Food gardening doesn’t have to stop when summer’s over. In fact, the biggest missed opportunity for most food growers is the fall garden. To help you take advantage of the cooler months, this week I’m sharing my top 10 fall greens.
Why these 10? Well, first of all, they are very easy to grow, they’re fast-growing, they’re very resilient, and they are oh-so delicious — and they don’t grow in the summertime.
Curly kale is one of my favorite fall greens for both ornamental reasons and culinary reasons. (photo: Tobi McDaniel)
About two weeks ago I hosted a live webinar during which I covered everything you need to know to have a productive, resilient fall vegetable garden from start to finish. If you missed it, you’re still in luck, because I am making the recording of the whole webinar, including the Q&A portion, available for $20. Visit joegardener.com/fallveg to sign up for 30 days of access. (You will be prompted to set up a Teachable account or log in to your existing account.)
Expand Your Horizons
There are so many people I know who intuitively think of summer as the one and only time that you have your food garden because that’s when tomatoes and all the classic home garden crops grow. But I do my best to dissuade gardeners from that notion.
Aside from my tomatoes, all of my favorite crops come from my fall garden.
There’s another reason why we’re talking more about leafy greens these days, especially lettuce. Contamination has recently made its way to fast food restaurants and bagged products in grocery stores. So why not take matters into our own hands and eliminate all the risk? Food safety is very important, and it’s one of the main reasons that we grow our own food. Besides, nothing tastes better than what we grow in our own gardens.
For some of us, our summer gardens are winding down in mid-August. That’s the case where I live outside Atlanta, though for those of you up north, you’re just getting started on your harvest. Either way, we need to be thinking about our fall gardens now.
Though the weather seems to be too hot to be growing cool-season crops, the heat is not a problem for young seedlings. The goal is to get the timing right so the plants are maturing in cool weather. And to time that correctly, it often means getting started during summer temperatures.
Even if your window of opportunity before it gets too cold seems short, there is still a lot you can grow by selecting varieties with a short number of days to maturity. Heading crops like broccoli and cauliflower can be started now in the South, and whether you live in the South or the North, you can grow leafy greens with time to spare.
In a colder growing environment, you’d be surprised how resilient leafy greens are. They look so delicate, like the leaf lettuce, but you would be amazed at how resilient they are through some significantly cold weather and severe frosts. They just keep on going.
Leafy greens are a cut-and-come-again crop. That means, it’s not a one-and-done, like a crop that you pull out of the ground all at once and it’s done for the season. You can take leaves for your salad and come back days later to take newly grown leaves.
Cool-season seedlings growing in the summer sun. They can tolerate summer heat now but will mature in cooler temperatures.
Three Fall Greens Harvesting Methods Explained
The first way to harvest leaves from fall greens is to slice off individual leaves. So you are cutting what you need at the moment, and you’ll continue to come back as often as you want. Cut at the base of that individual leaf and take as many of those as you need, working from the outside inward.
You want to try to avoid cutting everything right down to the center because the new growth is emerging from the center, and it’s expanding outward as new growth continues to move up from the center.
The second way is to cut across the plant and take off everything about roughly an inch above the crown — that central point that emerges from the soil. That’s where all the growth hormone is and where all the new growth is pushing up from, so leave that intact. Don’t cut all the way down to that level because that will eliminate the possibility of future growth.
The plant will regrow leaves, though the wait will take longer than cutting leaves from the outside.
The third way to harvest leafy greens is to pull the whole plant out by its roots. When you use this method, the plant is done and won’t produce any more leaves. There’s really very little reason to do that.
Whether cutting leaf by leaf or cutting all the growth above the crown, you will be using a harvest knife, your microsnips or maybe even your pruners. So right there are three tools you probably should have with you. And wouldn’t it be nice to have all those tools by your side whenever you need them? If you can relate to that, I want you to check out the Ultimate Gardening Sheath. This is something I co-created a couple of years ago to tackle that problem that didn’t have a solution yet. So if your interest is piqued, go check out what I’m talking about and see for yourself. This is the product you didn’t even know you needed, but once you have it, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it. I call it the iPhone of the gardening world.
The Ultimate Gardening Sheath keeps my most-used tools accessible, right on my hip.
Plant Cold Tolerance
There are three ways to categorize how well plants tolerate cold.
“Frost-sensitive plants” describes every summer crop. They generally die by the first frost, or the second or third at the latest. Peppers are an example of a crop that can tolerate maybe one frost and sometimes two, but by the third they’re done.
“Frost-tolerant plants” can take temperatures generally down to about 28 degrees Fahrenheit or -2 Celsius for several hours at a time. And leafy lettuce is one of those — very tolerant of cold weather, even below the frost level for a period of hours. Mustards, beets, bok choy, Asian greens and radishes are a few more examples.
“Freeze-tolerant plants” are the super hearty ones. These are the ones that are kind of bulletproof, and they can take temperatures down to 10 degrees Fahrenheit, though, in general, the range is more like the mid-20s.
I had a beautiful bed of broccoli all headed up and perfectly timed for harvest. They could not have been more perfect for harvesting. But I got busy that day and forgot to harvest before I called it a day, and that night we had temperatures down to 17 degrees.
I had not put frost blankets over the top of them. And so in the morning when I came out and realized how cold it was, I was just expecting to see dead or just ruined broccoli heads. There were probably 25 heads in that bed — and they were fine. They were pristine. I couldn’t believe my eyes.
But then, I forgot them all over again, and that second night, the temperature got down to 10 degrees. That did the broccoli in. I learned an important lesson about just how tolerant certain varieties of broccoli can be, and their limits.
Top 10 Must-Grow Fall Greens
The cold weather makes all of these crops sweeter because cold temperatures cause a chemical reaction that turns starches into sugars. So don’t be afraid of a few frosts because all of these plants can tolerate it, and the taste just gets better.
Leaf Lettuce
Unlike iceberg lettuce — the big round globe — leafy lettuce is more upright and loosely structured.
But some of those even round out and look like a small head of lettuce, kind of like a personal-size heading lettuce. Salanova is a good example that’s both beautiful and delicious. Every time people see it in pictures or in video, they want to know what it is because it’s so beautiful, and it comes in a reddish color and in green, and when you mix them, it’s quite a sight. They’re fast-growing and cut-and-come-again.
Red Sails is another one that’s beautiful with upright reddish leaves.
There are many, many types of leaf lettuce. And oftentimes, the seed packets will mix up the varieties and blend them, like a mesclun mix.
It’s hard to go wrong with leafy lettuce because anytime you go to a restaurant and order a salad, it’s typically a mix of varieties, such as the mesclun mix. So just see what suits your fancy and try it.
Salanova lettuce is a beautiful and tasty addition to the fall garden. (photo: Tobi McDaniel)
Spinach
Spinach is super cold tolerant, like kale. I don’t do any special precautions to protect it from the cold, and they both grow through the wintertime unscathed, all the way into spring. But by spring, the spinach leaves get kind of big and not as sweet.
Spinach comes in smooth varieties and crinkly varieties, such as Savoy. I prefer the smooth leaf, but they’re all good and super nutritious.
Spinach is a little tricky to start from seed. It’s not hard, but often people directly sow the seed or they’ll sow it into their containers indoors and wait for it to germinate, and the germination never happens or it’s very sparse.
Spinach seeds should be “primed” for better, faster germination.(photo: Tobi McDaniel)
The seeds need to be “primed.” That’s the term for the process that you go through to enable the seeds to germinate more quickly or in greater quantity — or both. Take your seeds and soak them overnight, and then allow them to air-dry for a couple days, and then place them into a sealed zip-lock bag in a cool, dry environment until you are ready to sow them.
That process makes all the difference in the world to the germination rate and the speed at which they germinate. It germinates twice as fast, and it germinates more prolifically. Until I learned that, I struggled with spinach, and I never understood why it was so sparse and why it took so long. And then finally I was enlightened and there’s no going back.
Spinach is super cold-tolerant. I prefer the smooth leaf varieties, but they’re all good and super nutritious. (photo: Tobi McDaniel)
Bok Choy
Bok choy, also known as Chinese cabbage, is a really fast-growing, delicious, upright, small cabbage. But it doesn’t look like the headed cabbage that we’re used to. It’s delicious, especially in stir-fry.
Bok choy is crunchy and has a little zing to the flavor. It’s fantastic as a side dish, whether sautéed or stir-fried and mixed in with other vegetables.
When you are looking at what varieties to get, you’re going to have to do a little bit of homework here to narrow in on what sounds good to you and what’s going to do well where you live.
Bok choy is crunchy and has a little zing. It’s a fantastic side dish. (photo: Tobi McDaniel)
Snow and Snap Peas
When growing peas, it helps to get an early start. It’s not too late if you find a fast-growing variety that will germinate and then put on those flowers and start forming those pods pretty quickly. You can find varieties that mature in just 40 days from sowing outdoors.
The downside is if you pick the wrong variety or you get cold temperatures too soon, the flowers may not have had a chance to start generating the pod.
I put snow and snap peas into this category even though they’re probably not considered a leafy green. But why not have them in a salad? They’re also great stir-fried, sautéed or fresh.
Some snow pea and snap pea varieties mature in just 40 days. (photo: Tobi McDaniel)
Arugula aka Rocket
Arugula, also known as rocket, is a spicy, leafy green that is so good to eat if you want to take a pinch out of the garden and eat it right in place. It’s great in salads, alone or in a mixed salad, and I also love it on pizza.
You don’t need a lot because it is definitely a cut-and-come-again, but you just snip off pieces and it continues to grow.
If you let this go to seed, you’re going to have a lot of arugula germinating in the following spring, so much so that you may consider that you’ve got too much.
Arugula makes for a great salad on its own and when mixed with other leafy greens. (photo: Tobi McDaniel)
Kale
I love curly leaf kale. Kale is a beautiful plant to have in the garden. Some of these are just flat out ornamental, and even if you didn’t like eating them, you would love having them in your fall garden for the leaf structure, the depth of the color and the brightness of the color. It’s the most beautiful plant I grow in my food garden.
Dinosaur kale has the crinkly leaf, and then you’ve got purple kale, and kale that has a pink tone to it, and one that has more of a bluish tone. I can’t imagine a fall garden without my kale. Curly leaf kale just is bulletproof, and it’s so delicious. And it’s so nice to come out and just break off or cut off a few leaf stems, and you’ve just got a ton of kale for dinner, or for salad, or for chips.
Kale is a beautiful plant to have in the garden. (photo: Tobi McDaniel)
Mustard
A beautiful plant I grow year-round is a variety of mustard named Giant Red. It looks neon, red, purple and fluorescent green. Once you see it, you’re going to want to grow it.
It’s easy to grow, and it germinates quickly, and it puts on a lot of seeds. I love to eat it too, by the way. Mustard has a little spicy zing to it. It’s fun to pick pieces off of the leaves in the garden while you’re there and just put them in your mouth, and then you get that pop of zinginess.
The bigger the leaf gets, the more zingy it gets, and that may not be the correct technical term, but that’s what I call it, and it’s probably a good descriptor for it, too.
Giant Red mustard greens are quite beautiful.
Swiss Chard
Swiss chard, or simply, chard, is a close runner-up for the most beautiful plant in your garden. There are several varieties that are beautiful, but the rainbow chard variety has all the colors.
You can plant out those seeds and get a mosaic of beautiful colors and upright, broad-leafed beautiful plants that are delicious. You can put that in a salad or stir-fry it. It’s like bok choy as far as the flavor profile.
If you’re not into the taste of chard, no worries. You should be into it just because it adds that color profile that really brings your fall garden to life.
For better germination, soak seeds overnight before sowing.
Swiss chard grows upright with attractive broad-leaves. (photo: Tobi McDaniel)
Beet Greens and Beets
Beet greens are deliciously edible in your salads or in stir-fry. The small leaves are the best in salads, and as they get bigger, you can saute them.
Some people aren’t fans of beets as far as the earthiness of the flavor. My two daughters, when they were young, didn’t like store-bought beets either, and I don’t blame them. But when I served them homegrown, backyard, fresh-from-the-harvest beets and put them in the oven for 30 minutes and took the skin off and cut them up, they loved the beets.
The beets themselves can be eaten while they are as small as a marble, though golf ball size is ideal.
Beets are one crop that generally is recommended you direct sow, because they’re a root crop and they don’t like to have their roots disturbed because it can impact the growth. But I have not found that to really be the case. I start them inside and outside, and I get good success.
Prime beet seeds as you would spinach seeds.
Like with beets, you can eat the leaves of radishes. Radishes are fast growers. Some varieties are ready in 30 days. Others take like 40 to 50 days
Beets are earthy and delicious when roasted, and the greens are also edible. (photo: Tobi McDaniel)
Collard Greens
Collard greens are amazing because they are not only very cold-tolerant, but they’re heat-tolerant too. So this is a plant that can grow in your garden throughout the year in place, and you can harvest throughout the year.
I do think they’re much better during the first season of growth when they are exposed to the cold weather because, again, that frost is making them sweeter.
Collard greens are one of my favorite harvests from my garden for Thanksgiving dinner. I will rough cut them, put them into a big cast iron pot with some vegetable stock, cut up carrots from the garden, onions, maybe some garlic. And if you want to add meat to that, a recommendation I’ve heard is a smoked turkey leg.
Let that cook for a few hours, and it is delicious.
Collard greens are not only very cold-tolerant, but they’re heat-tolerant too. (photo: Tobi McDaniel)
Soil Temperature Matters
Seeds have a preferred temperature range in which they will germinate, and outside of that, either on the above or below that range, they’re not going to germinate.
In mid-August, the soil temperature in your garden is probably very hot. So seeds for your leafy greens may have trouble germinating when direct sown. But you can start seeds indoors at a better temperature ( about 70 degrees or so) for germination then plant out the starts.
You can reference the soil temperature germination chart I have developed and use a soil thermometer.
A soil thermometer will let you know if the soil is the right temperature for germination.
Days to Harvest
“Days to harvest” includes the time growing indoors, from when you sowed the seed into your containers, all the way to when you are able to harvest. So it’s the indoor time plus the outdoor time.
Whatever that total number is, it needs to be no greater than the number of days until your first expected frost. When is your first frost date? You can do a Google search for “When is my first frost of fall based on where I live?” You can also check your frost date by putting your zip code into Almanac.com.
Once you know your first frost date, count backwards to determine whether the varieties you wish to grow will mature before then.
You can order seeds from reputable companies such as Territorial Seed out of the Pacific Northwest, High Mowing Seed near Burlington, Vermont, and Johnny’s Selected Seeds in Maine.
You can also go to a local nursery for seedlings. If the seedlings are in stock, chances are it is the appropriate time to plant them.
Food Safety When Using Manure for Fertilizer
There are pathogens potentially in animal manure . If you’re using soil that has fresh animal manure in it, you might want to reconsider that.
Ideally, you should compost animal manure before it gets used in your vegetable garden, so it’s been cooking for at least 30 days at a temperature, on at least three of those days, at over 131 degrees. That should kill off any bacteria that could be harmful.
Growing lettuce at home means you can continue to enjoy salads even during national recalls. (photo: Tobi McDaniel)
I hope you feel inspired to grow a fall greens garden. If you haven’t listened yet, you can do so now by clicking the Play button on the green bar near the top of this post.
Do you have a fall greens garden? Let us know in the comments below.
Links & Resources
Episode 022: The Year-round Vegetable Gardener with Niki Jabbour
Episode 045: Succession Planting: Practical Tips for Growing More Food
Episode 122: Fall Vegetable Garden Success: Best Plants and Tips for Cool-Season Growing
joegardenerTV YouTube: 3 Ways to Harvest Lettuce | How to Make Lettuce Last All Season
joegardenerTV YouTube: A Tour of the Fall Vegetable Garden | with Joe Lamp’l
joegardenerTV YouTube: Top Dressing with Compost in Fall
joegardenerTV YouTube: Easy Edibles for Every Fall Vegetable Garden
joegardenerTV YouTube: How to Create a Nursery Bed in Your Garden | Fall Succession Planting Tip
joegardener Soil Temperature Chart
Fall Gardening Masterclass – Get access to the webinar replay for $20.
joegardener Online Gardening Academy™: Popular courses on gardening fundamentals; managing pests, diseases & weeds; seed starting and more.
joegardener Online Gardening Academy Organic Vegetable Gardening: My new premium online course. The course is designed to be a comprehensive guide to starting, growing, nurturing and harvesting your favorite vegetables, no matter what you love to eat, no matter where you live, no matter your level of gardening experience.
joegardener Online Gardening Academy Master Seed Starting: Everything you need to know to start your own plants from seed — indoors and out.
joegardener Online Gardening Academy Beginning Gardener Fundamentals: Essential principles to know to create a thriving garden.
joegardener Online Gardening Academy Growing Epic Tomatoes: Learn how to grow epic tomatoes with Joe Lamp’l and Craig LeHoullier.
joegardener Online Gardening Academy Master Pests, Diseases & Weeds: Learn the proactive steps to take to manage pests, diseases and weeds for a more successful garden with a lot less frustration. Just $47 for lifetime access!
joegardener Online Gardening Academy Perfect Soil Recipe Master Class: Learn how to create the perfect soil environment for thriving plants.
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Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. I receive a commission every time you purchase a product through an Amazon affiliate link. Some product links in this guide are affiliate links. However, none of the prices of these resources have been increased to compensate us, and compensation is not an influencing factor on their inclusion here. The selection of all items featured in this post and podcast was based solely on merit and in no way influenced by any affiliate or financial incentive, or contractual relationship. At the time of this writing, Joe Lamp’l has professional relationships with the following companies who may have products included in this post and podcast: Milorganite, Soil3, Territorial Seed Company, Cool Springs Press / Quarto Group and Dramm. These companies are either Brand Partners of joegardener.com and/or advertise on our website. However, we receive no additional compensation from the sales or promotion of their product through this guide. The inclusion of any products mentioned within this post is entirely independent and exclusive of any relationship.
