When to Start Planting a Fall Garden

Gardening in fall is all about timing. Get fall vegetable planting right and you will be harvesting abundant greens, herbs, and roots, just when your neighbors are putting their gardens to bed. Get the timing wrong, and those seedlings may not have enough time to establish before the first frost arrives.

Fall is one of the rewarding gardening seasons as it represents a new opportunity to plant your favorite crops. You might be wondering: when should I start planting my fall garden? Late August through November is an ideal time to plant fall vegetables, cool season annuals, shrubs, trees, spring-blooming bulbs, and perennials. However, the exact time to start your fall planting depends on many crucial factors, such as your frost date, and requires you to understand each step before planning the garden.

In this guide, we'll provide you with a detailed answer to your question, allowing you to determine the best time to plant a fall garden. Here we go.

Why You Should Plant in Fall

Fall is one of the best times to plant in your garden beds because:

• Soil is still warm, which promotes healthy root growth.
• Fall garden plants are nutritious, colorful, fun, and easy to grow.
• Cool weather makes working in the garden more pleasant and diminishes the threat of heat stress on young plants.
• Increased rainfall requires less garden watering and helps plants to grow stronger root systems before freezing.
• Many garden pests and diseases are not as big a threat in the fall.
• You can extend the fall growing season into winter by protecting your crops from frost using row covers.

When to Start Planting in Your Autumn Garden

Let's find out the answer to this question.

Know Your First Frost Date

The first step in timing your autumn garden planting is to determine your frost date. Fall vegetable planting is all about working backward from the date of the first frost. A frost date is the average date on which temperatures in your area are expected to drop to 32°F (0°C) and you expect the first frost of the season.

Crops vary in their tolerance for frost. For example, some vegetables, such as spinach and kale, can withstand light frosts and taste sweeter afterward. However, many other vegetables collapse at the first sign of freezing. You can find the average first and last frost dates for your location on online calculators and charts available on many gardening websites.

Example

If the average first frost in your region occurs around October 15, it gives you a reliable target. This also does not mean that it always frosts on this date; frost can occur two weeks earlier this year or two weeks later next year, but this provides some idea. Knowing this date allows you to count backward for each crop you want to grow, considering the days to maturity, and choose the right time to plant.

Note: Please be aware that frost dates may vary even within the same city. If you live in a low-lying area, near water, or in a densely populated area, your microclimate can change the occurrence of frost by a week or more. Therefore, we recommend gardeners observe their own gardens. Note down the first frost date each year in your garden planner. Over time, you'll observe patterns and create a personalized frost-date guide.

Count Backward for Each Crop

Different fruits, herbs, and vegetables have different "days to maturity." It is the average number of days a plant takes to mature from seed to harvest. Every seed packet has this information.

You can use this formula:

Frost Date - Number of Days to Maturity - 2 Weeks Buffer Zone = your Planting Date.

We subtract two weeks because the days in the fall start getting shorter and the nights get cooler, so plants grow slowly. A carrot that matures in 70 days in spring may take closer to 80–85 days in fall.

Example:

• First frost date: October 26
• Crop: Spinach (40 days to maturity)
• Add 2 weeks for slow fall growth: 40 + 14 = 54 days
• Count back 54 days from October 26: September 2 is the target spinach planting date.

Choose the Right Cops for Autumn Garden

Not every crop likes fall growing conditions. Crops like cucumbers and tomatoes thrive in summer heat, but leafy greens, brassicas, and root crops grow well when the temperatures cool down.

Some top fall crops are:

Roots: Carrots, beets, turnips, and radishes

Herbs: Parsley, cilantro, and dill

Brassicas: Cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts

Leafy Greens: Lettuce, kale, spinach, arugula, Swiss chard, and mustard greens

Choose Between Seeds and Transplants

This is another crucial thing to decide before starting vegetable planting in your fall garden. Some crops, such as carrots and radishes, grow well when seeds are direct-sown using a dibbler. Others, such as kale and broccoli, benefit from an early start indoors or from transplants. However, the choice is yours. Here are the crops that benefit from direct sowing and transplanting.

Direct sow seed: Beets, carrots, lettuces, radishes, arugula, spinach,

Transplants or seedlings: Kale, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts

Read More: Fall Gardening Tips That Actually Work

Map Out Your Garden Space

When planning your fall vegetable planting, closely examine your available garden space and determine how to allocate sufficient space for your fall crops. By now, some of your summer plants will be dying off, so you can remove them and replace them with fall plants in your garden beds and raised beds.

Before planting your fall crops, you need to till your soil several inches deep with fresh compost and other soil amendments. Once planting is complete, add organic mulch such as wood chips, leaves, or clippings around the base of your plants to keep them warm.

What to Plant in Your Fall Garden

Here are the plants to add to your fall garden.

Cool-season Vegetables

In the fall, you can plant nutritious leafy greens like lettuce, spinach, arugula, kale, and mustard greens. These crops require cooler soil for germination, and they grow rapidly. Moreover, fast-growing root crops like beets, turnips, and carrots thrive in cooler fall conditions and mature in less than two months. Autumn is also a great time to plant garlic cloves and onion sets to harvest in late spring or summer.

Spring-blooming Bulbs

Fall through early winter (depending on your location) is the best time to plant spring-flowering bulbs such as alliums, tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, and crocuses. Put them in the ground now in the fall because they require a long winter of beauty sleep to prepare for their spring bloom.

Cool-Season Annuals

Cool season flowering plants put on a gorgeous display in the fall and remain vibrant until November or longer. They love frosty evenings, and many can tolerate temperatures as low as the mid-20s. Violas and pansies are among the most colorful and hardiest cool-season annuals. Other names include dianthus, cornflower, lobelia, sweet alyssum, and snapdragon.

Trees, Shrubs, Perennials

Fall planting of shrubs, trees, and perennials offers several benefits over spring planting. The cool temperatures and moisture from fall rains help trees and shrubs develop strong root systems. Many deciduous plants can be successfully planted in autumn. Spring-flowering broadleaf evergreens, such as azaleas and rhododendrons, also grow well in fall or early spring.

Check Out: 10 Best Fall Garden Ideas to Transform Your Backyard This Autumn

The Bottom Line

So, when should you start planting your fall garden? The answer is: Know your average first frost date and count backward from the date to calculate each crop's days to maturity. Fall vegetable planting at the right time is all about knowing your local climate, frost dates and day length.

Fall is an excellent time to garden because the weather is cooler, pests are less active, more rainfall, and the soil is still warm. All these benefits make spending time in the garden more enjoyable. It provides a great time for those who struggle with the heat. And even if you've missed the ideal vegetable starting date before, there is always something you can plant in the fall.

So, get your seeds, grab your garden tools, check your frost date, start planting your favorite crops, and enjoy watching your fall harvest growing in gorgeous fall colors.