When is a good time to plant fall vegetables?
If you haven't planted them already, you'll want to get your fall vegetables in the ground as soon as possible. Leafy greens make especially good fall crops. Lettuce, bok choy, Swiss chard, corn salad, radishes, green onions, spinach, kale, parsley, collards, salsify, mustard, broccoli, chives, Italian dandelion and kohlrabi all thrive this time of year. If you erect a hoop house over them before the frost arrives, you should be able to harvest many of these vegetables throughout the winter.
Speaking of frost – and hopefully we won't be seeing any for a while – it does have its good points. Carrots, for instance, tend to get crisper after being frozen a few times while the taste of parsnips, cabbage, cauliflower, and Brussel sprouts actually improves once the cold weather arrives.
If you cover your carrots and parsnips with roughly eight inches of mulch, you'll be able to harvest them all winter. Cabbage, cauliflower, and Brussel sprouts can be ignored while you frantically rescue your tomatoes from the frost. They won't survive the winter unless covered with a cold frame, but they will survive long enough for you to harvest them at leisure.
If you have any questions or comments, please send them to me at vanessa@gardenmuse.ca.
Originally published in the Creston Valley Advance in September 2010.
