fall vegies

What sorts of vegie plants go in in the fall? Is this when you're supposed to plant onions and garlic? I'm in zone 7, in the PNW.

Thanks,
Gwendalou

i got a list online for my zone/region from our ag extension web site. you might look there & even get a list of suggested varieties

Nope, they don't have anything like that. Good idea, tho! Pretty cool that yours does.

Gwen

I was waiting for others in your area to respond. You may have more choices than I do. Here most brassicas do well in fall plantings, (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale,kohlrabi, mustard, and turnips) Lettuce and upland cress will also do ok planted in ealy fall. Late fall, for spring harvest (English peas and onions)

That's actually what I'm wondering about - planting in fall for spring harvest. Would I use onion sets or seeds or what? I didn't know about English peas. Is that a shelling pea or what?

Thanks,
Gwen

Our summers are so hot, that cool season crops have to overwinter for us to get a crop. Certain parts of the PNW are zone 8, which means that it probably won't get cold enough to hurt onions or English peas (Pisum sativum) as opposed to real peas Vigna unguilata which need hot weather. We grow short day onions which are planted in the late fall and harvested in March and April. Most folks in your latitude will grow long day onions which mature in summer. You probably have cool enough summers to grow English peas in the summer, but they will stand light but not heavy freezes

Gwendalou, I wonder if your zone is warmer than 7, like an 8 or a 9. If so, you may have a lot more options that those of us in the cooler zones! Here's a link to the USDA zone map; just click on the state to get a closer view. http://davesgarden.com/zone/

I'm unaware of any veggies in my area that we can start in the fall for spring harvest, but conditions are quite different on my side of the Cascades. :)

Good luck!
Donna

In zone 5 I plant garlic in October for harvest the following July. works very well.

I believe I'm zone 7A, but not entirely sure as where I live is covered in black on the map! But I have been to websites where you put in your zip code and they have come back with 7A. Also, local nurseries and others living nearby have said the same.

I'm in Langley on south Whidbey. I know there are pockets of 7B and 8 here, but pretty sure no 9's. We moved last Feb and we seem to be a bit more sheltered here than in some other areas close by, but I would say somewhere in the 7's is about right.

I might put some onions and garlic in this fall and just see what happens. I'm going to attempt to do lettuce year 'round in the greenhouse (unheated) and we have a sunroom I'm going to try to do tomatoes in an earthbox. I don't know about the tomatoes - we are surrounded by tall trees that block out most of the sun and do not have nearly the amount of sun (lots of light) for most of the year that other areas do. :( But the lettuce should do fine, esp if it's portable enough for me to bring into the sunroom.

I just spent the night in a motel in Spokane Valley the other night! We were on our way home from Montana. We stayed at the Comfort Inn. Very nice place. :)

Gwendalou

I do lettuce, mizuna, kale, pak choi, chard, etc., as well as carrots, beets, & turnips. Also broccoli & brussel sprouts. And I'm hoping to get in a last crop of bush beans, as we frequently don't get frost here until late October at least. If it threatens, I'm already at the ready with frost-proof floating row covers.

Also, my husband bought me a cute little cold frame this past spring, so I'm hoping to experiment with it this fall/winter to see what fresh veggies I can keep going in it throughout our relatively mild - but still sometimes freezing - winter season.

Gwen broccli, lettuce,swiss chard, beets but hurry remember the light is getting less each day so the growth speed will slow.

Some garlic is fall planted some spring planted fall planted is harvested next summer

Onions planted now will be ready inJune if they dont mildew I have been successful with this one out of three tries but you still get nice early onions to fry if you do get the mildew which kills them.

Terrotorial seed has some winter and spring harvesting seeds for crops that have been bred to winter over and matures starting at christmas and at different times up to may. Fresh cauliflower is really nice in march or the first of april. I have had fun with this in the past but lately about now I tire of weeding lol. Ernie

I grew spinach this spring for the very first time, and had what I thought was a great crop. Of course, it got hot pretty quickly and since I didn't water the vegetable garden that much, the spinach crop didn't continue to produce as well. I let it go to seed, and collected that for fall planting.

OMG! I think they germinated and were poking all their heads out of the ground in three days! I planted my rows about 8" apart, and now you can't even see rows. I have spinach, spinach, spinach! The flavor is perfection, the leaves are also perfect, and we'll be eating spinach for quite awhile, until frost, I believe. I'm going to let some of it go to seed though, so that I'm assured of some for next year.

I'm just blown away by how good it is.

kbaumle- what kind of spinach did you plant?
I'm planting Burpeeana Early Pea harvest in 63 days and Mr. Big which harvests in 60 days so I'm hoping to get some shelly peas before any snow usually in late Dec. I'm also gonna try broccoli and brussel sprouts I already have mesclun lettuce and radishes planted and I thru a garlic bulb in there too. But we'll see what happens.
-Juli

Oh wow, I don't know. It was a packet of seeds I bought at Walmart. I know it produces two types of leaves. One is puckery and roundish, and the other is smooth and more elongated. And it has a couple of skinny, spiky leaves at the base. Does that help? LOL.

I am getting ready to plant my Fall Salad Garden.I got the seeds from John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds.

The pack includes;
Baby Beets
Wrinkled crinkled crump (don't know what that is)
Arugula
Mache
Mesclun
Fuego Radishes
Nordic IV Spinach

I will also plant Swiss Chard Bright Lights.

It has been so hot and dry but hopfully it will cool off a little and I can plant in a few days.

I planted the mixes from Johny's select seeds fro several years but I wanted to try something new.

I just learned that you can plant vegetables in fall! Too bad I didn't find this thread a little sooner. Are there things I can still plant? (Although our rain just started today, and probably won't stop until next June. Not sure if I want to go out and plant in this weather, but I wouldn't have to water much!) I'm sort of near Gwendalou. Most of the area in Puget Sound is zone 8 since we're so close to the water, but I'm also in a pocket of zone 7.

I think you can still plant. I haven't put in my garlic and shallots yet that I'm giving a try. Next 'dry' spell we have, I'll pull the potatoes up and that's where I'm putting the garlic/shallots. We don't get nearly the rain you do so I should be able to get a couple dry days in soon.

Off topic, what is the town of Rainier like?

Thanks,
Gwen

You still have time - I haven't put any of my fall veggies yet, but I'm only doing a small fall/winter garden this year. Mostly greens & a few root crops.

I'm just amazed that Washington state is in such a warm zone! Here I am, down in Ohio (down from Washington, anyway) and in zone 5b!

*smiles from Zone 5b in WA and waves to kbaumle*

Gwendalou, eweed, and danak all live in beautiful western Washington near the coast. They got together to build the Cascade Mountain Range between them and those of us in eastern Washington so they could hog the warmer temperatures. *wink*

We're not putting in any fall crops, but are thinking about it for next year. Just too busy still processing tomatoes and almost grateful that our first frost came a bit early. It was a VERY good year! :)

I knew that Washington's climate was unique, but WOW! I have an online friend that lives in Wenatchee, and she posts the most gorgeous pictures from her area. She said she thinks she lives in the most beautiful place in the world. It really is pretty there.

kbaumle, we're so near the coast so that warms things up a bit. And we live on an island too so that makes a big difference. We are in what they call the 'banana belt' here, in the shadow of the Olympic Mtns which are considered rainforest.

Being on an island, there's nothing to hold weather masses in one plae for long so storms pass right on over. The saying here is, "If you don't like the weather, just wait."

When we get rain, it's like this little drizzle thing. Half the time I still have to go out and water in the yard! We do get some downpours and those are fun. But if our forcast is for rain, that can include 5 minutes of slight drizzle, so it's very misleading.

Now, Olympia is a completely different story. And it is SO pretty there, very green. And Seattle gets a lot more rain than we do too. When we were thinking of moving here (from Calif), I told my husband that Seattle always seemed like such a clean city to me (compared to SF). He said, "That's because it gets washed down twice a day."

Gwen

Usually Olympia gets off and on showers, typical of the Puget Sound region. Yesterday it rained all day, though. We are definitely not in the rain shadow caused by the Olympics, but we're also a day trip away from the absolutely gorgeous Olympic Rainforest, the ocean, Mt. Rainier to the east, and Seattle to the north. It is a gorgeous area, but remember that what makes it so green is the rain. :) Here it's the water that rules the climate, whereas inland it's the land mass. Puget Sound only varies in temperature by a few degrees throughout the year, keeping our weather quite mild. Many years we don't get any snow, and the most I remember here EVER was about three feet (over a few days, with an ice storm in between), and that's a winter we'll all talk about for the rest of our lives! Wenatchee is in/over the Cascade Mountains and has a completely different climate from those of us so close to the water, but it's gorgeous there, too.

Gwen, Rainier is about 15-20 minutes south of us on the back roads. It's much more rural. My cousin lives there and I think they're pretty happy there.

Edited to say: YAY!! I'm so excited that I didn't miss my opportunity to plant some fall veggies! It will be fun to give it a try. :)



This message was edited Sep 30, 2005 2:42 PM

My son is 'dating' a girl from Ranier and I was wondering if I brought him down to visit her some Saturday, if there would be something for me to do while he was with her. Is there any sort of fun shopping area or something where I can kill a substantial amt of time? Or anyplace else close by that I would be interested. I like just wandering around going in shops, bookstores, etc.

Thanks,
Gwendalou

Yes Donna we raised the mountians and are now in the process of shutting down the pass we are tying to get them listed as beeding grounds fo spotted owels lol. Yep the water stabilizes our temps but about the rain that falls it is never enought to water the garden right so I rely on the secret wepon lol.

cut this broc tonight they are so nice this year. Ernie

Hmm, as far as I know, Rainier is NOT much of a place for shopping. More like farming. :) I think there are a few mom and pop stores, and that's about all. Maybe your son's "girlfriend" would have a suggestion? As I mentioned, Olympia is about 15-20 minutes away with a lot of options, if you'd want to go that far. You might be able to kill some time in Yelm, which is a bit closer than Olympia but with less options. Or bring a good book!

--Dana

Another view I bought the garlic and the shallots were given to me I included them to make the pic better. The broc is the fouth crop of the season and the fifth is half grown and if the weather stays mild will be ripe in november. Ernie

Ernie, what variety of brocolli are you growing? It really looks nice. Will you not get a freeze until November or can brocolli withstand freeze?

Gwendalou

Gwen this last broc I bought as starts and lost the tags so I am not sure it is a commerial variety grown by a larger produce market garden.

With luck we wont get a freeze Broc can take a bit of frost so this is just a crap shoot. Tomorrow I will harvest some cauliflower but it is not the usual pretty kind and it is going to be small at best but hey it will still taste good. Ernie