Fellow seed starters: The end is nigh. Like you, I look forward to putting away the seed trays and heat mats and seed domes for their long winter slumber, and regaining my office shelves. It's been a long season. However, we have one last slog to get through, in three parts.
This is your last shot to grow some fall crops from seed, because realistically they should be in by mid-September at tgeh latest. I'm always delighted by the incredibly long list of things you can grow in fall and winter and how full the garden can look.
It feels like I just took down the summer peas, but it's time for another go for fall. I focus less on tall vining peas and more on short bushy peas for fall since the timeline is shorter.
The best tip I can offer on growing these staples in the fall garden is variety. You don't want 20 heads of broccoli at once—you want it over a long period. Choose different varieties to accomplish this, and focus on re-sprouting types. For cauliflower, you are missing the boat if you don't grow every single color possible—orange, white, lime and purple. Fill your garden with color.
People don't get excited enough about cabbage, and I think it's because in our minds cabbage is a tasteless, pale green ball. No! Purple cabbage is crunchy and full of flavor, and delicious raw, but spectacular braised with salt, sugar and some acid into a glossy mess. Look for pointed types like Caraflex for an easier grow and more petite head. Like broccoli, make sure you choose different varieties, and absolutely make sure to have savoy in the mix. These giant heads are gorgeous in the garden, and are a favorite of mine for tossing into soups or making cabbage rolls.
Like cabbage, I think turnips get a raw deal. Instead of thinking of gigantic rough-looking specimens, consider the smaller Japanese white turnips, which are sweet and beautiful and only need a light roasting or braising to be the perfect side dish for a roast. I'm a happy gal if I always have some beets in the garden to pull—and they're easy to hold over. I use the beet greens and beets separately, as the greens are delicious on their own, or can be used to color other foods (like gravlax). I plant both turnips and beets every few weeks throughout August to spread out the harvest.
I would plant as many carrots as you have room for. They're hard to germinate, and who ever has enough? Carrots that overwinter are the sweetest, and there is a certain joy to being able to go outside, even in winter, and collect celery, onions and carrots for cooking indoors.
If you like kale, please explain why—but also, now is the time to plant it. Also chard and spinach, all of which will survive into fall. But don't give up on lettuce, because there are wonderful varieties that are cold-hardy and there's still plenty of time to get another harvest in before fall, too. And don't forget ornamental kale.
You can purchase onion sets at this point of the year, or try to grow from seed. I'll plant scallion seeds galore, because I always want to be able to grab onions from the garden, and I put in onion sets for good measure.
As soon as garlic seed and shallot seed is available, get your bed turned over and get it planted.
Since my seeding stations are free, I use this time in the summer to grow perennial flowers that tend to cost more than annuals at the garden center, like coneflower and foxgloves and delphiniums, perennial salvia and agastache. As long as I get them into the ground by mid-fall, they'll be in good shape for next spring, and two years from now, they'll be busting out.
A worthy idea is to give your beds a break, too. Even if it's just one of your beds, plant a crop that will serve a purpose, like fava beans, which infuse the soil with nitrogen if you cut them down at the right time, or oil driller radish, which will break up the soil. Your local garden center has all kinds of cover crops to consider. Simply let them grow this winter—and then before they flower and fruit in the spring or late winter, chop them down and compost them in place.
