summer veggies in your own garden, your local farmers market is a great place to pick up these seasonal veggies to either eat or preserve.  The best buy on any fruit or vegetable is when it is in season.  You can get even better deals on any produce that has a few blemishes which have no effect on the flavor.  If you are going to can, freeze or dry them, just be sure to remove any blemishes first.

 Veggies that are easy to preserve the extras for winter eating

We grow many edibles in pots because our edibles are integrated into the flower beds.  In pots, we have had great luck with Egyptian walking onions (which can be harvested year round), peppers, eggplant, bush zucchini, bush cucumber, dwarf tomatoes, greens, fig tree, columnar apple trees, dwarf moringa tree, kumquat tree, sweet bay, mint, goji berry, raspberry, lettuce and celery. 

Spaghetti squash sitting on hummingbird vine

I have tried sweet and hot peppers in pots and the garden.  Overall, they seem to do the best in pots.  I am growing a couple hot peppers-a pequin type Chiltepin and Anaheim.  I use the tiny peppers in my season salt I make and Anaheim for chili powder.  I have several varieties of sweet peppers-Habanada, Tricked You jalapeño, yellow, red and green bell peppers and a dark red snacking sweet pepper.  The bell peppers are in the ground and doing well.  The rest are in pots.

Preserving peppers

Peppers are for every taste and garden

Weekly watering for plants in the ground is sufficient with monthly fertilizing.  A pot with a water reservoir in the bottom is the best solution for lengthening the time between waterings when growing in pots.  Otherwise, plan on watering your pots every 2-3 days and fertilize every other week.  Summer garden tips

I grow all of our herbs in the ground except sweet bay.  Sweet bay is a tender perennial and will not survive winters outside so I keep it in a pot to bring in each fall.    I had one a couple of years ago that was supposed to be hardy in our zone and it didn’t make it.  I put my new one in a pot and it has overwintered well in our unheated garage for the last four winters.  Fall is a good time to plant perennial herbs, veggies, fruits and flowers.

Midwest Perennial Vegetable Garden

Rosemary is also tender.  I have tried the several varieties that are supposed to be able to survive a Midwest winter and have yet to find one that will last past 2 seasons.  I have tried to also keep in a pot and bring in each winter. This is an herb I will buy each spring if overwintering does not work out, plant in the garden, then preserve for the winter by harvesting late in the season and drying.

Harvest and preserve your herbs

Make your own "Herbes de Provence"

Flowers are doing great right now in the garden.  They are covered in beneficial insects, butterflies and butterfly caterpillars.  The zinnias, marigolds, petunias, Hummingbird vine, lantana, and Cock's Comb are putting on a big show.  The zinnias, marigolds and Cock's Comb are also edible.  Flowers that are edible

Red zinnia

I started my fall and winter edibles about 10 days ago.  I'm keeping them on the covered patio so they stay as cool as possible for germination.  About half are up so far.  

What I planted this week for fall eating

Get your fall and winter garden growing!

A quick reminder, save the seeds from your best performers that have been disease free to plant next year.  You can replant seeds from any heirlooms or open pollinated plants.  What do the terms GMO, natural, heirloom, organic, hybrid really mean?  Not only does it save you money, but it also gives you the plants that do the best under your garden and zone conditions.

Seed saving-fun, easy and a cost saver

My top 10 seed saving tips