Fall gardens are one of the most rewarding gardens that you can plant. I love the time of the year where the weather shifts from unpleasantly hot to downright beautiful for a few weeks (and those beautiful few weeks are why we live in the Midwest, right?!)
I would love if this year, you celebrated the shift in the seasons with me by planting a fall garden.
If you’ve never planted a fall garden before, here are some foolproof steps to take to make sure your fall garden is even better than the one you planted in May:
- Look through what’s currently growing in your garden and remove everything that is dead or diseased or just plain tired-looking after weathering the summer heat. If you have any plants that haven’t grown as well as you’d like them to get, remove them too. Your fall garden is your fresh start!
- Add 2-3” of compost to your entire planting area. This will give your new plants the nutrients they need to grow quickly and healthy, and give your existing plants a boost too!
- Decide what plants you’d like to grow in your fall garden. Look for cold-hardy and frost-tolerant herbs and vegetables. Leaf lettuce and head lettuce are perfect choices. Snap or snow peas are great choices too. And spinach (my favorite) really loves to be grown in the fall. Brassicas like cabbages, cauliflower, and broccoli are great options but need to be planted about 12 weeks before first frost – so plan ahead!
- Create a planting plan, or use any of these planting plans that I’ve created for you for free.
- Plant everything, remember to water frequently until everything sprouts, and in just a few weeks you’ll be enjoying harvests from your fall garden!
Enjoy the magic of planting a new garden long after most gardeners have giv
en up for the year! You’ll easily be able to harvest fresh vegetables for your Thanksgiving dinner, and maybe Christmas too!
Let me know how your fall garden is growing. We’re talking about fall gardening on our social media accounts all month, so please stop by and let me know what you’re excited to grow!
*Photos courtesy of Second Star Photography
