ASK MARTHA: Summer and Fall Planting

The “second season” planting guide

Question: Hi Martha, my garden was really great this summer, but it’s now starting to fade. How can I fill it in for the rest of the season?

Martha: A good lesson I have learned is that spring planting is just the beginning: summer and fall—and, in the subtropical south, winter—are planting seasons, too. If you don’t take advantage of these multi-seasonal opportunities for direct sowing, you are missing half, or more, of the rewards your garden has to offer.

Clockwise from top left: onion, larkspur, cabbage, tomato, poppy, lettuce, globe amaranth, pea, marigold, carrot.

PREPARE YOUR SOIL

After the spring and early summer growing seasons, your soil will need a refresh to replenish its nutrients. Dig into the beds to turn the soil and mix in 3-inches of fresh soil and amend with either a granular or liquid fertilizer. Water thoroughly. The late summer months can be very hot and drying; added mulch is a good protection against the harsh temperatures. A good regime is using Miracle-Gro Organic™ Raised Bed & Garden Soil and waiting a month before applying our Miracle-Gro® Shake 'n Feed® Extended Boost.

THE SECOND SEASON: SUMMER PLANTINGS

Throughout most of the Northeast and upper Midwest, the second planting season begins with the onset of summer. Hot weather soon puts an end to the cool-weather-loving annuals planted in early spring. Pea vines wither, pansies peter out, and lettuce bolts (produces flowers instead of leafy heads). Fill the spots those plants vacate with late direct sowings of heat-loving annual flowers such as marigolds, zinnias, and cockscomb (Celosia cristata), or with transplants of the tropical annuals: coleus, impatiens, and begonia.

Also, in those regions, the heat-loving vegetable seedlings started indoors—peppers, tomatoes, and eggplants, for example—should move out into the garden, tucked in with direct sowings of other heat-loving or heat-tolerant vegetables such as bush beans, the faster-maturing kinds of summer squashes, New Zealand spinach, and a last sowing of spring crops such as Swiss chard, beets, carrots, or corn.

Early summer is also the planting season for heat-loving vegetables in the coastal regions of southern California, where summers are sunny but not torrid.

Gardeners in the cloudy, cool Pacific Northwest can sow summer vegetables and annual flowers then, or start a second generation of the cool-season crops, such as lettuces and snapdragons, that are traditional spring crops elsewhere.

The garden lies dormant throughout the summer in much of the Southeast and the desert Southwest, so autumn is the second planting season there. When the mercury starts to descend in September is the best time to sow cool-weather vegetable crops such as lettuce, spinach, cabbage, mustard greens, broccoli, or turnips and some cool-weather annuals such as calendula (pot marigold). Those plants will all flourish during the long interval before the southern winter arrives.

Gardeners in the milder regions of the northern states, the mid-Atlantic region, and the mountain South can carry out a similar second direct sowing, although they must pay closer attention to their scheduling. It’s essential to check that enough days remain before the first autumn frost for newly planted seeds to mature and produce a crop. This is easy to do. Check the “days to harvest” listed on the seed packet or seedling labels.

THE THIRD GROWING SEASON

In much of the Deep South and in the milder regions of the Southwest, there is a third planting season, in some respects the best of all. This is mid-to-late fall, and it is the ideal time for planting frost-tolerant annual vegetables and flowers such as winter lettuces, radicchio, peas, and cabbage, pansies, calendula, and sweet peas. In a mild year, the fall-sown vegetables will begin to provide cuttings and pickings, and the flowers bloom, by midwinter. If the winter weather is relatively severe, the maturity of these plants may be delayed, but they will still supply the very earliest of early spring harvests and a welcome splash of color.

CHECK THE ZONE MAP: As a guide to which plants can be grown successfully in a particular region, and when to direct sow their seeds, gardeners often refer to the United States Department of Agriculture Plant Hardiness Zone Map (recently updated in 2023).

MARTHA’S GUIDE TO SECOND SOWINGS:

Our list is divided by season: summer, fall, and winter. Within each season, you’ll find recommendations for vegetables and flowers that may be planted then. Because schedules vary with climate, we include information for five regions:

Region A: Northeast and mid-Atlantic, upper Midwest, and Rocky Mountain West

Region B: Pacific Northwest

Region C: Southern California, Southwest

Region D: Mountain South (North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky)

Region E: Deep South and Hawaii

Happy Gro-wing !

ASK MARTHA: Summer and Fall Planting

PREPARE YOUR SOIL

THE SECOND SEASON: SUMMER PLANTINGS

THE THIRD GROWING SEASON

MARTHA’S GUIDE TO SECOND SOWINGS:

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ASK MARTHA: Summer and Fall Planting

PREPARE YOUR SOIL

﻿THE SECOND SEASON: SUMMER PLANTINGS

﻿THE THIRD GROWING SEASON

MARTHA’S GUIDE TO SECOND SOWINGS:

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THE SECOND SEASON: SUMMER PLANTINGS

THE THIRD GROWING SEASON