Each spring when gardeners plant their vegetable gardens, they can’t wait for the first harvest of fresh food. The anticipation of the first fresh salad greens or biting into a crisp, crunchy radish is intensified after a long winter without. It is always fun to have some fast-growing seeds that will be harvested soon after planting. Plants like tomatoes and peppers, along with winter squash and corn, take most of the summer to mature. However, there are some vegetables that can be planted early–some even before the last frost–that will be ready to harvest before the summer vegetables have begun to blossom.
As summer comes to an end, the garden starts to wind down. For some gardeners, the end of the bounty in the summer garden is a little sad, but for others, it may also be a relief! You have worked hard to grow your garden, keep it healthy, harvest food and perhaps preserve it to use in the winter months ahead. It has been labor-intensive and, at the same time, that garden has given lots of satisfaction as well as enjoyment. The idea of planting more seeds and extending the growing season may not appeal to you right now. You are ready for a break from the garden. But hang in there! There are lots of vegetables that can be planted in the garden at the end of summer and will be ready to harvest before winter. Many of the very same vegetables that gave you the early start in the spring are the same vegetables that will close out the growing season in the fall.
There are several advantages to planting in the fall. For one thing, it is cooler for the gardener as well as the plants. It is a lot nicer to harvest vegetables when there is a cool breeze instead of the sun beating down on you. Usually, along with the cooler temperatures, there is more rain. That means less watering is needed by you to supplement the rainfall. Another advantage is there is a lot less pest pressure. Most of the pests you may have been fighting in the summer garden are past their peak levels. That doesn’t mean there won’t be any insects, but not the major problems that can occur in the summer.
Before we jump in, we’ve outlined some simple steps to take before planting your fast-growing plants. Read on to discover how to make the most of your garden.
So how do you know how early or late you can plant in this year’s garden? The first thing you need to know is what growing zone you are in and what the average first and last frost dates are in that zone. There are a few vegetables that can be planted as soon as the soil can be worked, and they also will tolerate a frost. In the fall, if you count back from the first frost date, you can determine how many days you have left to grow in. Remember that this first and last frost date is an estimate. There could be an early or late frost, so to be relatively safe, figure about an additional week. Another reason to advance the harvest date in fall is that as the days move into fall, the daylight hours are getting shorter. In the spring when you planted seeds, the days were getting longer, which encourages the plants to grow more quickly. In the fall, each passing day has less daylight, causing plants to grow more slowly.
There are multiple easy ways to extend the growing season. If you are lucky enough to have a greenhouse that you grow your seedlings in, you can also use it to grow food in the fall. If you have a cold frame that you use in the spring, use it for your fall garden. A cold frame is a structure that is like a miniature greenhouse. The frame is bottomless and just sits on the ground. It has a lid that is glass or plastic which can be kept closed if the temperature drops and opened if above freezing. Cold frames often were DIY projects made using repurposed glass windows or doors. Today, many gardeners are utilizing high tunnel systems or low tunnels. These are basically hooped structures covered with plastic, duplicating the greenhouse effect at a lower cost. A high tunnel is able to be walked in. The low tunnel is large enough to cover the plants only.
It is not necessary to utilize a structure in order to get an early start or to extend the growing time. If you cover your plants with frost fabric, it will protect them from an early cold spell. Even just putting a pot or bucket over the plants can get them through a cold night. There are also a number of plants that like the cooler weather and can even tolerate a light frost without protection. By planting these crops so that they will be ready to harvest late in the fall as well as some more tender plants that mature quickly to provide a late season crop, you can extend the garden well into the fall season.
Here are some favorite quick maturing vegetables for your garden.
As you can see, there are lots of vegetables that are able to be harvested in only two months–some in even less time. As you garden, you will learn what grows well in your garden and about how long it will take to reach maturity in your specific grow zone and conditions. The advantage is that you will be able to stagger the planting so that everything is not ready to harvest at the same time.
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