Plant a Second Garden for a Bountiful Fall Harvest

Pac Choi

By Robin Sweetser

Plan a fall garden now, especially if you have empty beds after harvesting summer crops. It's never too early to think ahead!

Yes, summer isn't even half over, but fall doesn't have to spell the end of fresh garden produce. In warmer regions, many crops thrive just as well in autumn as in spring—especially spinach, Swiss chard, broccoli, and kale. In cooler climates, these same vegetables are often frost-tolerant. Fall planting offers advantages too: fewer insects and diseases, less watering, and more pleasant working conditions.

Timing Is Everything: Check Your Frost Dates

To plan your fall garden, consult the Almanac for your area's first frost date. Where I live, it's around September 20, but a killing frost often doesn't arrive for another month. That's plenty of glorious gardening weather! Next, check the "days to maturity" on your seed packets. Even though days are shortening, the soil is warmer than in May, so seeds sown now germinate much faster.

The Old Farmer's Almanac also offers a garden calendar that calculates fall planting dates based on your local frost dates—taking the guesswork out of the equation. See their Best Dates Planting Calendar.

Quick Crops for Early Fall Harvests

Fast-growing, tender vegetables like summer squash and zucchini bear fruit in 45–50 days. Many cucumber varieties are ready in under 50 days, and bush beans take about 6–8 weeks to reach harvestable size. The catch? These crops will be killed by frost unless you protect them. If you have a long growing season, this isn't an issue.

Cold-Hardy Stars for the Autumn Garden

As temperatures drop, focus on cold-tolerant crops that mature quickly. Salad greens are speedy and hardy; leaf lettuces are ready to cut in 45–50 days. Looseleaf and butterhead varieties can be harvested at almost any stage.

Lettuce seeds sometimes struggle to germinate in hot soil, so I start mine in flats kept well-watered and shaded until they're large enough to transplant. Varieties like 'Winter Marvel' and 'New Red Fire' are especially cold-tolerant.

A quick crop of radishes reaches the salad bowl in just 25 days. Other root crops—carrots, beets, and turnips—take longer but grow sweeter as days cool. Snap peas and snow peas start producing in 60 days, and cold-weather peas are exceptionally sweet and crisp. Pea vines survive temperatures down to 25°F.

Fall-planted spinach far outperforms spring plantings since it matures in the cool weather it loves. Swiss chard is another hardy green reaching edible size in 25–30 days. With some frost protection, both can last well into autumn. If well-mulched, spinach often winters over in many regions, giving you an extra-early spring crop of the best spinach you've ever tasted!

Broccoli and kohlrabi mature beautifully in cool weather and face fewer cabbage moth larvae than spring crops. Kale is a winter staple—try blue-green 'Winterbor' or striking purple 'Redbor'. They can be harvested long after other greens succumb to cold.

The real stars of the fall garden are Asian greens. Quick-maturing varieties are ready in 45 days. Tatsoi, pac choi, mizuna, and napa all belong to the brassica family. They withstand frost and, with protection, survive hard freezes.

Some Asian greens like hon tsai tai and mibuna are closer to mustard (also a brassica), giving them tangy leaves that add a pleasant bite to autumn salads and stir-fries. Other cold-hardy greens—arugula, mâche, minutina, and claytonia—withstand quite low temperatures, providing interesting salads and cooked greens well into late fall.

Fall can be a second spring. After harvesting garlic in July, you'll have plenty of room for fall crops. Freshen empty beds with compost and get ready to plant your second garden!

Want even more fall gardening advice?

• You'll love this video on Succession Planting: How to Harvest More from Your Vegetable Garden.
• Here's a handy chart from The Old Farmer's Almanac listing last planting dates for second crops in your region.

Tell us about your fall garden in the comments below!

~ By Robin Sweetser