Have you started planning your fall vegetable garden season? I’m sharing my favorite veggies, herbs, and flowers for the fall garden in this post!
I used to think the gardening season ended when summer was over, but that is not the case.
Fall is a great time to plant all sorts of things like perennials, bulbs, and cold-hardy annuals.
I’m going to focus on vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers for this post, but don’t miss your chance to plant perennials and flower bulbs this fall!
New plants often acclimate better in the fall due to the cooler weather.
Additionally, I find that I get excited to plant things again in the fall as the weather cools.
Investing a little bit of energy to plant in the late summer can yield abundant harvests in late fall and even through winter.
When to Plant Your Fall Garden
Before you choose what to plant, you will need to know when to plant.
Find your first frost date. You can refer to this post if you want to know more about frost dates and hardiness zones.
Determine how many days you have left from now (assuming you are in the middle of your main growing season) until your first frost.
Add ten days to this.
You can now plant any cold-hardy annual that will mature within this time period.
For example, if I want to grow a head of broccoli that takes 80 days to mature and my last frost date is October 10, I will first add 10 more days to the maturity date to get 90 days. Then I count 90 days back from October 10 to get July 12.
Now I know that I should plant my broccoli around July 12 to get a harvest by my last frost date.
I wrote a post diving into this topic more in depth, too!
You can also reverse engineer this system to know when to plant certain crops to mature in the fall.
Make a list of everything you want to grow for the fall and their maturity dates. Use the same process of adding 10 days and counting backward from your first frost date for each plant.
These are the dates you will need to plant by in order to harvest in the fall.
Of course, this is not a guarantee of getting a harvest exactly on my frost date. We are growing in nature, after all, and nature is unpredictable.
However, the odds are greatly increased if I am able to plant at the right time and keep the plants healthy. So it is definitely worth it to me to plant broccoli in my fall vegetable garden!
What Can I Plant in a Fall Garden?
So what can we plant in our fall vegetable gardens? Anything that is cold-hardy or frost tolerant will typically do well planted in a fall garden.
Your seed packets may provide this information.
For instance, this seed packet for kohlrabi tells me that I can plant this vegetable March-May OR August-September in my state.
Now that we’ve gotten the logistics out of the way, here are my favorite vegetables to grow in my fall garden from roots, to leaves, to flowers.
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Root Vegetables
What would a fall garden be without root vegetables?
Root veggies that mature in cool frosty weather become very sweet and delicious, much more so than summer-grown vegetables.
This is because the roots are forced to convert more starches into sugar in order to prevent the plants from freezing and dying.
Some root vegetables, like carrots and rutabaga, can store quite well in the ground, so you can harvest just what you need until a hard frost. I have been able to harvest root vegetables from my raised garden beds as late as Christmas!
Here are my favorite root vegetables to grow for the fall.
- Carrots (like these colorful ones)
- Rutabagas (takes time to grow, but absolutely delicious if you have the space for it)
- Parsnips (also needs a long growing season)
- Turnips
- Radishes (both salad and storage types like watermelon radish)
- Beets (try this variety if you’re not a fan of the “earthy” beetroot taste)
- Kohlrabi (plant this blend for a beautiful look in the garden)
Don’t Forget to Plant Garlic
One special vegetable I want to mention is garlic.
I wrote a post all about growing garlic that you should read if you are interested in growing this for your fall garden.
While it is not going to be able to be harvested in the fall like the other crops, garlic is still a valuable vegetable to grow.
If you can only grow one thing in the fall, make sure it is garlic!
Garlic is typically planted in the fall in my zone (6) and overwinters to grow full force in the spring and harvested in early summer.
It is such an easy crop to grow, and you can grow all the garlic you need for a year in a single bed, or tuck in plants here and there wherever you have space.
There are three “types” of garlic you can plant: softneck, hardneck and elephant. I break down the differences to help you decide which to grow in this post.
Leafy Greens
Just like root vegetables, leafy greens can achieve maximum sweetness when grown in the cooler temperatures of the fall.
If you’ve struggled with bitter lettuce and kale or too spicy arugula, fall-grown salad greens are for you!
I highly recommend planting all these greens from seed. Read this post on what not to buy as started plants to find out why.
Additionally, many of these salads can be grown to the baby leaf stage rather than full maturity for quick harvest. Many can be planted and harvested in less than a month under ideal conditions.
This is a great category of vegetables to choose when you have limited time in the fall to get things sown and grown!
- Spinach
- Arugula (harvest baby greens in as little as 20 days)
- Mache or Corn Salad
- Bok Choy
- Cabbage (I love growing Napas in the fall)
- Lettuce (Ice Queen is a good cold-tolerant variety)
- Kale (Red and White Russian are very cold-hardy)
- Mizuna
Herbs for the Fall Vegetable Garden
Herbs are also wonderful to grow in the fall alongside your leafy greens.
Pick a handful to add to your fall and winter salads or to garnish those rich casseroles and soups.
I’m listing my favorite annual herbs to grow in the fall, but know that perennial herbs like chives, sage, thyme, and oregano can be planted any time during the growing season.
- Green onion (I recommend Tokyo Long White)
- Chervil
- Parsley
- Cilantro
- Dill
Flowers for the Fall Vegetable Garden
Every garden should have some flowers, even fall vegetable gardens!
These cold-hardy flowers are not only beautiful, but they are edible, too. I’m going to include broccoli and cauliflower in this list even though we don’t normally think of them as flowers, but botanically, they actually are flower buds!
Check your seed packet for the days to maturity number to know when to plant these flowers.
- broccoli (technically we eat the buds, not the flowers! Try Di Cicco which matures in 48 days)
- cauliflower (same as broccoli!)
- calendula
- sweet alyssum
- marigold
- pansies (I prefer buying these as started plants instead of seeds)
Using Season Extensions in the Fall Garden
What do you do if a light frost is in the forecast and your veggies need protection?
You can use season extensions like frost fabric!
Before nightfall, cover your plants with frost fabric and weigh the fabric down with landscape staples or stones to keep the heat of the day sealed inside.
Low tunnels can be set up using hoops like these with frost fabric or clear plastic. Just be sure the plants aren’t touching the plastic or they will be damaged in freezing temps.
Structures like cold frames and greenhouses would also work wonderfully as season extension.
Here are a couple premade ones I found online if you don’t have a cold frame or greenhouse built.
What Will You Grow in Your Fall Garden?
I hope you feel inspired to plant a fall vegetable garden. Whether you are just starting your garden journey or have been growing for years, fall is a great time to plan a garden. With a little knowledge and a little planning, you can grow a bountiful fall garden.
Leave a comment below and let me know what you plan to grow in your fall vegetable garden!
Next, check out this post about my 5 secrets to growing a great fall garden.
Happy gardening!