What Vegetables Are Best Planted In The Fall?

What vegetables are best planted in the fall? I’ve always wanted to grow a garden in the fall and I decided this would be the year.

I’ve planted a vegetable garden for the past eight summers. With each year, I learn more and more, and my ambitions grow too. Though I do plant a few of the same things each year, like tomatoes, green beans, sugar snap peas and cucumbers, I tried my hand at growing Brussel sprouts, twice, and have flopped both times. I’ve tried to grow broccoli, too, which also didn’t come out worth a flip. Initially I shrugged it off  to maybe having a growing block in those plants, or perhaps the soil wasn’t just right. Turns out, I was putting these plant varieties in the ground too early.

I’m not going to say that I lost sleep over my gardening flops, but back in January when I was ordering my seeds for the upcoming growing season, I got to thinking about these defeats, if you will, wondering if a third time could be a charm. I did a tiny bit of research on growing fall vegetable gardens, and guess that likes to grow in cooler weather?

Yes, you guessed it.

Brussel sprouts and broccoli.

I planted these in the ground in late May with the other plants, never realizing I was setting myself up for failure. Note to self: there’s instructions on the back of a seed packet for good reason!

I didn’t order these two varieties for this year, but I did order three others to plant in my fall garden. I told myself if these vegetables thrive this year, then I’ll bring back those Brussel sprouts and broccoli plants for next fall.

Though this past summer wasn’t the best for my vegetable garden simply because of the extreme heat and drought, many of the vegetables that would still be producing this late in the season, all but the tomatoes packed it in, mid-August. The yields were small, but still delicious, and I’m still harvesting a few sun gold tomatoes each day. Not enough for a big recipe, but then again beggars can’t be choosers. With three open garden beds to work with, I discarded the old, raked and irrigated each bed; I incorporated more worm castings into the soil for nutrients, and then I sowed the seeds.

What Vegetables Are Best Planted In The Fall?

Kale was a must to grow. We love a good chopped kale salad around here using this delicious bacon vinaigrette recipe, and from what I read, it’s a relatively easy vegetable to grow.

I’ve always wanted to grow radishes, watermelon radishes in particular, for their sweet, peppery flavor. I sowed a few rows of those seeds.

And I love radicchio, and always wondered why it’s so expensive at the grocery store. I wondered if it was because it’s challenging to grow, but with the little research I did do, radicchio doesn’t have a big degree of difficulty. So, I’m giving it a shot, too.

I had a little space left over, and I thought I would plant another crop of sugar snap peas, because, why not, and a couple delicata squash plants for the win.

So now I wait. I’ll keep it watered on those days that it doesn’t rain, and I’ll take good care of these vegetable plants, hoping that one hand will feed the other. Fingers crossed each plant will give high yields. I’ll definitely keep you posted.

Do you grow a fall vegetable garden and have good tips to share? I would love to hear each and every one of them!

 

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