Planting a Fall Vegetable Garden

In my checklist for August, I mentioned several fall vegetables you could be planting in August. But if you're like me, you probably looked outside every day and thought to yourself, "It's too hot for a fall garden." Honestly, I've read a couple of different sources about when to plant what--some say August, some say September, depending on the vegetable. Well, on Labor Day I decided fall has officially started by some definitions (even if it is 90 degrees outside here in Georgia), so I would start on my fall vegetables. Since this is my first year at a real attempt at a vegetable garden, it's still all one grand experiment for me. I started by going to Lowe's and seeing what I could find.

Some of the seeds I picked up include Mesclun Salad Mix, 'Early Green'
broccoli, and 'Red Core Chantenay' carrots. I also bought cauliflower
seedlings to get a head start.

They didn't have much that I wanted in the way of other seedlings, but the cauliflower seedlings looked appealing. Then I headed to the seed rack. The Seeds of Change rack was calling to me--all organic seeds, with many heirloom varieties, and they only cost a little bit more than the conventional seeds. I love the idea of heirloom plants--varieties that have been passed down through generations, grown by farmers who came before us 80 or 800 years ago. I picked up a handful of seed packets that promised me a tasty, organic harvest.

The next step was cleaning out my garden. I wasn't quite ready to pull up all my summer vegetables. After all, some of them were actually producing more now than they had been all summer! The sun has moved, so my vegetable bed is getting more sunshine, and we've had nice hot weather with a more reasonable amount of rain. The bell peppers are finally bearing their first fruit, and the jalapenos and banana peppers are producing more. The tomatoes have stopped producing, but I thought if I left one or two plants, they might start back up. I pulled out the tired bush beans and one of the tomato plants and threw them in the compost bin. In the empty squares, I pulled the weeds, added a scoop of compost, and mixed it up real well.

That left me with seven squares ready to plant. Unfortunately, cauliflower and broccoli are space hogs, so I could only plant one cauliflower seedling per square foot. I planted two squares of cauliflower, and two squares of broccoli seed. In another square I planted 16 carrots, and in the 6th square I scattered mesclun salad mix without thought to rows. Since mesclun (aka baby salad greens) is harvested when it's young and tender, I thought it would be happy being a little crowded. I couldn't decide what to do with the 7th square. I have more cauliflower seedlings that need a home, but I also have radish seeds I could plant, or another square of salad greens. I'll probably do some more planting next week. I finished up my planting by watering everything in really well. With all this heat, I'll need to stay on top of watering to keep those seedlings happy.

My vegetable garden before (left) and after (right) my fall planting.

The whole process took me an hour. The longest part was getting the bed ready--deciding what to keep, pulling out old plants, and preparing the soil. The planting part was quick. I can't wait to enjoy my delicious harvest this fall!