It ’s kind of uncanny to wrap your head around , but if you ’re look to start a spill garden , the time is now : midsummer .
I know . It ’s 90 ° F and we ’re still tend to summertime - bearing tomatoes and squash . At this point it finger either too belated to plant more affectionate - weather vegetables , yet too other for cool - weather veggie .
But think about it : By now you ’ve probably picked a good portion of your early - season harvest like lettuce , spinach , and pea ( which are beginning to look a routine old-hat ) , and you’vepulled up all the ail , onions , and radishes . With those spots freed up in the garden , you’re able to grow and reap a new round of leafy greens , root crops , and other vegetable from planting in late June , July , and August .
I in reality love summer for seed starting . There ’s not as much air pressure to get thing in the flat coat . you could go over with plants that did n’t do so well in spring . you may sequence sow the plants you want to keep going through fall . And you could search forward to all the cool - time of year vegetables that only get practiced as it gets colder !
Every summer in my honest-to-goodness garden ( zone 10b ) and current garden ( zone 6b ) , I ’ve started seeds successfully in midsummer and had a very productive fall garden — even through winter .
But fall planting is n’t quite as straightforward as spring planting . Here are a few important things to keep in mind :
You must choose early-maturing varieties.
Seeds labeled as “ other season ” ensure your plant will grow to matureness even as day length shortens , and flower wo n’t be damaged by hoarfrost before they raise a harvest .
It takes longer for crops to mature.
If you ’ve understand my post on understandingwhat “ days to maturity ” means on a seeded player package , then you acknowledge those numbers are just a starting point . This is especially true in summer when the sun start up waning after the solstice .
For all the crops list below , I’ve added 10 days to the typical harvest timeto report for lessen daylight hours .
I generally don’t recommend sowing spinach and lettuce midsummer.
Both of these leafy vegetables germinate ill in warm summer soil , and in most climates , it ’s just not deserving the hassle if you want to start harvest in drop .
Butif you just ca n’t opine a fall garden without salad greens , a workaround is to startheat - patient of lettuce varietiesindoors , harden them off , and then transfer them out of doors in July and August .
Learn more : How tostart seeds indoors
Disclosure : If you frequent from my article or make a leverage through one of my links , I may receive commissions on some of the products I recommend .
All that said , this is what I care to institute every July :
Basil (70 to 80 days)
Now is the consummate time to start more Basil the Great if yours has already begun to blossom . It wo n’t last a light frost , but you could plan ahead and implant yours in a pot to bring deep down when temperature set out dropping .
My favorite salmagundi : Lemon , Lettuce Leaf , Purple Petra , Sweet Thai
Gardening hack
Snip a few radical from your current basil plant and stick them in a glass of piss . Once the root get at least 1 inch long , found them in the garden . you’re able to alsotransplant “ living basil ” herb from the food market storeand get a few spare plants out of it !
Bush beans (60 to 80 days)
plump down in a few bush bean seeds and you ’ll get a decent harvest in crepuscle . In fact , this is a safe harvest to sequence inseminate every three weeks , beginning in bound after all danger of frost has go by . By June 21 , you could be on your third or fourth daily round of seeds !
Remember to account for the shorter daylight hours and gloomy slant of the sunlight as the seasons exchange , and establish your bean in the sunniest point possible to maximize production .
My favourite mixture : Dragon Tongue , Royal Burgundy , Gold Rush , French Filet
Fava beans (85 to 95 days)
Fava beans ( also called wide beans ) are exceptionally cold hardy ( down to 10 ° F ) , so you could seed seeds in midsummer and permit the industrial plant produce into winter . Even though they take an norm of 90 24-hour interval to maturity date in fall , you may actually start harvest home much sooner than that .
The pinnace leaf can be harvested once the plants are about 8 in marvellous . After that , you could pick a few blossom for salads , and then piece the noggin pods when they ’re about 6 inch long . ( In my persuasion , fava beans are best when they ’re young because they do n’t need beat — I wish to throw them on the grill . )
Read more : How toharvest edible fava bean leaves and flowersfrom your works
Even if you do n’t like fava beans , plant them anyway because they grow quickly and make an excellent cover crop . ( Read my guide ongrowing fava noggin to determine N in your territory . )
My favored varieties : Windsor , Aquadulce
Arugula (30 to 60 days)
Arugula ’s the unicorn of leafy vegetables : it ’s more heat - tolerant than most , yet can outlive a clear frost . And even though it thrives in cooler weather , it can pullulate in very fond summertime soil ( up to 85 ° F to 90 ° F ) , make it ideal for midsummer sowing .
Baby arugula is typically quick for harvest home about a month after seed , but fledged leaves are just as tender when foot in drop .
My favourite form : Astro , Wild Rocket
Brassicas (60 to 100 days)
Brassicas are the star topology of the fall garden : not only are they very cold - tolerant , they actuallyturn sweeter after a few frost ! If you ’ve always grow kale , cabbage , Brussels sprouts , broccoli , cauliflower , Brassica oleracea gongylodes , and collards as spring crops ( that maturate in the hotness of summer ) , then you ’re in for a delicious kickshaw !
Pick them in the sister leafage phase ( at around three to four weeks ) to enjoy in salads , or wait until the leaves are full grownup .
My favorite variety : Red Russian Kale , Lacinato Dinosaur Kale , Portuguese Kale , Purple Vienna Kohlrabi , Rapini Broccoli Raab , Romaneso Broccoli , Georgia Southern Collards
Quick Tip
You do n’t have to wait for the heads to form on broccoli and cauliflower , or the medulla oblongata to amply explicate on kohlrabi , before you may initiate harvest home . The leaves on all genus Brassica are just as delicious !
Mustard greens (40 to 60 days)
Mustards are a must in my declivity garden as they ’re tight growing and moderately frost tolerant . My personal favourite are Asian mustard greens , which are generally balmy in flavor . If you sow new cum every two to three weeks , you ’ll get a uninterrupted harvest time of salad and stir - tike greens until the first hard frost .
My favorite variety : Komatsuna , Rosette Tatsoi , Baby Choi Bok Choy , Mizuna
Chard (60 to 70 days)
Chard is a biennial that is both drought- and cold-blooded - tolerant , so it ’ll boom in live summer climates as well as chilly declension gardens . It can also handle illumination to moderate freezing , so it ’ll overwinter in modest mood .
If you ’re in a cold clime like me , you could keep yours go through winter by originate a white - stemmed diversity and using rime cloth or other aegis . snowy - stemmed chard , like Fordhook Giant , tend to be more frost - tolerant than rainbow varieties .
My favorite varieties : Fordhook Giant , Five Color Silverbeet Swiss Chard
Peas (70 to 80 days)
coke peas , sugar snap pea plant , and shelling pea plant are typically spring - plant crop , but similar to brassicas , they actually savour sweet when they ’re seed summer solstice and allowed to mature in fall .
The key to a successful harvest is making sure you embark on seeds at least two months before your expected first hoarfrost . This ensure the plant life will still flower in diminishing daylight , the heyday wo n’t be damaged by frost , and you ’ll have a plentiful harvest before your works go dormant or die off entirely .
My preferred varieties : Sugar Daddy Snap Peas , Oregon Sugar Pod II Snow Peas , Blue Shelling Peas
Spring radishes (30 to 40 days)
Spring radishes are n’t just for outpouring ! you could taking over seed your favorite snacking radishes every workweek from midsummer until about four weeks before the first frost . Even then , radishes can defy temperature down to the mid-20s Fahrenheit , and while the leaves may stomach some frost damage , the ascendant will still be crisp and edible .
My pet varieties : French Breakfast , Purple Plum , Crimson Giant , Easter Egg Blend , Hailstone , Long Scarlet Cincinnati
Winter radishes (50 to 90 days)
Winter radishes are naturally soft and fresh than their spring counterparts , and summer solstice is the in effect time to get daikon , watermelon daikon , black radish , and other winter radish types in the basis to amp up their sweetness even more . ( see thedifferences between spring and winter radish in my mail here . )
Honestly , I farm winter radishes as much for their delicious park as I do for their roots ! I falsify them the same way of life I falsify chard , and love using wintertime radish putting green in soup , stews , and agitate - fries .
My best-loved form : Mantanghong Watermelon Radish , Black Spanish Round Radish , Miyashige White Daikon , Bora King Korean Radish , Formosan Green Meat Luobo , Aka Karaine Hot Radish
Fun fact
Aka Karaine radishes were the first vegetables I ever get down from seed in my very first garden ! I indite about them in 2010 ( also one of my first blog posts ) , with a simplerecipe for potato and radish leaf soup . ( I still make that soup ! )
Turnips (50 to 65 days)
turnip are one of the fastest - growing root vegetables , and when they age in cool weather condition , they ’re much less virulent than turnips harvested in summertime . Depending on how you need to use turnips , you could even pick them in the baby stage ( when the roots are just an in around)—this size is consummate for pickling or eating natural in salad .
My favorite variety : Purple Top White Globe , White Lady , Red Round
Beets (60 to 80 days)
As soon as there ’s space in the garden in July , I usually puzzle a few beet cum in the ground because they germinate fast and I like sweet , tender beet common even more than I like beet roots . This also cultivate well for me because I pluck them in all different stages , from baby common beet size ( which can be thinly slice and eaten new ) to full sizing ( which is amazing in a roast or soup ) .
And have you ever triedquick pickled roast beets ? They are inspired !
My favorite form : Chioggia , Golden Boy
Carrots (75 to 90 days)
I much prefer to sow in carrots in midsummer for fall harvest time . For one matter , the seed germinate more quickly in warm grease , so you ’re not play that changeless plot of“Will they add up up?”in spring . They ’re also another vegetable that tastes sweeter after frost , so you should wait to pick yours until well into fall .
But what make carrots an idealistic crop for the fall garden is how well they stash away through wintertime — right outdoors in the ground ! If you ca n’t eat all of them at once , you could just pull up stakes your carrots where they are and use the dirt as a jury-rigged root cellar .
The leaves may eventually die off during a hard freezing , but the tooth root are still dead eatable and safe to keep underground . Just bend the cultivated carrot top side over ( I do this instead of cutting them off completely , since it helps me see where they are for succeeding harvest ) and tot a few inch of straw mulch on top to isolate the roots .
This mulch , merge with snow natural covering , is key to overwinter cultivated carrot in the ground . Harvest what you require until the flat coat freezes solid , then reap the remain cultivated carrot in tardy wintertime to very former spring before they start arise again .
In my own garden , I care to harvest carrot through winter so I use a very duncical layer of mulch ( stalk , pine needles , sliced leaves , or sheep wool aremy go - to mulch ) and then I traverse the bed with freeze fabric . This make it easier to harvest , since the carrots are n’t under a blanket of snow .
While carrots can be picked at any stage of increase , remember that they ’ll finish growing in winter . So if you care to harvest at full size , verify you start semen early on enough to answer for for the little solar day duration in midsummer .
My favourite varieties : Carnival Blend , Scarlet Nantes , Shin Kuroda
If you ’re reading this in August or September and wondering—“Is it too late to plant ? ! ”
Nope , it ’s not ! Depending on your climate , you may still get another daily round of crops in the earth ! Here are thebest fast - growing vegetable you’re able to plant now and harvest in 40 days or less .
This post updated from an article that originally appeared on August 5 , 2013 .
