The Fun Of Fall Vegetable Gardening
There is something fun about fall vegetable gardening. It seems a bit strange to be working in the garden when all of your neighbors are tilling their soil and bedding down their plots for the winter, but the satisfaction of extending your growing season into cooler weather is rewarding. With a little work and some careful planning you can have a gorgeous fall garden.
Planting the Right Crops For Fall Vegetable Gardening
Many crops don't do well in the heat of the summer. Root crops, cole crops, and lettuce much prefer the cool weather that comes with fall vegetable gardening than the hot days of June and July. Most cool season crops bolt if you try and grow them in hot weather. When a plant bolts, it puts all of its energy into growing flowers. While flowering vegetables might be nice to look at, they aren't good to eat.
The best fall vegetable gardening crops for your garden include carrots, beets, turnips, radishes, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, lettuce, and cauliflower.
Fall Vegetable Gardening Requires Summer Planting
Even though cool season crops must do their growing in the fall, they need to be planted in the summer. If you plant your fall vegetable gardening plants too late in the season, they wont have enough time to grow and mature before the first frost of the season kills them. The best way to plant your fall vegetable garden is to sow fall growing seeds in your garden as you clear away your summer harvest. Once your squash is all harvested, clear the bed and replace your squash plants with lettuce or broccoli.
Extending The Harvest
Fall vegetable gardening can be a race against the clock. Usually if you dont harvest your crops before the first frost, you will lose the plants and all the vegetables still growing on them. With a little work and proper planning, you can often extend the harvest past your first frost of the season. By keeping a close watch on the weather forecast, you can prepare to protect your plants if a frosty night is predicted. Cover your plants with a frost cloth or even an old sheet. Just make sure that the cloth doesnt rest on the foliage of your garden plants.
If frost does get your fall garden, try to salvage what you can. Some vegetables can be picked before they are ripe and allowed to ripen on your kitchen or in a cool dark place in your basement or garage.