Photo credits by Flickr user jeffmason
What vegetables can I plant in my garden this fall? Here are some edibles to plant September through November. They not only taste great but their beautiful foliage and colors will look wonderful in your garden too.
Cabbage comes in many different varieties. There are red-leafed ones, miniature types for small spaces and multicolored flowering types. Savoy varieties have wonderful crinkly leaves and are the most frost hardy. Plant cabbage in full sun or light shade for hot inland areas. If you get an infestation of cabbage worms, Baccillus thuringiensis is an eco safe product. Or for a non pesticide approach, hand removing eggs on the underside of leaves every few days works well.
Endive comes in smooth leaf and lettuce-like varieties. Fine fringed varieties, called Escarole, contrast beautifully with the smooth leaved edibles in your garden. Plant endive in full sun or light shade for hot inland areas.
Lettuce can be grown almost year-round and comes in a wide variety of shapes: round, rosette shaped, upright and crinkled. Try to mix and match different forms for a dramatic effect. All types make a welcome addition around the edges of flower borders. If you plant leafy lettuce you’ll enjoy the added benefit of only needing to harvest the outer leaves (instead of beheading the whole plant) which avoids the look of gaps in your garden. Lettuce grows well in shade in rich loam, slightly alkaline soil. Add fish emulsion fertilizer to keep lettuce heads productive. Young lettuce leaves are attractive to snails, so protect young seedlings.
Other wonderful edibles to try this fall include:
Beets
Broccoli
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Kohlrabi
Mustard
Onions
Parsley
Peas
Radishes
Rutabaga
Spinach
Sugar Peas
Swiss Chard
Turnips
*All highlighted edibles mentioned can be easily started by seed or starts which are readily available at nurseries or mail order.