Introduction
You’re never too late to plant vegetables in your garden. Even if you got late into gardening and winter is just around the horizon, you can always get some topsoil by searching for “topsoil near me” and start gardening during the fall season. Let’s check out some of the best vegetables you can plant in the fall:
The Vegetables
- Onions and Shallots – Root vegetables are some of the best for planting during the fall season. You can sow them during autumn and harvest them the next summer for all kinds of dishes. When you plant shallots and onions during the autumn season, the roots have plenty of time to get established in the soil. This is very important since you would have difficulty growing them if the soil freezes before they can develop. Once they settle in these hardy crops grow themselves with little to no care. However, you need to time it right since these veggies may still be underground when it’s time to plant spring crops like carrots and peas. You can also mark the area where the shallots are planted and avoid tilling till they are harvested.
- Leafy greens – Leafy greens are usually cold weather crops that thrive during the autumn season, and some are even hardy enough to brave through harsh winter. Leafy greens like mustard greens, kale, and collard greens are excellent vegetables to grow during the fall season. They will grow even in sub-zero temperatures, and you can harvest them during that time for your salads, soups, and smoothies. You can even dehydrate kale to make crunchy and savory kale chips. These crops are highly nutritious and can add a lot of flavors to your palette.
- Spring Onions – Spring onions are a must in a fall garden. They are perennial crops that are so strong that you can even harvest them after the first snowfall. They are also the first greens that will pop out of the soil. Spring onions and other scallions are extremely hardy crops with roots tough enough to brave the freezing winter and ready for harvest in early spring. Moreover, if you’re one of those lucky and resourceful people who have a greenhouse, you can even harvest them in the cold winter season and add it to all sorts of dishes.
- Asparagus – Asparagus is an awesome plant and an incredibly flavorful vegetable that also hits all the right boxes when it comes to texture. However, to grow this plant you need patience more than anything else. Asparagus beds will develop and be ready for harvest only after at least two years of planting the crowns. Fortunately, they will taste amazing and there’s nothing fresher than tender asparagus harvested from your garden. You’re also awarded appropriately for your patience. Your bed would keep producing asparagus spears for as long as 25 years or more and hence it’s a perennial that keeps giving. If you want to skip the timeline, you can buy an established bed of asparagus and plant it in your garden.
- Garlic – Garlic is a fundamental aromatic that is used in cuisines throughout the world, from the east to the west. They have been used by civilizations across the world due to their many benefits. Apart from being able to protect your food from harmful microorganisms, it can also help you fight the common cold during flu season. You can use it fresh in your food or pickle and ferment it to add more kick to your tangy recipes. It’s a powerful vegetable and you can grow it in your garden during the fall season. You can even plant it as late as September and it will survive through the winter. However, you need to protect the cloves from the cold with a thick layer of mulch.
- Turnips – Turnips are one of the most underrated crops in this list and most other lists you can find on the internet. Even when they are packed with minerals like magnesium, iron, calcium and have incredible amounts of B vitamins, they are hardly on anyone’s grocery list. They are very easy to grow and don’t need a lot of care during their growth. They can easily last through the winter season and give you a bountiful harvest. Apart from that, turnips also improve your bone strength, immune system, and also boosts your metabolism.
- Perpetual Spinach – Perpetual spinach is an incredible crop that gives you lush leafy greens along with many nutritional benefits. It isn’t really spinach but brings you many benefits of spinach and a lot more. It can grow much quicker than spinach and also requires very little maintenance. Moreover, it lasts for a long time in your garden. It’s the perfect fall vegetable and as its name suggests it keeps providing you with fresh harvests for a long time.
- Winter lettuce – Winter is usually the sight of frozen white and snowy land. So, it’s amazing to see some green during that period with this vegetable. Compared to store-bought lettuce that has traveled hundreds or probably thousands of miles to reach you, this one is fresh from your garden and tastes much more tender and has superior flavor. You can grow them in the greenhouse along with other varieties of hardy lettuce like rocket, cress, and radicchio.
- Broad Beans – Broad beans are one of the few vegetables that have beautiful blooms and that turns into delicious and nutrient-rich vegetables. You can pick a few from your garden and eat them raw or use them in salads, stir-fries, and other types of dishes. However, not all of them can brave the cold months and hence you need to choose the variety carefully. Aquadulce Claudia may be a good start.
Conclusion
Now that you know about all the vegetables that can be grown during the fall season, you should start as early as possible. You can harvest them during the spring season or the summer season. To get started you need good soil, and the search can start with “topsoil near me”.
