Get Your Fall Garden Started With These Veggies
Oftentimes, the secret to great tasting vegetables isn’t seasoning and it isn’t a spice. It’s planting and harvesting them at the right time of year. Mother Nature has given us a long list of leafy green vegetables and root crops that prefer cooler weather. For many veggies, colder weather produces a crop with better taste.
Surprisingly, long spring days will scorch your new plants and cause them to go to seed too soon and stop growing. Fall and winter gardening, however, is a great way to maintain the tilth and fertility of your garden’s soil, keeping it at peak level.
Here are our favorite veggies that are very happy in the fall and winter:
Broccoli
Broccoli is a strong vegetable – it can germinate in temps as low as 40 degrees! And, as it matures in the fall, it actually tastes better – sweeter.
In general, cool weather produces bigger and tastier heads (since plants can fully mature during cooler weather). Warm weather broccoli is smaller since heat causes broccoli to open its flower buds early.
If your broccoli freezes, let it thaw and it will still taste great! But, don’t let it freeze and thaw repeatedly ‘ this will ruin your plants.
Peas
Pea seeds can germinate in temps as low as 50 degrees. Peas grow best in lower temperatures, and young plants will even tolerate a light frost. Then, once germinated, peas adapt well to the cold.
Peas are happier when they can mature in cool weather. A better taste will show in the quality of the peas and their pods.
Spinach
The king of all leafy greens that fueled Popeye’s strength, spinach crops, are best in the fall.
Spinach plants are thrown off by longer days in the spring. The long days signal the plant to reproduce too early. This ruins the taste, as the tenderness and juiciness of spinach escape the plant quickly.
Because of such a disappointing spring harvest, many gardeners don’t grow spinach – but planting this crop in the fall is the perfect solution.
Kale
Kale is the superfood of choice, the elite member of the dark-green leafy vegetable family. Just like broccoli, kale reveals a much sweeter taste once it sees a frost in the fall.
Kale thrives in cold weather. Kale is so hardy that you can harvest it in the dead of winter.
Carrots
Fall carrots can be left in the ground for an early winter harvest, even in moist conditions. They can withstand frost and, if the weather gets a little colder than you had planned for, your carrots can be harvested early and still taste great!Bugs Bunny would be proud of you for this, and so will your eyes.
The best way to protect your favorite vegetables from the summer heat is to avoid the heat altogether. If you don’t see your favorite veggie on this list, we wouldn’t be surprised if it too would grow better in cooler weather.
So, start a fire, make some veggie soup, and enjoy your harvest. Take advantage of this cool weather in the southeast, it’s great for gardening! And be sure to schedule our expert lawn service to enhance your fall garden.
