Falling in Love with my Fall Garden!
Fall is right around the corner! With summer officially coming to an end soon and my once lush garden is not producing much anymore, I stared thinking maybe this year I could plant a fall garden. I’ve never done a fall garden so I decided to look up which crops grow best this time of the year in Virginia and there are far more than I thought. I may be a little late with planting but hey, I’ll give it a shot and see what produces and what does not.
One vegetable that I want to try to grow in my fall garden is spinach. Spinach only takes about 30-40 days to mature. Being that I am starting it a little later then the dates of August 15th-September 5th for a fall harvest it, you can plant up until October 5th for a winter harvest. Spinach does need full sun and the soil needs to be moist but well drained.
Carrots are on my list as well. Carrots apparently are not quick growers but smaller varieties will mature in about 50 days. If you want to do traditional carrots they suggest to sow them first in containers. For the soil, it needs to be loose and well drained. Carrots like full sun, but partial shade.
Green Onions are perfect if you don't have the patience like me to wait for a classic onion. They take about 60-80 days to harvest. You might see these often planted in the spring but they’re also perfect hardy perennials for your fall vegetable garden as well. Their optimal growing temperature is between 68-77 degrees but these plants can survive heavy frost once established. Green onions or scallions, like full sun, sandy, loamy soil but well drained. Keep in mind, green onions are toxic to pets, so keep them away!
Did you know that Broccoli grows best in cool weather? Fall planting has two advantages over spring planting. First, established broccoli plants can tolerate frost, tender broccoli seedlings are not as hardy and early sprint frost can shock or even kill them. Florets are flower buds, which open more slowly in colder weather giving you more time to harvest. Broccoli does take several months to mature. Broccoli likes full sun and a rich and sandy soil.
Green Beans are up next, now this is a crop I have in my garden in the spring always! It produces all summer long and I never have done anything special to them other than watering them and giving them some fertilizer once every couple weeks. Green beans love full sunlight and a rich well-drained soil. Bush variety green beans (which is all I’ve ever grown) start producing in as little as 45 days. Bean plants are too tender to handle frost, so if an early frost is going to happen you will want to put a cover over them until the temperatures come back up.
There are plenty of other fall crops that can be planted, but those were just a few that I’m going to give a try this year to see if I can get them to produce. I’m sure I will have plenty of trial and error as I do every year I try to do something new with my garden. I may be a little late for planting my fall garden but I’m surely going to give it a try and you know with this Virginia weather it can be hot all the way until the end of November before the temperatures really start to decrease.
Happy Gardening Everyone. If you are planting a fall garden, I wish you lots of produce and success!
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