Tips on Planting your fall garden

By Paul Schnare

Over the past few weeks, I have been given a lot of samples of vegetable plants that are not doing well. Some are diseased. Some don't produce vegetables. Some are not growing.

These results are due to a lot of factors, such as too much moisture, so the roots are rotting. In addition, high temperatures along with a lot of humidity because of all of the rain are the prime weather conditions for most plant diseases to develop.

If these are not enough issues to cause poor production of vegetables in the garden, the grower also has to contend with tomato hornworms, cabbage loopers, Japanese beetles and so on. In addition, weeds are growing like crazy in most gardens.

With all of these issues, I have heard gardener after gardener say they are done with the garden this year. They then add, "Perhaps next year we will have better growing conditions, and I can harvest a lot of vegetables from my garden."

Fifty years ago, I would have agreed with them about waiting until next year to get some vegetables. I grew up in northwest Missouri, where the growing season was a lot shorter than it is here in the heartland. Gardeners only had one shot at growing a garden because of the short growing season.

Here in the heartland, gardeners have another option: planting a fall garden. Our season is long enough that if you get some seed or starter plants in the ground now, you can have a larder full of vegetables before the late fall cold weather hits us. In fact, I have had several "fall gardeners" tell me they have better luck from fall gardens than they do from spring gardens.

So what are the differences between gardening in the fall versus in the spring? First, if you are planting from seed, find short-day varieties. For example, most of the sweet corn varieties mature 80 to 90 days after planting. Early Sunglow is a variety that matures in 63 days. So if you plant now, you could have a good crop of roasting ears by mid-October.

Many pea and bean varieties have short maturation times. Radishes and lettuce also have short maturation times. These will make a great start for a dinner salad in the fall.

Go to your local garden center and see if they have starter plants of cole crops such as cabbage, kale and broccoli. They will do well in our area and produce quite well when started now.

You also may find a few tomato or pepper plants. Go ahead and plant them now. If we have a nice long fall, you could be eating fresh tomatoes at Thanksgiving.

Make sure you use a good gardening fertilizer, such as an 11-15-11, about two weeks after you plant seeds. The high middle number, phosphorous, will encourage your new plants to root and bloom well. If you are planting plants, use a fertilizer such as a 9-58-8 at the time of planting. Again, this will encourage newly planted plants to produce roots quickly.

Just because we have had a lousy spring for gardening, don't hang it up this year. Don't get discouraged. Try a fall garden. You could be well rewarded for your efforts. Happy vegetable gardening!