Put your fall vegetable crops in now

If the gardening season hasn’t worn you down yet, there are a few more things you can plant to benefit your depleted garden soils or produce vegetables for the dinner table.

Root crops and greens can be planted now, except for broccoli and cauliflower.

This means that crops such as kale, lettuce, beets, kohlrabi, cabbage and Swiss chard can still be sown to give you a bonus harvest of nutritious vegetables.

Start plants of broccoli and cauliflower now to plant into the garden in a couple of weeks, or buy them from your local garden center.

Many of these plants will survive frost.

As many of you know, we can get a light frost early, but then enjoy some good warmer weather that will be beneficial to many vegetables.

Vegetables that survive a light frost include beets, broccoli, green onion, kohlrabi, leaf lettuce, mustard greens, cauliflower, cilantro, peas, radishes, spinach, Swiss chard and turnips.

Vegetables that survive a hard frost into the mid-20 F. range include Brussels sprouts, cabbage, collard greens and kale. Carrots that are already established can be harvested until the ground freezes. Don’t forget to plant your garlic in September for a great crop next year.

If your garden seems to be depleted after a long summer of growing crops, then you can plant a green manure.

An early established green manure will add organic matter and important nutrients, reduce erosion and control weeds in your vegetable garden so that next season you can grow a crop of bountiful vegetables.

Green manures can be planted from now until the end of September. It is important to mow or till the crops if they go to flower since they can reseed readily.

Choose legumes such as hairy vetch or Austrian field peas to add nitrogen, or those that add organic matter such as oats or winter rye. Legume and grain crops are often mixed together with great success.

Mike Bauer is the horticulturist for Moose Valley Farms, a full-service garden center located in Naples at mile marker 495. Please feel free to call us at 267-5108 or stop in if you have any questions.