A North Eastern Fall Garden

It's time to start thinking forward to cooler weather already! Most of us northern gardeners are still patiently waiting for our tomatoes to start turning red. My cabbage is just starting to form heads and I saw the tiniest little broccoli crown today. As I've said  before, gardening in cooler climates is a true test of patience.

Lots of Fall garden articles are geared toward people who live in warmer clients. But the truth is, there's a lot that we can do in the north, too. 

Where I am, I don't have time for a second crop of cabbage or broccoli. They're typical Fall garden options, but really not practical for my climate. They just wouldn't have enough time before a hard frost hit. Sure, I could speed things up by starting them under lamps inside, but grow lamps are expensive and I'm really a no-muss no-fuss kind of gardener anyway. 

I'm going to be sowing a cover crop in my large garden bed this year to try and get some nutrients back in the soil for next year. I got the Peas/Oats blend from Botanical Interests. I may block out a small patch for some carrots. I haven't decided if I'll do those in the raised bed or not. I'll use my 2 4x8 raised beds to try out a winter/fall garden this year once they've cleared out for the summer. I have some old leftover windows that I'm excited to use over the raised beds to form a kind of green house- you know, to extend the season a bit when temps start to drop.

This chart on the Mother Earth News website is so helpful. I refer to it constantly! 

Here's what I'm going to be planting in my Fall/Winter garden this year. I'll start these plantings in the next couple of weeks (early-mid August). My plan is to direct sow everything. I could be a nice gardener lady and be gentle to my little seedlings and start them inside, but .... ain't nobody got time for that. I'll be starting the garlic from bulbs.

Fall Garden (All Heirloom Varieties):

- Mesclun (Gourmet Baby Greens from Botanical Interests)

- Beets (Gourmet Heirloom Blend from Botanical Interests)

- Carrots (Little Finger and Calliope Blend from Botanical Interests)

- Garlic (Music from Baker Creek Seeds)

You may have noticed a trend. I love Botanical Interests for all of my seeds. I first heard about them from an awesome blogger, Mavis, over at One Hundred Dollars a Month. I've been so happy with their products that I now purchase almost everything from them. Seriously almost perfect germination rate. If you've never tried their heirloom seeds, I highly recommend ordering a catalog for next year!

That's it! I have a TON of kale in my garden, and last year it stayed alive and continued to produce until late November when we got our first real snow. So I'll have that and the beet greens for our leafy greens. Nothing fancy. I tend to need a bit of a break after several months of intensive gardening over the Spring and Summer. I like to take it easy and keep it simple in the Fall. 

Here are a couple of other ideas:

- Collards

- Fennel

- Cilantro

- Radishes 

- Scallions

- Spinach

- Rutabaga

Things to be aware of:

Two of your biggest concerns when planting a Fall garden are going to be pests and scorching temperatures. The temperatures are less of an issue for where I am, but if they were, I'd probably handle this by figuring out a way to start the seeds indoors. High temperatures and low rainfall are not ideal for germinating seeds.

Pests, on the other hand, is an issue I am dealing with this year. The best way to battle this is through summer weight row covers. This will help keep butterflies and moths from laying eggs on and around your plants, which then hatch into nasty little caterpillars (cabbage worms) that will consume your tender young brassica seedlings in no time. The best way to deal with these pests, especially on vulnerable little plants, is prevention. 

Tip: If you don't manage to prevent them, some organic options for controlling cabbage worms that I've had success with are Spinosad and a 1:1 combination of baking soda mixed with all purpose flour and sprinkled on the invaded plants. The catterpillars will eat the flour mixture, bloat, and die within a day or so. I had more success with the Spinosad. It completely wiped them out. But before I found Spinosad, the flour mixture did significantly decrease the cabbage worms.

When to Plant a Fall Garden: This is going to depend on your average first frost date. Use this chart to check. Then follow the instructions on your seed packet. Most of them will say you can plant a particular seed X weeks before/after last frost, up until X weeks before first frost.

Tip:

Your soil has been working hard all summer, having nutrients used up by your Spring and Summer crop. Give your Fall garden its best shot by giving it a good dressing of quality compost when you do your Fall planting.


This is a list of some of the awesome sites that I occassionally link my posts at. They're all great blogs about anything from parenting, simple living, cooking, homesteading (backyard and large scale), gardening, Christian life, frugal living, etc. Check them out!
The Chicken Chick, The Prairie Homestead- Homestead Barn Hop, Strangers and Pilgrims on Earth- The Art of Homemaking, Homestead Bloggers Network- Tasty Tuesday, Backyard Farming Connection, Growing Home- Growing Homemakers, Wildcrafting Wednesday, So Much At Home, Hope in Every Season, Green Thumb Thursday, Home Acre Hop, From the Farm Hop, Farmgirl Friday, Front Porch Friday, Simple Meals Friday, Better Hens and Gardens.