Choose The Right Plants to Start NOW for Bountiful Fall Harvests

Ways to beat the odds of adding to your harvest (not waste your time)

The Naturalized Human is a reader-supported newsletter that brings together the science and human experience of the mind-body-food connection and explores topics like biology, nutrition, growing food, wellness and living in harmony with our environment. I write weekly. Paid subscribers get access to exclusive content.

Last week I noted there were only 57 days left to the Fall Equinox in Western Canada. That is now just 52 days left. That means this first weekend in August is the perfect time to do some planting in the garden to get extra harvests later in the fall.

This timing always seems to escape me, which is why I am writing not only to remind all of you that it is the beginning of August (and not early September) when crops need to be seeded so that the crops will be ready before frosts threaten. It never seems to fail that I am caught up in the beautiful hot weather of August, and starting new seeds is not on my radar. . . . . that is until I feel the chill of a September breeze and I sudden realize there is no time to grow anything anymore. I missed out again!

So let’s explore the timing for fall crops a little further today and how you can figure out your best options no matter where you live. [And note to self - this weekend - I am starting some seeds!]

Choosing the “right” fall crops

Last week I focused on how to get some cool season crops positioned into your garden for the best results. But how exactly do you choose the cool season plants that have a shot at beating the frost?

It’s best to focus on the Days to Maturity listing for the plants you want to grow. Days to Maturity means how long does it take (on average) to go from seed to harvest. Obviously then a lower days to maturity number means the plant grows faster from seed to harvest than a bigger number of days. This number is usually listed right on the seed envelop.

Below is a chart I created to illustrate that there is a huge range of days to maturity for various plants, even within the same plant family. This is as a result of careful selective breeding and it means that you can pick and choose the timing of your harvest based on the variety and its days to maturity. I use the Brassica Family as an example (you can read more about plant families here).

(data source: West Coast Seeds)

Based on these days to maturity ranges, you CAN plant broccoli, kale, cabbage, radish, mustards and arugula this weekend FROM SEED and still likely get a harvestable crop before the first frost (working from a 52 day estimate to the first frost). BUT only if you select the right variety - and “right” in this case is the one with the shortest number of days to maturity.

You can see that starting right now is critical for broccoli, kale, cabbage and arugula, but that radish and mustards offer a lot of flexibility if you are focused on the shortest days to maturity.

Of course Brassica family plants are not your only option for direct seeding now to get harvests in the fall. Spinach, peas and lettuce are also great choices and I covered off ways of fitting them in and around your current garden crops in last weeks post. Many herbs like parsley, dill, cilantro and basil will grow big enough to harvest leaves if you start them this weekend. You can also search for short season varieties of carrots and beets. Here’s how.

Not sure which varieties will work?

The West Coast Seed website has a truly great system that I use for reference. If you go their website, next choose ‘SEEDS’ from the menu bar, and then select vegetable seeds from the left hand menu options. From there, choose the plant you are interested in. For an example, I chose Arugula illustrated below. On the left hand side of the window that opens, there is an option to filter for days to maturity. Selecting the lowest number will then filter you through to the best varieties offered for the fastest growth.

For me, I already prioritize fast growing cool season varieties for seed saving because these are the ones that, when planted early in the spring, give you the fastest food from your garden. These same varieties planted right now, will provide harvests as the temperatures start to dip and dive in the fall. This is a win-win.

To learn how to save your own seeds - become a paid subscriber to access the Successful Seed Saving 101 content that is rolling out in real time this 2024 gardening season.

Selecting Crops Based on Timing Windows

There are really 4 main timing windows in the garden that are distinguished by the shifts between periods of warm/hot and cool/cold, for anyone living outside of the tropics. (In the tropics, there are shifts are between rain and non-rainy periods instead of temperatures.)

While I’m focused today on the plants for fall harvest that can be started in the summer, many fall crops are in fact started in the spring and grown all season long to achieve food by the end of the growing season. For clarity, the 4 timing windows look something like this:

You can read more about cool season and warm season crops here.

Growing out of season?

Of course, if you live in a place with a really short growing window, then challenging these tried and trues “norms” is in order. I’ll save ways to extend harvest windows for another post, but suffice it to say here - there are several great techniques for extending your harvest past the early frost windows in fall and to warm your ground up faster in the spring. Stay tuned if you are interested in these methods because I’ll put together some posts on this as we head into the “shoulder season” of gardening.

Enjoy the added harvest!

There is nothing quite like the sweetness of cool season crops started in summer and harvested in the fall. The combination of hot growing days and cool nights really ups the flavor. And I think you hit the maximum potential for fresh, in-season cooking in the fall when you add in these amazing plants into your harvesting plans.

I’m determined to not miss this planting window here in 2024. I’ll be looking for the spaces and gaps in my garden to seed in some spinach, lettuce and arugula and starting a new patch of beets and some peas.

Have you ever planted any of the cool season crops in summer to add to your fall harvests? Share in the comments what’s worked for you.