Fall Plant Guide

Fall is usually a time of abundance, a time to harvest and rejoice in the crops of the summer season. But for those with mild winters or greenhouses, fall is a second spring—a time to pull out the seedling trays and start planting for the winter season.

Many vegetables enjoy cooler temperatures and grow best in fall and spring, like leafy greens and brassicas. If your garden doesn’t experience too much frost, you’ll be able to grow greens all year-round.

So what are the types of greens we can enjoy?

Lettuces:

Everything from spinach, lettuce, chard, rocket, and Asian green year-round.

Brassicas:

Brassicas are a family of vegetable plants that enjoy the cool weather of areas that experience mild winters. This family includes broccoli, kale, kohlrabi, cabbage, mustard greens, and cauliflower.

What else to grow?

Root crops:

If you want to plant root crops like carrots, beets, and radishes this fall, make sure to plant them out early so that you can harvest them before the soil gets too cold.

Alliums:

Fall is an important time for the allium family. Onions and garlic are the most popular members of the allium family and receive much attention during the fall season. Alliums are very slow growers and need to spend the winter underground before they can be harvested the following season. Make sure to plant your onion and garlic bulbs before the soil gets too cold, as you want the roots to establish before winter starts.

Herbs:

Herbs can suffer in the mid-summer heat, so fall is the perfect time to start some new spices for the rest of the year. The best herbs to plant in fall include sage, oregano, parsley, and thyme, as they are more cold-hardy than herbs like basil.

If you live in an area that experiences extreme winter weather and don’t want to start planting vegetables for such a short season, consider planting wildflowers to feed the pollinators instead of leaving the soil bare.