Cool Season Gardening

Your garden is beginning to look like  the bread isle on a snow day, as waves of exhausted summer vegetable plants find their way into the compost pile. The days are becoming shorter, and open windows welcome crisp morning air into the house. It’s time to plant for fall!

Cold hardy vegetable varieties like cabbage, broccoli, kale, and chard prefer cool temperatures and thrive in the mild spring and fall climates of the Southeastern United States. As you remove spent summer plants, and prepare your garden for fall crops, remember these important steps that will help ensure a successful harvest :

-Your garden soil is most likely depleted of nutrients, and will need to be replenished before new plantings are made. A simple application of Dried Blood (Also sold as Blood Meal) , Bone Meal, and Dolomite Lime - organic products sold at any garden center - will give your plants a good supply of  nutrients and help maintain proper soil pH. Gardeners looking for more advanced soil nutrition, including trace minerals, should use Microfarm Mix. It’s a premium blend of fast, medium, and slow release organic amendments that will revive depleted soil, and help your garden thrive. Mix up a batch using the recipe below, and always work amendments into the soil well with a garden rake, water thoroughly, and wait a day before planting seedlings.

-It’s also a good time to incorporate more compost into your garden bed. Whether it comes from your own compost pile, or a bag, spread 2”-4” of organic humus over the surface of the soil, and again, work in well with a garden rake.

-Consider each plant variety’s soil pH and spacing requirements carefully. Crowded plants will not develop properly as they’re forced to compete for water, light, and nutrients. Cabbage family varieties, like broccoli and kale for example, need at least 18” between plants in rows 18” apart to reach their full potential.  The Fall Planting Guide below includes spacing and soil pH requirements for common cool season vegetables, including our own heirloom seedlings, as well as other types, like carrots, that are best seeded directly into the garden.

-Are you just getting started and have an empty garden bed to fill? Try the organic soil recipe in our Fall Planting Guide. It’s a simple mix of peat moss, compost, and perlite or vermiculite : inexpensive ingredients available at any garden center.

-Get out there and have fun - It's a great time of year for gardening!