Well an email I received from Renee yesterday helped me to see that I wasn’t the only one that was a little anxious over the situation…

Holding on to Summer’s Garden

“Hello Kenny, I love your website. This is my first time here and I learned so much valuable information to help us in our first time garden. I live in Northern New Jersey and have started a small raised bed vegetable garden with my 4 year old and 3 year old grandchildren.”

“We have had a fantastic experience. I can think of few greater joys than watching them plant seeds and pull up carrots. They are asking questions about the earth and bugs and birds. The problem is we don’t want it to end!”

“When I started, I never knew or even thought about a fall veggie garden and after visiting your website, I want one! Today is August 6. Is there anything that we can sow directly in the ground and harvest this fall or is it too late? I was hoping to plant some more carrots, lettuce and spinach. Thank you very much.” — Renee

Hurdles to Cover in Cultivating Fall Vegetables

Hi Renee, we’re in luck because there’s actually plenty of time left to plant a fall vegetable garden but I wouldn’t drag my feet at this point to get it started. Instead I would get moving pretty fast, especially if you’re interested in growing root crops such as carrots, turnips, and beets.

Many imagine  cold temperatures to be the major obstacle to growing veggies into the fall months, but I think that the decreased light levels are even more of an issue, in particular for young seedlings that are just starting to grow during the shorter fall days. That’s why you don’t want to put off your direct seeding much longer. Of course the timetable will vary a bit depending on your growing region and fickle weather conditions.

I set out some broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages, and Brussels sprout plants this week but they were from transplants that were at least six weeks old. You may be able to locate cold weather vegetable transplants at your local nursery, just don’t be duped into purchasing leftovers that have been sitting around since spring and are bound to be stunted and worthless.

The Easiest Crops for a Fall Vegetable Gardener

Now is a great time to plant leafy green fall vegetables like kale, collards, spinach, lettuce, mustard, and arugula. These fast growers should have plenty of time to produce and can be harvested at any leaf size that you wish.

Just be sure to harvest individual leaves and leave the central growing tip so that the plants can continue to push out new leaf growth. These hardy greens will even over winter and re-grow to produce additional harvests for you next spring!

Just to prove how much growing season we actually do have left, it is too early for planting some winter vegetables such as mache, cress, winter lettuce, and garlic. In the case of fall planted garlic, shallots, and multiplier onions; I won’t plant those crops until late October or early November and they will be harvested next summer.

So if you are like Renee and myself and want to stubbornly continue to grow more veggies, there’s nothing standing between you and winter but a perfect season for greens, cole crops, and other cold hardy fall vegetables!

When it’s not covered by the white stuff, the garden is still green and yielding a limited selection of fresh produce for the kitchen. Kale, collards, broccoli, turnip greens, Swiss Chard, spinach, arugula, leeks, and a few other hardy fall vegetables.

Still Harvesting Hardy Fall Vegetables from the Garden!

You won’t see the rapid growth and production of summer, but the leafy greens will hold better in the garden than they would in the refrigerator. And it’s great to have the option of harvesting a few leaves of fresh garden produce to supplement store bought vegetables. You can reap a surprising amount of nutritious greens from the garden in spite of the weather.

One trick is to hold off harvesting leafy vegetables when they are frozen solid in the garden. Instead wait for a break in weather conditions and allow the leaves to thaw out before you pick and bring them indoors. Unlike the summertime when it’s best to harvest greens during the cooler morning hours, winter forces the gardener to delay harvesting until the warmer times of the day or week.

Not all the plants are enjoying the rush into winter. The globe artichoke and cardoon plants have wilted under the cold conditions and are begging to be cut back and covered with something to keep them warm and dry until spring returns. Those Mexican Sage plants have also concluded their colorful display of flowers, the blueberry plants have shed their fiery red leaves, and you’d be hard pressed to find any herbs still standing in the garden beds.

Wrapping up a few Plants and Other Loose Ends

I did leave a small potted bay laurel plant on the patio and it has surprised me with its ability to withstand the frigid conditions. It will soon join the pampered six foot tall bay plant that was moved into the house weeks ago. A container grown fig tree is also waiting to be relocated to a corner of the garage where it will reside until spring returns.

The portable cold frames weren’t deployed into the garden this fall but I did plant an assortment of kale and other leafy greens into the main cold frame and they seem to be growing nicely now that the caterpillar worms are no longer an issue.

Yes, my duties outside in the garden are just about done for the season. There’s a bed of garlic to mulch, a pond to winterize, and a few more leaves to rake, but that’s about it. Now if the weather cooperates, I’ll be content to continue harvesting leafy greens until I come up with a few indoor gardening activities to bide my time till spring.

That’s a dilemma that many backyard gardeners are faced with at this time of year and the solution often calls for some rather ruthless decisions and drastic actions… Do you pull out the old to make room for new crops, or do you delay planting and take the risk of running short of growing season to mature those cold hardy fall vegetables?

Growing into the Fall Gardening Season

After all, timing is critical and the changing seasons are unpredictable when it comes to forecasting frosts, hard freezes, and other weather conditions. Then there’s the matter of decreasing day lengths and the reduced levels of sunlight that are the major villains disrupting plant growth and creating a roadblock for the fall gardener.

Personally, mid to late summer is the time of year that I’m looking for excuses to free up garden space for my precious fall vegetable garden, and nothing is sacred that’s left growing in the summer beds. Any slackers, under performers, or has beens are destined either for the dinner table or the compost heap.

I can always count on the raised bed vacated by the gourmet garlic, shallots, and multiplier onions that are harvested each summer to free up gardening real estate in time for planting broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and collard transplants, but I need much more growing space for all of the other fall and winter veggies!

Tough Love Out there in the Vegetable Beds

Are those Royalty Purple Podded beans finished producing yet? Then it’s time for them to go! The Blacktail Mountain watermelons are early producers but will they really ripen additional melons this season? Nope, so they’re goners also! Is that Golden Zucchini plant wilting from a virus? Are the heirloom eggplants surrendering to the flea beetles? And is that a Cilantro plant that I see bolting and going to seed? Hmmm!

The heirloom tomato plants just hate when I look in their direction, but they are safe for at least a few more weeks, maybe longer since their territory is reserved for raising fall planted garlic, which won’t go into the ground until sometime in October. Although I could always put in a quick cover crop if the tomato plants decide to relax and stop ripening those tasty fruits any time soon.

Now is when all of the garden planning and management really pays off; grouping crops with similar growth habits and maturities together means that you can more efficiently clear and replant entire beds or sections of the garden rather than become handicapped with smaller growing areas scattered here and there.

The Joys of Growing Veggies during the Autumn Season

Fall really can be the ultimate season for enjoying the garden and producing loads of delicious winter vegetables. Fewer insect pests, decreased weed growth, pleasant temperatures, and a reduced need for irrigation create ideal conditions for both the garden and the gardener!

Vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels Sprouts will only reach their full potential when raised as a fall crop in many growing regions. And others such as kale, collards, and parsnips will become sweeter and have their flavors enhanced following exposure to the seasoning effects of frost and cold weather.

It may prove to be a difficult choice for some gardeners to make, but I’ll gladly sacrifice a few weeks of declining production from selected summer crops in order to cultivate a fall garden that will be productive throughout autumn and right into the winter months.

This fall vegetable gardening article has been submitted as part of the Problogger Group Writing Project.

One of the benefits of planting a fall vegetable garden is that the harvest does not end with the arrival of winter, and in many cases those cold hardy veggies will pick right up where they left off just as soon as the temperatures begin to warm up even slightly.

It’s only mid-March and we’re still watching the snow fall here in Central PA but as you can see there is plenty growing in the garden and a few maturing vegetables that are ready to be harvested and enjoyed!

I haven’t lifted a finger or done anything other than to set foot into the garden, but here is a sampling of what was waiting on the first official day of spring:

Strawberry plant just beginning to leaf out.

Well I did plant a few saffron bulbs in the past, but they are supposed to be fall bloomers, so these must be ordinary (but still cool) crocuses springing up in the middle of one of the vegetable beds.

Surprisingly it looks like a few celery plants have survived the winter and are beginning to show signs of healthy re-growth.

Collard Plants, like many leafy greens don’t even flinch at anything that winter can send their way.

Mmmm, yummy… Fresh kale leaves, tender, frost-seasoned, and already large enough to harvest and enjoy.

Sure, I heard the freeze warnings that were broadcast over the weekend, but who pays much attention to the forecaster’s predictions these days? Besides the leafy greens and fall vegetables that occupy most of the garden have been anxiously awaiting a satisfying frost to stimulate and sweeten their cold hardy leaves for weeks as it stands.

Who’s Afraid of an Itty Bitty Frost

In fact, the only plants left in the garden that would even flinch at a wimpy little frost are a few pepper plants that have been on notice for a while that they were living on borrowed time. So it wasn’t much of a shock or disappointment when I looked out the window this morning to discover a thick, white coating of frost covering the lawn and greenery.

If you live in a tropical climate without frost, count your blessings, but then again you’ll probably never harvest a tree ripened apple, peach, or other fruit that requires a winter slumber. Or even discover the appetizing difference that frosty weather can make in enhancing the flavor of greens, root crops, and even garlic as they are transformed by the exhilarating experience of exposure to cold temps.

Let the Frost Fall Where it May

On many levels the sting of fall frost, like the approach of winter is just part of a Master plan rather than a crisis out in the vegetable garden. At least we were already blessed with a few weeks of warmer than normal growing conditions to extend the harvest of those frost tender summer crops. And according to my records, this season’s first frost occurred exactly one week later than last year’s chilling and sobering event.

So while it does mark a somewhat gloomy milestone in the life of the garden, fall frost isn’t traumatic, it’s just another certainty, like death and taxes. On the other hand, an unexpected late spring frost striking after you’ve transplanted your prized heirloom tomatoes out into the garden in June… now that’s an entirely different story!

I knew the unseasonably mild temperatures couldn’t continue much longer but it sure has been nice to see tender crops like sweet bell peppers producing fruits at the end of October! The leafy greens and other fall vegetables are doing great and hopefully I’ll be harvesting them well into the winter months.

Things are slowing down and some of the garden bloggers have closed up shop for the winter, but here are a few interesting links form around the Internet:

• Being a big fan of wild edibles and unusual vegetables, I was very interested in the article and photos of Sea Kale that appeared over at Root Cause. I had read that this rare perennial vegetable grows wild in Britain, and have cultivated Sea Kale in past gardens, but discovered some new facts including that this plant is actually protected in parts of Europe.
• Emma at Today’s Garden Ideas issued a call to join in the Garden Rant Global Garden Challenge. Well, I am in and will make a donation to a classroom program that introduces urban city children to the wonderful world of gardening!
• Did you realize that one of the best backyard gardening tools never even leaves the house? Stuart explores this topic over at Gardening Tips & Ideas in a great article about the online resources available to the home gardener. The article covers everything from Search Engines and gardening forums, to the newer features of RSS and Social Media, there’s even a mention in there about my Gardening Secrets E-book.
• For those of you that don’t spend all of your time surfing the Web for your gardening information, you may be interested in this weeks airing of CBS News Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood. There will be a segment featuring Susan Warren’s new book; Backyard Giants. Susan was a recent guest garden blogger here and shared her experiences on the subject of growing giant pumpkins.
• Speaking of autumn and pumpkins, Robin’s Nesting Place is all decked out for the season and has posted some beautiful pictures of the Scenes of Autumn. I could spend all day just browsing the photographs on this beautiful gardening blog that is full of incredible images of nature.

I’ve been gradually removing summer crops, including the heirloom tomatoes to make room for fall plantings. The only remaining warm weather veggies are the okra plants which will be pulled later this week, and a few peppers that will continue growing until the first fall frost wipes them out.

Incredible Fall Vegetables

As usual the leafy greens account for the bulk of my fall vegetable production. This season I’m growing lots of my favorite kales; the Tuscan Black Palm Kale variety and the Wild Garden Kales Mix. I also planted seeds of more traditional kale varieties such as Siberian, Dwarf Blue Curled, and Russian Red.

Kale greens are my favorite fall crop for their ease of cultivation, flavor, and productivity. They will not only reward you with plenty of delicious greens during the fall months, but the plants will also over winter to yield additional harvests of early spring greens.

Leafy Greens a Staple of the Fall Garden

Similar to kales are the collard greens which will grow well during the fall and also over winter in cold weather areas. Collards are even comfortable growing during hot weather and can be planted in the spring to grow right through multiple seasons.

There’s one collard plant in my garden that is absolutely huge, it has to be over four feet tall and more than four feet wide. This plant has been growing since spring and I haven’t started harvesting from it yet. As with all of the cold hardy leafy greens I prefer to begin the harvest after the leaves have been sweetened by a touch of frost.

Other leafy greens that are currently maturing include; various mustards, Chinese Cabbages, cress, endives, lettuce, and oriental greens. This year I’m also trying out several Even Star Ice-Bred greens such as an arugula, tatsoi, tenderleaf, and a hardy collard variety. These ice-bred varieties are designed to continue producing under harsher winter weather conditions.

Other Cold Hardy Edible Delights

In addition to the leafy greens there are a few other fall vegetables in the raised beds. Of course I’m growing cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels Sprouts. They are joined by root crops such as turnips, rutabagas, carrots, beets, and parsnips.

The plantings not quite over yet… I’m still doing a little seeding out in the cold frames and may even start a few greens and winter lettuce right out in the open garden beds. Later this week I’ll plant garlic seed for next summer’s productive gourmet garlic harvest.

My globe artichokes didn’t produce a single artichoke this summer but the plants along with the cardoons are growing well in the cooler temperatures and I’ll try to protect and nurse them through the cold Pennsylvania winter and hope for better luck with the artichokes next season.

Spicing Up the Fall Vegetable Patch

Herbs scattered throughout the garden are taking advantage of what’s left of the growing season. The lovage plants which were cut back in mid summer have sent up bushy new growth that is great for salads and cooking if you enjoy the strong flavor of the leaves.

A tall clump of Lemongrass is growing wildly and towering over bunches of parsley and the dried seed pods of perennial flowers left standing for the birds to enjoy.

You can also find Rosemary, oregano, thymes, tarragon, sage, basil, and other culinary herbs ready and waiting to be added to a favorite gourmet recipe. Along with the spice there’s also plenty of color remaining in the vegetable garden.

Showy Fall Garden Displays and Colors

The nasturtium leaves and flowers continue to grace the garden and the salad bowl. Other fall bloomers include calendulas, marigolds, and the tiny blue flowers that adorn the creeping Rosemary plants. Then there’s always the tall Mexican Sage plants that never fail to put on a show at this time of the year.

Finally, the variegated collards, ornamental kales and cabbages, and the color infused leaves of other leafy greens stand out more and more as the temperatures begin to drop and the plants take on their cold weather blushes and tints.

So if you’re up for it, fall really can be the most remarkable time of all out in the vegetable garden. And the best part of it is that the fall veggie garden will almost tend to itself, with few demands in the way of weeding, watering, or pest control.

But I wanted to share a little information about a group of hardy varieties of leafy greens for those that are interested in tips on growing fall vegetable gardens.

New, Improved, Cold Resistant Greens

I was recently introduced to a gene line of ice-bred leafy greens that may be very useful to cold climate gardeners. These leafy greens are amazing in their ability to perform under bitterly cold growing conditions. They also offer a taste treat that is noticeably more robust and flavorful than your typical leafy green vegetables.

The term “ice-bred” may be unfamiliar to you, but it simply refers to the process through which the plants were bred and developed under extremely cold growing conditions and selected for their resistance and ability to perform in bitterly cold and unpleasant weather.

Unlike the “improved” hybrid and patented plant varieties that are commonly developed within the commercial seed industry, these hardy greens are stable, open pollinated, and suitable for producing and saving your own seed in the backyard garden setting.

Even Star Farm’s Originals

The gene lines that I am describing were developed by Brett Grohsgal of Even Star Organic Farm in Eastern Shore, Maryland. The seeds are being offered through Fedco Seeds, which currently carries an Ice-bred Arugula, Even Star Champion Collards, and a similarly developed variety of Land Race Tatsoi.

I had an opportunity to meet Brett and sample some of his freshly harvested greens in February at this year’s PASA Conference. Brett is also working on other promising gene lines but his cold hardy greens have been very successful and are being grown under conditions much harsher than those found in their home state of Maryland.

These aren’t wimpy plants and I’d bet that even Popeye would prefer these rugged greens over his usual mild mannered spinach. One bite will confirm that something is definitely different about these organic greens. I suspect that the stronger flavors and the plant’s ability to withstand extreme growing conditions is a good indication that they are also nutritional powerhouses.

Ice Bred Leafy Greens in the Garden

Being ice-bred doesn’t automatically mean that the plants will continue growing and producing new leaves throughout your winter. That all depends on how harsh your conditions are, but ice-bred varieties will likely outperform the standard commercial varieties that are usually planted in the home garden.

In southern or milder winter climates you should have no difficulty growing and harvesting these ice-bred varieties throughout the winter. In colder climates there may be periods when leaf production slows or the plants go dormant but you should still see better production deeper into the winter.

These plants are capable of shaking off heavy frost, snow, ice, and even freezes to provide harvestable greens when nothing else remains standing in the garden. If they do go dormant in your region it’s a likely bet that they will survive the winter and provide additional growth and continued harvests when temperatures begin to warm up towards springtime.

Ice-Bred Trials in Progress

I won’t trial these greens in my own garden until this coming fall but wanted to let you know about their availability in case you’d like to try them for yourself. I will probably start the seeds indoors in late summer and transplant them into the garden beds in mid to late September.

In addition I’ll sow a few seeds directly into the garden at various times to get a better feel for the season and conditions that they will grow best under in my growing region. I’ll post photos and updates on how well these cold hardy vegetables perform in the garden.

It will be interesting to see how far into the winter months I will be able to continue harvesting these arugulas, collards and tatsoi. It’s usually possible to grow leafy greens into December in my Zone 6 growing region so hopefully these hardier varieties will hold up well into the New Year.

If you decide to trial them yourself or have any prior experience growing these ice-bred varieties of greens please post a comment below to share your personal impressions and observations regarding the performance of these plants and their ability to grow under cold weather conditions.