fall gardening...

[meofcourse80]

Do you live somewhere that you can plant fall crops? I'm trying a fall garden for the first time this year and would love to hear what others are planting. R

Right now I have tiny baby collards, kale, carrots, onions, and a few beets peeking up out of the ground.

[TiggerToo]

Unfortunately I live in MN...and I am in the middle of mowing down my garden. We are getting our first frost of the year tonight....

[mommy2twocuties]

I have never tried.....but am intersted....will be watching this thread....what does one plant in the fall?

[farmergirl]

You plant anything that gets mature in under 30 days (beets, lettuce, spinach) or is really frost tolerant (cole crops- kale, etc), or can be eaten at a really young age (carrots, beets, lettuce, spinach, etc).

If you have any tomato plants that still look super healthy, bring one or two inside for the winter- put in a south facing window, water with day old coffee almost daily and mild fertilizer bi weekly, provide additional light (energy saver bulbs are good for this), hand pollinate with qtips or paintbrush and you will have tomatoes all winter. Not as good as ones grown outside, but much better than store bought (and cheaper too).

Best to use roma or other bell type or cherry tomatoes. I can never get the beefsteaks to come out right.

In PA, brussel sprouts can stay in the garden for the first half of winter and still be edible. Extremely cold tolerant.

[farmergirl]

Oh, and it's a bit late for zone 5 and colder to be planting a fall garden, unless it's inside your home.

[mommas2moody]

I was looking this up back in the spring with the help of a friend (thanks PK! ) and I ran across THIS. For those of you that don't understand what zone you are in, this will help plus gives you what and when you should plant.

HTH!

[CouponQueen83]

Super helpful thread! Thanks to both farmergirl and mommas2moody!!
I planted my Radishes, Carrots and Parsley seeds last weekend. The Radishes especially are growing growing growing, and I've already thinned them out!

[Sculpture Widow]

Well....my fall garden was going great until things got really cold here in NE Kansas. I was just not prepared for a fall/winter garden.

My first major mistake was something I simply overlooked -- access to water.
We water our garden by collecting water in rain barrels. The garden is far from the house and I do not have a water spigot nearby. Things were great until it got so cold we had to take the rain barrels down (will split if water inside them freeze).

So 2 weeks ago I had a garden full of kale, lettuce and the most amazing looking broccoli (which for the broccoli I paid too much for the starts). Now, with cold and no water I am going to lose it all. The kale is still doing okay and we've had 5 meals out of it with 2 meals left, but I know it will be gone soon.
The broccoli just can't stand the temp. flux. It's 20 degrees at night, and warms up to 50 in the day, and it really doesn't seem to like this. I need to research some kind of covers that I can make inexpensively.

So, tip for the day........make sure you can water your garden!!!! (duh....a no-brainer for most people, but apparently not for me).

[farmergirl]

Go get some clear or white trash bags and I'm guessing you have tomato cages. Put the tomato cage over the broccoli plant and then the trash bag over that. Weigh/Stake down and that should help you with the cold nights.