The air is crisp and cool again, so it’s time to get your fall garden planted before all of the warm weather is gone. It is important to realize that fall vegetables, cover crops, and even fescue lawns need warm weather to become established before cold weather sets in. Getting these crops established in September leads to more success, as long as temperatures stay below 90 F. If you wait until late October, many of these crops won’t come to maturity, so get out and get things moving while you can.
One other important task is to make a chart of what you planted this past summer to aid in crop rotation patterns for the coming season. Make sure you’re giving these fall crops plenty of space to allow for good sunlight penetration and air circulation. It’s important to also ensure you’ll have good drainage. Our wet winters often lead to disaster for many cool season crops. Planting in a hoop house or getting a few row covers will help extend the season. Many crops can potentially grow until late spring if we don’t drop into the single digits for too long.
Here’s a rundown on some of our vegetable specialists favorite varieties: Broccoli – ‘Marathon’, ‘Packman’, ‘Patriot’, ‘Premium Crop’, ‘Bravo’, ‘Decathlon’; Cabbage – ‘Blue Dynasty’, ‘Bravo’, ‘Early Round Dutch’, ‘Rio Verde’, ‘Green Jewel’; Carrot – ‘Chantenay’, ‘Scarlet Nantes’, ‘Sweetbites’, ‘Sweet Delight’; Cauliflower – ‘Absolute’, ‘Early Snowball’, ‘Graffiti’, ‘White Magic’, ‘Symphony’; Collard greens – ‘Blue Max’, ‘Georgia Southern’, ‘Hevi-Crop’; Kale – ‘Vates’, ‘Dwarf Siberian’, ‘Blue Armor’, ‘Blue Knight’; Lettuce – ‘Butterhead’, ‘Romaine’, ‘Buttercrunch’; Mustard greens – ‘Florida Broadleaf’, ‘Southern Giant Curled’, ‘Red Giant’, ‘Savannah’; Onion, green – ‘White Portugal’; Onion, dry bulb – ‘Burgundy’, ‘Excel’, ‘Grano’, ‘Red Creole’, ‘Savannah Sweet’; Radish – ‘Cherry Bell’, ‘Scarlet Globe’, ‘Champion’; and Spinach – ‘Melody’, ‘Winter Bloomsdale’.
For more information about planting fall gardens, check out this link: https://extension.uga.edu/content/dam/extension-county-offices/forsyth-county/anr/vegetable_chart.pdf.
