Plan Your Fall Vegetable Garden

The first and early tomatoes of the season are just about ready. The zucchinis are in full flower and just waiting for the right pollinator to pollinate them, and just days later the zukes will be pickable. Peas should be harvestable, cukes are well underway and the spinach may be already bolting. This is all very significant since all are signs that it’s time to begin planning and planting the fall vegetable garden.

This is a project that not all of you will relish, but for many of us it is another gardening opportunity. Few realize that nearly 20 different crops can be replanted, reseeded and then harvested right into November and in some cases beyond. Remember, Eastern Long Island — the Hamptons — has the longest growing season in all of New York. At least one of your choices may overwinter while another doesn’t get planted until much later in the summer for harvest next year.

There are two approaches to get your fall veggies going, and here I’m just thinking about space options. Where will these additional crops go? Crops like the salad greens, including most of the spinaches, will bolt in the summer heat and need to be removed. Peas will mature and fade as it gets warmer so yet another opportunity for reclaiming the space and planting something. Radishes, except the long Asian types, are done so there’s another planting spot.

If reclaiming space in the existing vegetable garden isn’t practical then maybe some new space can be dedicated to the fall veggies? No matter where you plant, though, you still need protection from Peter and Bambi. The rabbits have been multiplying like, well, rabbits, and we all know the deer never stop.

The good news is that the late veggie garden is much less susceptible to weeds, diseases and insects, but remember to add compost and fertilizer at planting and then again another light feeding for most of these crops in September. Water, water, water.

The veggies that need the longest growing season will need to be in the ground in the next week or sooner. Others will be planted through the end of August based on their tolerance to cold and frost and their time from seeding or transplanting to harvesting.

Here’s a quick review of what I think can be planted, when the deadline is and if it needs to be done from seed or transplants. When it comes to transplants, I’d suggest you ask at your local garden center when they get late transplants in. If they don’t carry or get the transplants you want then look around. It’s usually the larger and more established retailers that will stock and have these plants.

The following should be planted within the next week: Lima beans, Brussels sprouts (transplants), cabbage (transplants), celeriac, celery (transplants), eggplant (transplants), herbs (most), leeks, okra, peppers (main season only) and sweet corn — but only main season crops not early types — and lastly tomatoes.

And here’s the exception: Garlic gets planted very late but it needs to be ordered now so the plantable cloves arrive in the fall. Garlic is harvested early the following summer.

By early August you can plant snap beans (pole beans) but not later. Main season cabbage seed can be sown as well as carrots, cauliflower transplants, cucumbers, head lettuces, Romaine lettuce, onions (green), parsley, parsnip, rutabaga and summer squash. Maybe give bok choy a try now as well as Swiss chard.

By August 20, snap bean seeds can be sown, beets, broccoli (transplants), cabbage (but this time transplants of early varieties), cauliflower, collards, endive, kale, kohlrabi, mustard, peas, Asian radishes and Swiss chard. By September 1, you can seed leaf and cut-and-come-again lettuce blends, spinach and turnips. You can also sow seed for spinach that’s known for its winter hardiness and mulch it with salt hay or straw that may allow you to do a very early spring harvest before the plants need to be yanked.

For many of you this will be an experiment where you find out what really works in terms of timing and varieties. Throttle your expectations if you’re new to fall veggie planting because the weather is the variable that always seems to change from year to year, and so far the forecast for a wet summer has not panned out.

Then there are the season extenders that can allow you to grow even more and longer. These range from simple row covers that protect from early frost and cold, to low tunnels that are made from a covering material, 10-gauge steel wire and stakes or posts to support the structure. High tunnels or hoop houses are actually simple structures that are covered, allowing the plants to keep warm and retain soil heat much longer than open earth and are usually tall enough to walk and work in. If you’re lucky enough to have cold frames some of the crops noted above can be grown in the unheated frame all winter.

Do you know about winter sweetening? We often are told that some vegetables are sweeter after the first frost and others can get sweeter in cold soils, like beets and carrots. When the soil temperature drops the stored energy in the plants (and roots) that was stored as starches are converted to sugars and seem to act as a minimal anti-freeze agent. This also seems to have the same effect on Brussels sprouts, broccoli, kale and other leafy greens.

I know, the summer can be hard on gardeners, and working and talking about a fall veggie garden may be close to the last thing on your mind. But if you’ve got the space, the seed and access to the transplants, maybe a small garden. Another opportunity to keep growing.

Around the Fourth of July I started scouting for Japanese beetles on my hibiscus and rose of Sharon (also a hibiscus). Sure enough, there they were. Just small numbers, though, and easy enough to manage with a small bowl of soapy water or squirts of pyrethrin on the beetles only. But I had one hibiscus that on the Fourth of July looked like Swiss cheese with no JBs in sight. Forever curious, I forwarded pictures of the damage to my internet bug buddies only to find out that the culprit was the hibiscus sawfly. That was a new one. The adults are small insects only about a quarter of an inch long, black with an orange line behind the head. The leaf feeding is done by their larvae — small caterpillars under a half inch long. They work fast and can have several broods in the summer so don’t always assume the damage to your perennial hibiscus plants is from the beetles. Adults can be hit with just a little pyrethrin when you see them, and the foliage should be sprayed with Spinosad (yes, it’s organic) so the feeding caterpillars ingest it and die. If you don’t treat the population they will return every year.

The long-range precipitation outlook always called for a wet spring followed by a wet summer. The wet summer has not materialized and as we did our last plantings of perennials and a few shrubs last week the ground was very, very dry. Remember that it’s been dry in terms of humidity, and the rain we’ve gotten in the past month has not penetrated deep into the soil. Not much you can do other than being aware, and any new plantings of perennials, trees and shrubs should be given a deep watering at least once a week. If we don’t get at least an inch of precipitation weekly, then you need to water. For deep watering, water slowly and let it soak in. For large trees use a hose-end dribbler, and for larger plantings like beds and borders, consider soaker hoses. Avoid sprinklers that get the foliage wet but don’t allow water to soak into the soil. Water early in the morning or late in the afternoon.

Summer thunderstorms can be loud and seem to produce plenty of rain. In some cases they do, but over a very short period of time and this results in plenty of runoff but little soil penetration. You can buy small plastic rain gauges for a few bucks. Put at least one in the garden where there’s nothing above it. Check each time it rains then empty it. You may be surprised.