Fall Sowing



Their first day in the cold frame.



I don't know why they call it fall sowing.  You sow in the summer.  You harvest in the fall.  But whatever.  We did it.  And I wrote an article about it for our community newspaper, 3rd Ward STL.  Here it is, with a couple adjustments (since it was written before we actually sowed).

This summer has seen record highs, and very little rain, leaving many local gardens lacking. Hot, dry conditions stunt the growth of plants and fruit. But if your garden is looking shabby, or if you never got around to planting, don't worry! You can have a very successful fall garden.

"Fall sowing" is standard practice for many experienced gardeners. Once the crops planted in spring start to fade, you are left with plenty of space, and a couple months of decent weather. Usually you would start plants from seeds in mid-August, but even as late as September, there is time to plant and harvest plenty of nutritious vegetables.

So how do you get started? First, decide what you want to plant. Different plants mature at different rates, so you might have to plant them at different times. Also, you should look at what grows best in the fall. Brassicas (plants in the cabbage family: cabbage, lettuce, spinach, collard greens, other greens, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussel's sprouts) grow best in cooler weather, and are the first choice for fall gardens. But, you could also grow some root crops like carrots, beets, turnips, rutabagas, etc. You can even plant garlic as late as mid-October and harvest in early spring! There are some peas and beans that you could grow as well. Most other plants take a long time to mature, and would not produce any fruit before the first freeze of winter, which would kill most garden vegetables.

We went with collard greens, kale (very similar to collards), leeks, cauliflower, yellow squash, and acorn squash.  The cauliflower takes a while to mature, but we planted it just to see.  The squash only take around 55 days, so I figured we'd have time.  One thing to realize though is that plants take longer to mature in the fall, because the day lengths are different.

After you decide what you plant, you need to figure out when it needs to be planted. The average first frost date for St. Louis is October 29. So you need to plant your seeds or seedlings early enough that they will produce fruit before the frost kills them. That means for most vegetables, you need to have them planted by mid-August. Some plants, like most varieties of Brussel's sprouts, broccoli, and cauliflower, you might want to start by mid to late July. Starting your seeds indoors is the best method for most vegetables. When you start seeds indoors, you can control how much water and light they get, and they are safe from pests and most diseases. If you get seedlings from a nursery (or Lowe's, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, etc.), you can start them a little later, but not too much.

All you need to do at this point is make sure your garden has space. By now, most plants are done producing, so just pull them out to make room for your new additions. If you are planting seeds directly in the ground (not a bad idea this late, as long as you are using fast-growing varieties), then make sure to keep the ground moist - otherwise the seeds will not germinate. This might be the hardest part, as we've had such a dry summer. Keeping the ground moist is very important. If the intense heat is lingering, you can give your seeds some shade to help prevent the moisture from drying up. You could prop some boards up on bricks, or tie cloth or burlap between sticks over the area. Just be sure your growing plants get the sunshine they need.

If this is your first time planting, start simple. Get some fast growing varieties of mustard greens and spinach. Plant the seeds and keep them moist, and in a month or so you'll have great healthy food and a wonderful garden.

Took this photo today.  Brasicas are growing like champs.

To add to this, our fall garden is coming right along.  Everything has sprouted except our acorn squash.  But we did those on a whim, anyway, so I'm not worried.  We've "mulched" all our mature plants with burlap, because we have it in abundance.  I just cut strips and laid them around the base of the plants.  The goal is to help retain the moisture.  I should have done that earlier in the season, but oh well.  We didn't have space to do our seedlings indoors, so we're using a cold frame we made last year out of some old windows and scrap wood.  We put a black trash bag down first to help keep pests out and to absorb heat, then put the cold frame down, and put our two seedling trays inside.  A friend of mine suggested putting dark bags filled with water to absorb heat during the day and slowly release it at night.  I opted for bricks.  We have tons of them, and they absorb quite a bit of heat.  So I set them in the sun during the day, then stick about 4 or so of them in there when I close them for the evening.

You should keep your cold frame propped open during the day.  It's important for air flow, so the plants get air, and it helps prevent disease issues.  Close it in the evening to retain the heat.  I started closing ours as soon as it stops getting direct sunlight.

Yellow squash.  Squash is so encouraging at first, because it pops up super fast and gets huge.  Taking care of it can be hard, though.

We direct seeded our squash, which I would recommend.  They're doing just fine.

I shaded the seedlings today because it was a bit sunny and hotter than it's been the past few weeks.  I just put a burlap bag on top of the propped open windows.

I'm especially excited about our fall garden, because last year and this year have not been good garden years for us.  We've learned quite a bit, but they've not been very fruitful.  I was told by our neighbor Martha that growing weather could extend as late as December, so I'm leaving our tomatoes up, and our swiss chard should keep on growing into late fall.  I really hope our Brussel's sprouts start budding (or whatever you call it).