Lawn and Garden
Horticulture is the science and art of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, ornamental plants, and trees.
Maintaining attractive home and commercial landscapes not only increases property values but promotes an improved quality of life that makes our community a great place to live.
Whether you have a question about lawns, vegetables, flowers, or landscape maintenance, Extension information is created for use by everyone, including homeowners, lawn services and nurseries.
Extend the Season with a Fall Garden
Although our summer gardens are going strong, it is time to start thinking about getting our fall vegetables planted. Believe it or not, fall is a great gardening season!
When you think about it, fall weather is much like spring - warm daytime temperatures and cool nights. Rainfall is typically more abundant in the fall than summer (although we have had plenty this summer) so less irrigation is needed and fall gardens often have fewer insect pest and disease problems. Combine all of these and you have the ingredients for a great garden! And of most importance is the taste of the produce grown. Flavors of fall grown vegetables are often sweeter and milder in taste than those grown during hot summer weather.
Some of the best vegetables for a fall garden are lettuce, spinach, radishes, beets, cabbage, turnips and carrots because of their frost-tolerance. These vegetables can be planted directly into your garden wherever space can be found – next to plants still growing in the garden like tomatoes, cucumbers and pumpkins. Plant mid-August until the first week of September.
Garden soil should be prepared just like for spring. An application of fertilizer will probably be necessary for optimum plant growth. Use one pound of a complete analysis fertilizer, such as 12-12-12, applied per 100 square feet of garden area. Weeds and grasses will also grow well in a fall garden so mulching may be warranted.
Everyone gets geared up to plant vegetables in the spring, but the fall season offers many benefits to gardening. Few take advantage of the season, but consider giving it a try this year.
The Extension office has the “Vegetable Garden Planting Guide” publication available free of charge. This guide offers information such as days to first harvest, days to germination, planting depth, frost resistance, and more. You can also read it here.
