While the start of August may be too early to plant a fall garden, it’s not too soon to start planning for one.
Experts at the Georgia Center for Urban Agriculture suggest the following cool-season vegetables, along with recommended varieties, for planting in a fall garden.
• Broccoli: Marathon, Packman, Patriot, Premium Crop, Bravo, Decathlon
• Cabbage: Blue Dynasty, Bravo, Early Round Dutch, Rio Verde, Green Jewel
• Carrot: Chantenay, Scarlet Nantes, Sweetbites, Sweet Delight
• Cauliflower: Absolute, Early Snowball, Graffiti (purple), White Magic, Symphony
• Collard greens: Blue Max, Georgia Southern, Heavi-Crop
• Kale: Vates, Dwarf Siberian, Blue Armor, Blue Knight
• Lettuce: Butterhead, Romaine, Buttercrunch
• Mustard greens: Florida Broadleaf, Southern Giant Curled, Red Giant, Savanna
• Onion, green: White Portugal
• Onion, dry bulb: Burgundy, Excel, Grano, Red Creole, Savannah Sweet
• Radish: Cherry Belle, Scarlet Globe, Champion
• Spinach: Melody, Winter Bloomsdale
Plants in this list of cool-season vegetables will tolerate limited exposure to freezing temperatures. Planting dates for fall gardens should be based on anticipated dates for freezing temperatures in your area.
Transplants or seeds should be easy to find at local feed-and-seed or garden supply stores and are easy to order from seed catalogs. Maturity information for each variety is provided on seed packets. Specific planting dates should be selected in relation to variety maturity requirements and acceptable risk of harvest loss due to freezing temperatures.
For historical information on fall temperatures in your area, go to the University of Georgia Weather Network website at weather.uga.edu.
