Fall Harvest Vegetables to Plant in Summer

Make your garden grow 3 or 4 seasons!

Just because it's the middle of summer doesn't mean the end of the gardening season is near. Several vegetables grow well into the fall. Your garden is cranking out produce for your table, but some of your harvests end with spring or sometime during the summer. Don't despair: you can still put plants in through early fall and enjoy delicious vegetables after the first frost—even longer, if you live in a frost-free zone.

Before You Plant

When to plant your fall vegetables depends on your USDA hardiness zone. In colder regions, you may be planting in July or August whereas warmer zones can keep planting some veggies through September. Keep in mind that fall-planted vegetables will need an average of 14 more days to mature than the same plant started in spring due to the shortening daylight hours.

Before your late summer or fall plantings, it's a good idea to incorporate more compost or Miracle-Gro Organic™ Raised Bed & Garden Soil into your in-ground garden or raised beds. You’ll also want to feed your late season plantings with Miracle-Gro Organic™ All Purpose Plant Food to provide the nutrients they’ll need as they grow.

Vegetables to Plant in July and August

Greens. Spinach, collards, kale, and Swiss chard thrive in cool weather, so you'll want to plant seeds in July or August, depending on your region. If you start with young plants, like those from Bonnie Plants, they can go in the ground a bit later. Once mature, these hardy greens will be able to stand a nip or two of frost. Spinach will even over-winter in many areas. Harvest the others before a hard frost, though.

Late-Season Leaf Lettuce. Late summer is also time to plant seeds for fall lettuce, another plant that can take the cold. Harvest a few leaves from the outer edges as needed; your lettuce will keep producing new leaves from the middle, and you can enjoy fresh salads deep into the fall.

Root Vegetables. Turnips are popular fall vegetables because they can tolerate tough winter weather. Rutabagas, beets, and carrots actually become sweeter after a few light frosts. Plant them in late summer and enjoy them before the first hard frost.

Garlic. Break a garlic bulb into cloves and plant the cloves in rich soil when the weather starts to cool. They'll continue to grow over the winter and be ready for you to harvest in early spring. Do not plant garlic from the grocery store; purchase them from a mail order catalog or local garden center.

Other Late-Harvest Vegetables

Here are some other options to try out in your garden:

Arugula. You can get a continuous fall harvest of arugula in most regions by sowing new seeds every couple of weeks.
Escarole. Escarole is a cool weather crop and can be planted at the same time as plants like kale and spinach.
Broccoli. Plant broccoli transplants 4-6 weeks before the first expected fall frost. The cooler weather of fall helps prevent broccoli from bolting.
Cauliflower. Like escarole, cauliflower doesn't mind a little cold snap, and can be planted 6-8 weeks before hard freezes are expected to hit your area.
Leeks. For most regions, leeks are a springtime vegetable, but growers in zone 9 or higher can plant leeks in September for a second round of harvests.
Cabbage. For most regions, cabbage seedlings should be transplanted about 6 weeks before your first fall frost. If your region doesn't experience hard freezes (zone 11 or higher), you can plant cabbage in mid-fall and through the winter.
Brussels sprouts. Fall Brussels sprouts are for growers in the warmest regions only.

Now that you know vegetables to plant in summer, you keep the harvest going through fall. Happy planting!