Planting a Fall Garden
By Elizabeth
Sep 16, 2020
As the heat of Summer climbs, it’s time to start thinking about a Fall garden. You can plant some warm season crops to extend that wonderful harvest and start looking forward to planting cool season crops like crisp lettuces and onions.
Just be patient and wait for the proper times to plant.
You don’t want your cool season crops to burn up in the heat of summer!
Even though I plan out my fall garden each year, I ALWAYS come across more plants I want to try. I usually have to be content with planting less, so I can plant more. I’ll talk more about what I mean by that in a moment. Sometimes, I get lucky and have an unplanned space open up allowing me to plant more things.
I started with fall okra this year. I normally don’t plant fall okra, but the okra was so late setting on, I knew if I wanted okra, was going to have to plant more.
I also wanted to experiment with creating shade for some cool weather crops. I planted 2 rows width-wise, so as the sun tracks in my yard it will create shade for cool season crops, which I will plant later in the year.
Fall okra is planted June 15-July 10.
Tip: All planting times are specific for the state of GA.
I also like to do more bush beans in the fall. I wanted not only more beans, but more seeds from the beans. (The variety I like, I was having a hard time finding it in stores right now due to Covid.) I planted a combination of old purchased seed, saved seeds from last year and from my spring beans, to keep as much genetic diversity as I can.
I’ve been experimenting with succession planting and I really have enjoyed it. I continued this experiment with the beans. I planted one quarter of the bed. Then waited about one week and then planted a second quarter and so on, until the whole bed was planted. Since bush beans produce all at once, with succession planting I can have a prolonged harvest.
Fall BUSH beans are planted Jul 5-Aug 10
Sometimes you have to cut your losses.
After a losing battle with aphids in my black-eyed peas, I ripped them out and planted Fall black-eyed peas elsewhere in the garden. I had to rearrange my Fall garden plan to compensate.
But with the unexpected space the aphids gave me, I’m able to do more fall plants than the original plan. Flexibility verses rigidness is a good quality to “cultivate.” Pun intended!
Black-eyed peas are planted Apr 1-Aug 10
In the space where the aphids were thriving, I transplanted Kale, which I started indoors. I ended up having to direct sow as well because slugs were munching on the leaves and killed a few plants. But with the additional space from the aphid plague, I was able to add carrots, and radish to my fall garden!
I really like kale and wanted to try MORE varieties. But, I have very limited space. I’m trying 3 different varieties of kale. Two are new, and are supposed to be pretty hardy. I might be able to overwinter these and sill get a harvest during the winter. We’ll see if that ends up being true. Especially if I can keep the slugs from eating my plants!
Plant/transplant Fall kale Aug 1-Sep 1.
Plant Fall carrot Aug 20-Sep 15.
Plant Fall radish Sep 1-Oct 15
This is a great example of what I mean by “planting less so that I can plant more.” I really wanted to plant all three varieties of kale (MORE kale). But with my small space, I only have room for 3 rows. I had to reduce the number of plants for each of my 3 varieties to keep the proper spacing (LESS). However, while I have the same number of plants as years past, I have MORE varieties (MORE flavors) from which to choose. I ended up with 4 plants of each variety per my 3 rows.
The ‘less is more’ is also true of the carrots. There is space left in my bed for 2 more rows. I have 2 varieties of carrots. So to do both varieties and add 2 varieties of radish, I planted one row of radish with 2 varieties. I did the same for the carrots. While, I may have less carrots and radish, I have more varieties from which to choose! Less is MORE.
In the bed where I planted okra, is where the lettuces will go. Lettuce does like some shade. My garden gets a good amount of shade in the morning, but it’s in full sun the rest of the day. I CAN get away without creating shade for lettuce. I’ve done it before. But, I want to see if I will have BETTER success with it being shaded from the afternoon sun.
So, behind the okra, I planted some loose leaf lettuces and I’m trying some romaine I was given. In another bed, which won’t have any additional shade, I’m experimenting with some iceberg lettuce. That should be interesting.
Plant Fall lettuce Sep 1-Oct 1
In the last bed I have open, I’m trying beets for the first time in my life. I’ve never given beets a fair chance and I want to see if I like them. They look so good and so pretty and are very good for you. The rest of the bed will be given to my iceberg lettuce and to 2 varieties of turnips using succession planting.
I might try and see if I have room for some spinach too…But this may be too much for the space.
Plant Fall Beets Aug 1-Sep 20
Plant Fall Turnips Aug 10-Sep 15
Plant Fall Spinach Sep 1-Oct 15
That wraps up this year’s Fall garden. Thanks to the aphids, I was able to plant a few more things! With my less is more philosophy, I’m able to plant MORE delicious varieties, while keeping proper spacing. Plus, I’m trying a few experiments. As always, it will be fun to see how everything turns out!