Veggies to Grow in Your Autumn Garden
Cool Weather Veggies
Here in Zone 7, cool-weather veggies are some of my favorites because we get two rounds a year since we have longer cool periods in the spring and again in the autumn.
Some popular and easy-to-grow cool-weather veggies are beets, radishes, kale, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts.
The thing with autumn veggies is knowing what to plant when. The best way to figure that out is by checking your growing zone on the USDA website, writing down your frost dates, and looking at the seed packets. They will usually say something like “plant X amount of weeks before your first autumn frost.” Use that as your guide, but know that you always have a week or so of wiggle room.
Some of the seeds do better if they are started under lights and transplanted, such as broccoli and cauliflower, while others are best direct-sown, like beets and lettuce. You can also check with your local plant nursery to see what veggies they have available if you are like me this season and forgot to plant your seeds early enough.
Some of the veggies that I am planting this season are:
KALE: My favorite autumn veggie to grow is kale. It’s easy to grow from seed, and I can eat it fresh in salads, blanch and freeze it to add to soups in the winter, or dehydrate it to make into a green powder to add to just about anything that I’m making.
It does get eaten by bugs a bit, but far less in the autumn than in the spring. And it grows in such abundance that it’s easy to just pick out the leaves with holes in them.
BROCCOLI AND CAULIFLOWER:
These are things that I transplant in September. I always add a bit more compost to where I am planting them because they are heavy feeders and need a bit of extra nutrition in the soil.
I plant them about 20” apart because the plants get pretty big.
And one of my biggest issues with brassicas is the caterpillars, so if you have some kind of netting to put over them, that would be helpful. But, just like kale, I feel like the pest pressure is a bit stronger in the spring than in the autumn.
BEETS, RADISHES AND CARROTS:
Beets and radishes of the easiest root veggies to grow... My carrots are always a but small, but still fun to grow. Just make a little row by dragging the side of your hand along the soil, drop in the seeds, and water them. They don’t require much else.
Radishes are a favorite to grow if you have kids because they grow SOO fast. Beets take a bit longer but are always a favorite in our house.
LETTUCE:
Lettuce is another cool-weather veggie that is super easy to direct-sow. And varieties like arugula are great cut-and-come-again varieties.
PEAS:
Peas are easy too. Just stick them in the ground near a trellis or fence for them to climb up and water them!
SWISS CHARD:
Swiss chard is another great autumn veggie to grow for soup season.
So, if you haven’t tried growing autumn veggies, or you let your summer garden get out of control, you can always start over and have an autumn veggie garden!
That’s all for now.
~Rachel
P.S. I offer 1:1 garden consults via zoom if you have any gardening questions!
