How to Plant a Fall Crop in a Garden

When the leaves start falling and the nights get cool, most people do not think about gardening. In fact, most people are just trying to get their garden in shape from the end of the summer harvest. Dead plants have to be pulled and all the bits of vegetables left over are collected. However, with the cooler weather, a new batch of plants like lettuce, spinach, carrots, radishes, parsnips, parsley, or Swiss chard can be set out that will last for the rest of the fall and into the winter. If you live in the growing zones 5 through 10, you will still be able to harvest fresh vegetables and herbs for your table.

Things You'll Need

• Leaf rake
• Garden rake
• Hoe
• Seed packets
• String
• Stakes

Instructions

1. Clean up the soil. Pick up all the old vines and leaves from the previous season. You can mulch them all in the compost pile. Pull up all the old stakes and twine used to hold up the bean vines or tomato plants. Use a leaf rake to pull together all the leaves and stuff into a pile. Pick up the pile and load it into the compost pile.

2. Rake the garden bed to loosen the top layer of soil. Dig down about 3 to 4 inches and push and pull the soil back and forth. Use the back of the rake to smooth the surface dirt until the bed looks smooth. Remove any rocks or large twigs and roots that might have pushed up. Your bed should look clean and ready for a new crop.

3. Drag some rows into the surface of the soil using a hoe. If you need to use a string tied between two sticks to use as a guide, then set that up first and then make the row. You can move the string marker over after you have finished your first row, or you can leave it and use another. Sometimes, it helps to see where you planted seeds by using the string marker.

4. Plant seeds such as lettuce, spinach, carrots, radishes, parsnips, parsley, and Swiss chard. Most of these seeds are quite small. You can plant them just below the surface of the soil. Tamp the dirt over them by walking down the row, one foot in front of the other. Another plant for the fall is garlic. Plant some supermarket variety of garlic cloves (not heads) down about 6 inches and first thing in the spring you will see bright green grass emerge. By the end of the summer, you should have healthy garlic heads.

5. Keep the soil moist. Weed as usual.

6. Use covers over the tender leafy crops when the nights drop into freezing temperatures, but remove them in the warmth of daylight. Mound mulch up and around the root crops and they should continue to grow slowly right into the winter, sometimes even under the snow.