When we're talking about fall gardening, it's important to know what grows well in our area at that time of the season so we can better plan. Let's chat about the factors that go into deciding what to grow in the fall garden and my top five picks for your USDA Hardiness Zone, from Zone 1 to Zone 13.
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Welcome back, my gardening friends, to another Focal Point
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Friday episode. Let's spend just a few minutes
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together reviewing A snippet of information from a.
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Previous episode. Highlighting a new topic.
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Or quickly. Focusing on a current event in
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the food and. Agriculture world.
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Let's get down and dirty. So on Tuesday, we chatted all
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about fall gardening. This is your reminder to get in
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on the Fall Garden Challenge. It is five days of emails.
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It's designed to get you from zero to done in one week, ready
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to get going with your fall garden.
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It is absolutely free. The link to that is in the show
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notes. You just Scroll down in your app
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that plays your podcast and you should find the link there.
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You can go to the show notes on the website or you can go to
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justgrowsomethingpodcast.com Fall to get signed up.
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We start on Monday, July 24th, so get in now.
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Part of that planning for the fall garden is knowing what it
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is that you can grow in your area.
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Most things that do well in spring in your garden will also
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do well in your area for fall, with a few exceptions, and most
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of those exceptions have to do with timing.
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This is going to vary by your region, so for cold and more
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temperate regions. It's important to remember to
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choose the right varieties. You want to opt for those
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varieties that are suited for cooler temperatures and have a
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shorter maturation period. So things that are labeled as
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cold Hardy or frost tolerant are a really good idea.
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Because you are skirting the boundaries of when that frostate
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is, you know you're going to calculate that first frostate in
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your area and count backward. Make sure that you give yourself
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plenty of time to get those vegetables to maturity before
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the 1st frost. You always want to be using
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mulch. A thick layer of mulch is going
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to help. To insulate the soil, it's going
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to help maintain a consistent temperature.
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Of course it always reduces the weeds, but something that is a
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little bit darker is going to help with retaining some of that
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heat to keep those crops going a little bit longer, and then
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making sure that you have Rd. covers or cold frames available
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to protect those plants in case you have an early frost or an
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early freeze. And these things can actually
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serve you well if you want to extend the season further on
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into the winter time. Now of course, growing a fall
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garden in a warmer region is going to have have a little bit
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of a different set of challenges and considerations, so obviously
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the cooler temperatures are not going to be as much of A
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concern. But gardeners and warmer regions
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do need to take into account the potential for extended hot
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weather, so your summer season may get extended.
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You may end up having a potential heat wave, so you want
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to actually choose varieties that are a bit more heat
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tolerant instead of focusing on those cold Hardy varieties.
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In most instances, your timing again is a little bit different.
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You can your growing season can actually extend pretty well into
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the fall and even through into the winter very easily, So you
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might actually consider planting fall crops a little bit later in
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the season to avoid the peak of the summer heat.
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And anything you know, any heat waves that might come towards
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the end of that season mulching is still going to be beneficial
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for you. In warm regions you may want to
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use a little bit of a lighter mulch that doesn't retain as
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much heat. So straw and dry leaves here
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that have been chopped up or a really good option.
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They'll conserve the soil moisture, but they shouldn't
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increase the the soil temperature too excessively.
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And then you actually want to choose vegetables that thrive in
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that warmer weather. But also have a shorter
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maturation period because you want them to be able to work
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with those late summer early fall temperatures that are
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generally still very, very warm. But you also want them to mature
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before the daylight hours really begin to dwindle, which is going
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to slow their growth dramatically.
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And again, you have a much easier ability to be able to
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extend your growing season into the winter.
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So winter gardening is actually very possible in a lot of your
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areas. If you do have times when it
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does start to get cold, keeping row covers or some sort of
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covering on hand to help protect those plants during those cooler
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nights will also extend your growing season a little bit.
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It is still important for you to choose the right vegetables you
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want ones that are well suited for overwintering if that's what
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you're wanting to do. So depending on what your region
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is, things like. You know, kale and collard
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greens and spinach and a lot of the root vegetables and even
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certain varieties of broccoli and cauliflower may be able to
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be overwintered very easily in the warmer regions.
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You do also though, just like in the cooler regions, want to
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plant at the right time. So your timing is going to be
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critical, especially if you're trying to overwinter things.
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So planting, you know, early enough, they have time to get
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established before the temperatures start to drop
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significantly and those daylight hours drop is going to be
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important here. So what type of crops are we
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talking about for our cold regions, So USDA zones one
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through 4. Things that are going to do well
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for you are kale and spinach probably are.
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My top two very cold Hardy can very easily be overwintered,
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even if you have a lot of frost and freeze protection.
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Even in the coldest zones, heavy layers of mulch, heavy covers
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often times are going to be able to be enough to at least protect
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them. From from dying on you and if
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you get them to maturity, you'll be able to harvest off of them
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into the winter and then often sometimes they'll start to
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regrow again in the spring. Your other options are things
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like carrots, turnips and beets, but again, you want to choose
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the varieties that are fast maturing.
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So that you are sure to get the harvest before the green, the
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ground really freezes solid and then you can't get them out of
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the ground. For our more temperate regions,
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this is USDA zones 5 through 8. This is the where I fall in.
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We are in zone 6A, broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels
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sprouts. These three brassicas are, in my
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experience, much easier to grow in the fall rather than in the
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spring. They tend to taste better.
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They have less pest pressure. It it really is a very, very
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good option for for the temperate regions, lettuces.
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Lots of different varieties of lettuces will do really, really
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well. You do want to choose varieties
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that are suitable for cooler weather.
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Not all varieties are going to do as well in the fall as they
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do in the spring. In my experience, things that
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are in the iceberg lettuce category don't tend to do as
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well in the fall as they do in the spring.
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Spring. I don't know if I've just not
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chosen the right varieties, but they tend toward doing a much
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better job of sort of forming those heads in the spring.
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Most of your seed packets are going to list on their whether
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or not they are suitable for a fall planting or not.
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And then radishes. Radishes are super easy for the
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fall. You can plug them in just about
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anywhere. They're a great way to fill
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space. And they grow really quickly.
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So you could actually do a couple of succession crops of
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those in the fall as well. And then finally, our warm
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regions, these are USDA zones 9 through 13.
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You can get away with things that we normally only grow in
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the summer, things like cucumbers and Peppers, tomatoes
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and squash. So even in some areas with the
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mild winters, you can plant tomatoes fairly late and still
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get a good crop out of them. Again, you want to look for
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those shorter, faster maturing varieties.
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You can even push the boundaries on some of these into like Zone
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8. So I know some Zone 8 growers
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who can definitely get a fall crop of tomatoes, and in fact
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their fall tomatoes do much better than their early ones do.
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And then green beans are another one.
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We can sometimes do fall green beans here as well.
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They also tend to do pretty well as long as we time them
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properly. But green beans are definitely a
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good fall crop for those warmer regions.
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Zones 9 through 13. With all of these things, just
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remember that, you know, seasonal gardening is going to
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be influenced by your mesocliment and your
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microclimate, so your altitude. Whether you live near a body of
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water or if you're near a mountainous area, all of those
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other sort of local factors that are very specific to your area.
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So it's always best to kind of just take these considerations
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and then go to your local gardening resources, whether
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it's your Master Gardeners or your university Extension
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Service, gardening clubs, Facebook groups that are
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specific for your area and get sort of general recommendations
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from people who are gardening where you are gardening because
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we can. Sort of classify these things by
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zone, but you know, my yard is different from my neighbor's
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yard, my town is different from the town 2 towns over, even
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though we're in the same zone. So everything is going to be
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dependent on your individual microclimate, and so it's always
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best to get recommendations from people who are gardening where
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you are. Thanks for joining me on this
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focal point Friday. I'll be back again on Tuesday
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for another. Regular episode of the Just Grow
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Something podcast. So until next time, my gardening
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friends, keep on cultivating that dream garden and we'll talk
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again soon.