I’ve always thought of August as the start of a new year. While I suppose that living on a school calendar for some thirty years has engrained that into me, there’s more to that feeling than just the return of classes. Change is in the air. Summer is waning, and the days are palpably getting shorter. It’s time to begin planting the fall vegetable garden. As a young gardener who experimented around with season extension, I realized that the crops that I was sowing now would live on into the spring. And, that really to begin planning next year’s garden I had to begin in late summer. It was often time to start clearing out warm-season crops that were finishing up their production anyway. So, yes, it does have the feel of a new chapter beginning.
For us in east Texas, there’s about 90 days left until our first frost, so plantings are usually intense for a month trying to get everything started and in the ground to be able to overwinter. I typically start direct seeding in late August, so I thought I would share some techniques and cultivars that I’ll be direct sowing over the next few weeks.
Mustard and Collard greens
Even though mustard and collards are separate species, I’ve grouped them together because I start sowing these greens in late August. Growing mustard greens were a Tennessee tradition for our family. I hated them at first, but once I planted them in my own garden, I quickly gained a taste for this classic southern crop.
Collards came to me later in life. I first tasted collards at the Old Salem Tavern in Old Salem, NC. They tasted delicious flavored with bacon drippings and brown sugar, so delicious that I added them to my fall rotation.
I try to time my seed sowing with a good pop up summer thunderstorm or tropical storm moving through. But, those rain events are too often unreliable, so I set sprinklers up for a week to help seeds stay moist. To evenly disperse the seeds over the growing bed, I have mixed seed with sand and then broadcasted across the bed in a criss-cross pattern. But, planting them in rows allows for easier cultivation between the plants. So, the decision is yours based on the space you have available. In either case plants live all the way through the winter here in zone 8 with yellow cruciform blossoms emerging in the spring.
You’ll hear people say let the plants experience a frost for better flavor, and there is some truth to that. Plants increase the soluble sugar in their foliage when exposed to cold temperatures, which lowers the freezing point and acts as a natural antifreeze. After harvesting, I follow my Granny’s practice of tossing the midribs and soaking the remaining foliage in salt water to rid of any pests that might still be hiding amongst the leaves.
For mustard greens, I like the classic cultivars like ‘Tendergreen’ and ‘Florida Broadleaf’. There are also ornamental mustards. ‘Red Giant’ turns a beautiful violet, ‘Magma’ has chartreuse curls and is blushed rose, and ‘Tokyo Bekana’ has a golden hue to it.
‘Magma’ mustard erupts in the fall with blushed leaves and chartreuse curls.
For collards, definitely check out The Heirloom Collards Project for old time varieties. ‘Alabama Blue’ has lovely steel blue foliage with purple petioles. ‘Variegated’ is another fun cultivar to grow because some individuals in the population will have green and white leaves.
One year, I had ‘Alabama Blue’ collards seed into some tall grass. I could identify it by its purple petioles.
Peas
Peas were another crop that I hated until I grew it. The truth is I didn’t know what a good pea was. Most of the peas I had from the store were very mealy and had a horrible texture. But, one year on a whim, I tried some English peas from our Sprout garden, and I was blown away by the flavor. They were as sweet as candy.
Since then, I have dedicated a couple beds at home to growing peas both in the fall and the spring. I struggled with seed germination until I realized that my plants were succumbing to a fungal wilt. Since then I have only grown disease resistant varieties like ‘PLS 595’ and ‘PLS 141’. I should add that I sow the seed densely. It seems counter-intuitive to space them close and not thin them, but the recommendation has worked thus far.
While I have used sapling stakes, I have appreciated the consistency with nylon support held by a T-post and electrical conduit frame. The conduit is fed through PVC T-joints that rest on top of posts. The vines are rambunctious growing towards the low sun; thus, I run cotton twine every foot or so to help encourage them to climb their trellis. They will tank with the first frost, but I rip them out and plant something cold tolerant like spinach in their wake.
Carrots
There is nothing like a fall grown carrot. Seed sown in early September will be ready around early November, but if you let them sit in the soil for another month or two, they will sweeten, again due to sugar acting as a natural antifreeze. That’s a trick I learned from Eliot Coleman, and while we don’t experience quite the extended cold they do further north, I still notice a different between fall and spring carrot flavor.
When sowing seed in late August/early September, moisture is crucial. The seeds have to be watered well every day for six days. SIX DAYS. I cannot stress that enough in the south. To aid in moisture retention, I will often cover them with floating row cover and check daily for any sign of emergence on the seed. Note that as you sow later into fall, the time to harvest increases. Carrots sown in late November will be ready to harvest 3-to-4 months later.
My favorite cultivars include the orange ‘Napoli’, the crimson ‘Atomic Red’, the violet with orange center ‘Purple Haze’ (although seed has been hard to find of late), and the creme-amber-tangerine mix ‘Rainbow’.
Floating row cover held down by T-posts is an effective cover for reducing water evaporation from the soil to aid in carrot seed germination.
I’m super excited to welcome the fall garden back into production. Best of luck direct sowing seed for these crops this fall, and happy new year for all you cool-season gardening aficionados!