It’s late into growing season and you’ve probably harvested many of your vegetables at this point. Your garden is beginning to empty out and lose color as you pluck off all the ripe tomatoes from you tomato plant or trim off the bright green heads of lettuce from your garden. Sure it’s late in the growing season, but why stop here? Many vegetables are actually well suited for the late summer to early fall weather. Here are five ideal vegetables to plant in August and September.
Garlic
Garlic is a pretty easy vegetable to grow in the garden and perfect to plant in the early fall.
While just about any variety of garlic can be planted at this time of year, hardneck garlic would make the best choice as it is hardier than many other varieties making more resistant to colder temperatures should any frosts occur.
To be safe however, garlic should be planted around one month before the ground begins to freeze at the latest. Just sow in cloves about 2 inches deep into the soil and 6 inches apart from each other in rows and you should get garlic ready to be harvested by springtime.
Beets
Beets are a great vegetable to plant late into the season because of how fast they grow. They can mature in as little as 45 days! Beet! Beet! That’s really fast.
Beets are also a suitable crop at this time because they don’t need that much sunlight compared to other common garden plants like tomatoes and pumpkins. So as the days begins to shorten and the nights begin to increase, beets make a great crop to plant late into the growing season.
Carrots
Carrots are perfect for this part of the growing season because they actually tend grow better in cooler temperatures such as the early fall. Therefore, the optimum time to start planting would be around early to mid August.
Another great thing about carrots is that they can be planted in your garden about every three to four weeks.
Most any carrot variety will grow in the late summer to early fall seasons but its best to choose carrot varieties such as “Little Finger” that feature fast maturity rates. Just make sure to give your soil a fresh dose of fertilizer before sowing your carrot seeds into the ground.
Kale
Kale is a pretty hardy plant which is even somewhat resistant to frosts. In fact, a frost can even improve the taste and flavor of Kale. It can even withstand temperatures as low as 20 degrees F (-6.67 C). This makes it perfect for growing in the fall season when lower temperatures begin to be of concern.
Just till in some fertilizer and sow your kale seeds about 1/3 inch into the soil and you’ll soon have some kale leaves to be harvested. They go great in salads and can also be made into kale chips. Of course, there are many kale recipes out there as well.
Brussel Sprouts
Brussel sprouts can be grown just about any time during the growing season, but like all the previous vegetables on this list, they are more suitable in cooler environments.
The minimum temperature for growing brussel sprouts is only 45 degrees F (7.2 Celsius) and they really don’t do all that well in soil that is over 80 degrees F (26.7 Celsius). Because of this, you will have no problem planting brussel sprouts late into the growing season.
Just some good soil and consistent watering is all you need to grow these leafy green vegetables.
So there you have it. Just because summer is over, doesn’t mean gardening season is. There is still plenty of other crops that can be grown during the phasing of summer to autumn including but not limited to:
Broccoli
Radishes
Onions
Parsley
Leeks
