Getting a head start

Planting winter vegetables in August will produce fall bounty.

Growing your own produce sounded like a good idea this spring since so many gardeners were at home and had the time. Gardens, for the most part, have flourished, and many gardeners are reaping the benefits of homegrown vegetables. As long as you have done a good job of weeding and watering, many of these plants will continue to bear fruit through the fall. But it is also time to start planting more.

While it might not have felt too much like fall this past week, mid-August is the ideal time to begin planting a fall and winter garden.

There is time to replant some summer vegetables and time to get started with the cool-season crops.

With just a little care, we can now grow vegetables year-round in Arkansas. Some nurseries and garden centers have had vegetable transplants all summer, but others should be receiving more in the next few weeks.

If you can find vegetable transplants, you can replant tomato, pepper and eggplants, and begin to plant cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Swiss chard and Brussels sprouts.

You may find summer squash and cucumber transplants as well. If not, they can be

seeded, along with bush and pole beans.

You can also seed carrots, turnips, mustard, beets and kale now.

Hold off on spinach, lettuce and radishes until the first of September.

WATER, WATER

Keep in mind that it is hot and dry. Water is going to be the critical factor for getting these plants growing, whether from seed or transplants. Young transplants need plenty of moisture to get their root systems established. With warm soil conditions, the seeds usually sprout quickly if they have ample moisture.

Transplants and seedlings will get dry out quickly and can be lost if you don’t water. Mulch transplants at planting and lightly mulch the soil around plantings of seeds.

Once seeds begin growing, additional mulching will definitely help. Mulching with newspapers, shredded paper, shredded leaves or rice hulls will help to conserve moisture and keep weeds at bay.

Rainfall has been spotty, if at all, so don’t rely solely on natural moisture, or you won’t have any fall vegetables.

MORE OF THE SAME

A repeat planting of warm-season crops needs to be done soon. These plants will grow and produce until a frost, which is at least two to four months away.

It has been a good year for tomatoes for most gardeners, but some plants have seen better days. If you have plants that slowed down production with hot weather, they should bounce back as temperatures go down. If your existing plants look good, keep them alive, and they should rebound; if they don’t, replant.

Tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, summer squash and cucumbers love the heat, and as long as you are watering, they should start giving you good produce soon.

NEXT SEASON PLANTS

The cool-season crops can be planted through mid-October.

Some vegetables are more cold-tolerant than others. Many cool-season vegetables can tolerate light freezes without damage, with carrots, greens, spinach and cabbage being the most cold-tolerant.

Carrots and turnips could die back on top with a heavy frost, but you can leave the roots underground with a light layer of mulch to harvest as needed throughout the winter.

You will find that many vegetables have a sweeter flavor when harvested during cool weather, versus the heat of summer. Many cool-season vegetables can actually be harvested all winter, depending on how harsh the weather is.

Today, a variety of season extenders is available for raised beds or stand-alone gardens, making fresh vegetables accessible all winter long. Season extenders include row covers, hoop houses, inverted cardboard boxes or other winter protection. You only need to provide winter protection if temperatures are going to be well below freezing. In a mild winter, no covering should be necessary, while in a colder winter, the coverings may be needed longer.

HOW TO FERTILIZE

Just as when planting in the spring, when planting your fall garden, you should broadcast a general complete fertilizer and work it into the soil at planting.

If it is still really hot when you plant, you might want to use a lower rate of application so that you don’t burn tender new plants or seedlings. After a few weeks, you can sidedress fertilizer down the row once the plants are established to make up for the lower application rate at planting.

Water, mulch and monitor for insects. Even with the best of mulches, some weeds will encroach — and it has been a weedy year. Use a sharp hoe or hand pull the weeds. Monitor weekly to catch them while they are small.

If you want to extend your harvesting season, consider staggering your plantings. Read seed packets. They have a wealth of information, from seeding rates, depth of planting and how long it takes from seeding to harvesting, along with other helpful hints.

WHEN DO WE EAT?

The fastest return is with radishes and leaf lettuces. Radishes can be harvested within 25-30 days of seeding, while leaf lettuces typically take about 45-50 days. Soft head lettuces like Bibb and buttercrunch take up to 65 days. If you find lettuce transplants, that timetable is even faster.

Planting a small row of these quick vegetables every other week from now until mid-September will extend your harvest season.

If you don’t have a standalone vegetable garden, you can also try edible landscaping or container gardening. You can intersperse vegetables among ornamentals in your ornamental beds, or, instead of planting flowering kale and cabbage this fall, plant edible kale and cabbage, or Swiss chard, beets and lettuce. They are showy and will add interest to your pansy plantings, but you can eat them.

Don’t overlook herbs in the fall and winter garden. Parsley and cilantro will grow all fall and throughout the winter — if it isn’t miserably cold — and rosemary is evergreen and blooms in the winter.

Fall vegetable gardens can keep you supplied with fresh produce all fall and winter. It might seem a bit hot to be outside gardening, but work early in the day and don’t forget to drink water.

With a little effort now, you can reap the benefits all fall and winter.

Transplants of cool-weather vegetables can go in the ground in mid-August for a fall garden, but wait until mid-September for spinach, lettuce and radishes.

Mid-August is not too late to plant a new crop of tomatoes using transplant seedlings.

Carrots are a cold-tolerant crop. Even if the tops die back, the roots can stay in the soil under a layer of mulch for harvesting all winter.

Carrot tops might die back in heavy cold but the plants will live all winter under a layer of mulch for harvesting in winter. Parsley likes the cold and will grow merrily straight through a mild winter.

Just as when planting in the spring, broadcast a complete fertilizer and work it into the soil when planting a fall garden; if it’s very hot, use a lower rate of fertilizer.

Cool-season vegetable transplants begin showing up in garden centers and nurseries in August.

From seed to salad bowl, leaf lettuces typically take 45-50 days, and soft head lettuces can take up to 65 days. If you find lettuce transplants, that timetable is even faster.

In mid-September, these salad vegetables already look yummy.

Rice hull mulch is handy for moderating soil moisture around seedlings in the fall garden patch. Shredded newspaper, shredded paper and shredded leaves work, too.

With their blanket of light mulch, these cabbages were thriving in November 2019.

Mulch makes a big difference when young plants are trying to get established in the late summer heat.

Arkansans can grow vegetables year-round, as this happy looking cabbage bed demonstrated Nov. 10, 2019.

Lettuce will grow readily from seed starting in September, and weekly seeding of short rows will extend the harvest.