Planting Guide for a Vegetable Garden in South Carolina in the Fall & Winter

Some vegetables, like lettuce, do best when they mature in cool weather.

Vegetable gardens thrive from spring through summer across the country, but die off in the fall in cold areas. In relatively warm areas like South Carolina, where U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 7 and 8 reign, gardeners can replant in midsummer and then again in fall to produce fall and winter vegetable harvests. If you'd like to keep a fall and winter garden this year, get your timing right and plant the right vegetables at the right times.

Things You'll Need

• Quick-draining soil
• Organic compost
• Fertilizer
• Mulch
• Spade
• Garden fork

Instructions

1. Begin your fall garden in midsummer to give the plants time to grow to maturity for harvest before the first frost arrives. Start your preparation and planting three months before the first frost date your area, which may range from early October to early November in South Carolina. This puts a midsummer planting in early July to early August.

2. Amend the soil, even in an established vegetable garden, to give the new vegetables the nutrition and drainage they require. Add 3 inches of organic compost to the top 6 inches of garden soil in an established garden, and 3 inches of organic compost plus 2 inches of quick-draining soil to the top 10 inches of soil in a new garden. This material loosens the growing bed and provides long-term nutrition. Add balanced or starter fertilizer to the top 2 inches of soil as well.

3. Plant tomatoes, peppers, beans, corn, summer squash, cucumbers, okra and any other summer-season vegetable at this time. The plants will take up to three months to grow to maturity and bear their fruit, and will provide a fall vegetable harvest. Water the garden as you would normally, and maintain 2 to 3 inches of mulch to protect the soil from drying in late-summer heat.

4. Plant short-season vegetables such as radishes, beets, turnips and carrots up to two weeks later. These plants have shorter maturity dates and will reach their harvest date before the first frost.

5. Re-amend the soil after you harvest your fall vegetables, and then plant the winter garden. This planting should take place several weeks before the first frost and include cold-hardy winter vegetables such as onions, leeks, turnips, rutabagas, lettuces, shallots, garlic, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and Brussels sprouts. Mulch this garden with 3 to 4 inches of organic mulch to protect it during the coming winter temperatures.

References

• North Carolina State University: Growing a Fall Vegetable Garden; Erv Evans; 1999
• Clemson Cooperative Extension: Planning a Garden; Bob Polomski; January 2005
• Clemson Cooperative Extension: Onion, Leek, Shallot and Garlic; Karen Russ, et al.; April 2003
• University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture: Planting Guide for Spring and Summer Vegetable Production

Resources

• Growit.com: South Carolina USDA Hardiness Zone Map
• Victory Seeds: Average First and Last Frost Dates for South Carolina