Fall Vegetable Gardening Provides Fresh Challenges For Green Thumbs
For many keen gardeners, the coming of fall heralds a harvest and a long rest for the vegetable garden beds. However, this doesn’t have to be the case. With some careful planning and appropriate timing, you can enjoy a second harvest of cool weather crops throughout the autumn months with fall vegetable gardening. There are a number of vegetable varities that will prosper in the cooler months of fall, such as root vegetables and leafy greens and a variety of cabbages. To pick the best fall growers, check packages for characteristics such as “cold hardy” or “quick maturity”. This will ensure that the plants you pick for your fall vegetable gardening will give you the harvest that you are hoping for.
Timing is vitally important when it comes to fall vegetable gardening, since you will want to beat the first hard frost to ensure that you get a good, healthy crop. Some plants do not survive the first fall frosts, so they would probably not be good picks for your fall vegetable gardening labors. To find out what the frost calendar is for your locality, you can contact your local extension office. They can give you the best like the cooler temperatures and shorter days of the autumnal months, and will reward you with sweeter tasting veggies than you would enjoy in the hotter summer harvest.
A number of the crops that you decide to plant in your fall vegetable gardening will require a little protection to survive the frosty nights of this season. This means that you will have to keep your eye on the weather reports during the months of September and October, and be prepared to cover those vulnerable plants when the thermometer begin to threaten to drop to frost point. You can purchase protection for your plants, or you can construct your own out of old milk bottles or worn bed sheets. By protecting your plants through the colder nights, you can allow them to thrive during the warmer days, and extend your harvest by a few weeks. Some plants will even continue to grow through hard frosts if they have the correct protection through the night.
Fall vegetable gardening will allow you to enjoy your favorite hobby well past the warm weather months, and provide you with a crop of sweet vegetables that you might be able to enjoy all the way to Thanksgiving with a bit of luck in some areas.
Happy fall gardening.
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