Grow your own Enjoy a bountiful fall vegetable garden — with this expert advice

Grow your own
Enjoy a bountiful fall vegetable garden — with this expert advice
By Marina Blomberg
Sunday, October 7, 2007



We’re sure you’ve heard that before, and maybe you’ve already discovered the benefits on your own. Or perhaps you wonder why so many professional growers, garden writers and Master Gardeners preach that autumn is truly the best time of the year to plant.

Jim Stephens, 71, professor emeritus with the horticultural sciences department of the University of Florida, draws on a lifetime of vegetable gardening — and 42 years of teaching — to offer some tips for the cold-weather gardener north of Ocala.

His book, “Vegetable Gardening in Florida,” covers the whole spectrum of growing edibles in Florida year-round, but he particularly likes winter gardens because they are the easiest — the weather is suitable for working outdoors, there aren’t as many weeds, and pests and diseases are less of a bother. In fact, for these reasons, fall is the best season for growing organically, Stephens says.

What grows best?

“In the fall garden, there are some crossovers from the summer that keep on growing — tomatoes, peppers and sweet potatoes. But by October, there are totally different vegetables that go in.” he says.

When choosing cool season vegetables, “personal taste will tell you what to plant. You can grow mustard, turnip and collard greens, but you have to like these things,” he says.

For best performance, garden soil should be prepared at least a month before by incorporating at least one pound of compost or aged animal manure per square foot of planting area . One pound is approximately a half-gallon milk carton full.

Organic fertilizers such as Black Kow or Black Hen (2-3-2) can be used as side-dressing as the plants grow.

Stephens is partial to organic mulches — straw, leaves, sawdust — versus black plastic for home gardens, even though the latter does help in keeping soil warmer and ground-hugging vegetables cleaner. Mulch moderates soil temperature and moisture, and suppresses weeds. “But weeding a garden is therapeutic.”

Pest control should be minimal. “There are few to hassle with during the winter. If you have cabbage/cole crops, you are going to have worms, but Bacillus thuringiensis or horticultural soap is the only thing you will need to use.”

Same for diseases. It’s not a big problem in winter crops. If you get some yellow spots on a cabbage leaf, just cut it off. If a plant gets a wilt, pull it up and dispose of it.”

Watering is critical in fall and winter, when it is generally drier than spring and summer, particularly at transplant time.

Choosing healthy plants at the outset will assure even the novice gardener with a productive garden. “Get the healthiest plants you can, and keep the roots moist.”

All of the following vegetables can take the cold — even below freezing. As a precaution, Stephens recommends watering the soil deeply before a predicted cold snap and covering with a floating row cover; the water will then radiate heat upward.

Vegetable gardens need a minimum of six hours of direct sun a day.

Don’t plant the garden all at once. By staggering plantings of lettuce and cabbage you will get harvest over a longer period of time.

Here are some veggies that prefer October over March:

# Broccoli: Plant transplants now through December. Heads of densely packed flower buds are ready to harvest starting 60 days from planting. Cut the central head and subsequent smaller sprouts will be produced. You can harvest for about a month. Steaming until the color is bright green is the best way to cook.

# Brussels sprouts: This cabbage family member produces heads that look like walnut-sized cabbages all along the stem. Harvest can begin about 85 days from planting seeds; shorter from transplants. Forget what you remember about store-bought Brussels sprouts; the home-grown version is far sweeter and nuttier. Frost improves the flavor, as sugars are rushed from the roots to heal any damage.

# Carrots: Long and thin or short and stubby, carrots love winter. Work the garden soil deeply to allow the roots to penetrate without running into clods or stones, thereby becoming forked or twisted. Seeds sown directly in the garden may take two weeks to germinate. Thin to one plant per inch or two by cutting the tops off unwanted plants; this way you won’t disturb the neighboring plants by pulling. While baby carrots can be harvested when they are a half-inch in diameter, they are usually not as sweet as those harvested starting 50-60 days from seeding. Carrots now come in yellow, white and purple hues as well as familiar orange.

# Cauliflower: Newer varieties produce leaves that tightly cover the curds, keeping them white and creamy. And then there’s purple and naturally green types, too. Lots of organic matter and sunshine will help these plants mature in 60 to 70 days after transplanting in the garden. These are fussier about temperatures and will bolt (go to seed) if an extended cold spell (35-50 degrees) is followed by warm weather. They also don’t like the moisture content to fluctuate widely.

# Chinese cabbages: Also called pak choi and bok choy, these prefer cool weather and short days. Depending on variety, they can mature as early as 40 days to as late as 75 days after planting. They will bolt (flower and go to seed) if there is an extended warm spell. Harvest by cutting the entire plant or snipping off outer leaves.

# Collards: These are basically non-heading cabbages. They can be grown in our warm season as well as cold, as they are very frost hardy. Flavor improves with frost. Harvest leaves when they are big enough to use. Some gardeners cut the whole plant when it is a foot tall; others harvest outer leaves as needed. Older leaves become tough and woody and require a lot of cooking to render them palatable.

# Kale: A powerhouse of nutrients, kale is often relegated to simply decorating a plate. This thin-leafed cole crop is as decorative as it is tasty, with most varieties exhibiting savoyed (crinkled) leaf edges. Kale germinates in about a week and matures in two months.

# Kohlrabi: If unusual vegetables are your thing, kohlrabi needs to be in your garden. The thick, round stem right above ground level sprouts leaves from its upper half. The crunchy, tangy stems— which can be green, white or purple — can be harvested about two months from direct seeding, when they are about 3 inches in diameter. The leaves are also edible.

# Lettuce: There are too many lettuces to include here, but all of them grow like crazy in the winter. There are four major types: crisphead, butterhead (Bibb), leaf (Red Sails, Oakleaf) and romaine or cos. Stick with butterhead and looseleaf types rather than crisphead, also called iceberg; the latter doesn’t have much flavor anyway.

# Onions: Bunching onions, leeks, shallots and bulbing onions — the GranX types that produce Florida Sweets and Vidalias — need to be planted in October in order to form the swollen roots next spring. Be sure to get short-day varieties. Garlic should also be planted in winter. Chives grow best in cool weather, too.

# Peas: English peas, which need to be shelled, and sugar peas and snap peas, which have edible pods, thrive in cool, moist weather. Most need support via trellising, which makes it easier to harvest. Harvest every few days once the pods have filled out but the peas are still immature. Sugar and snap peas will continue to produce until the plant fails, usually late spring. If pods get fibrous, shell the peas.

# Spinach: This vegetable prefers very cold soil to germinate; if needed, refrigerate fresh seeds for a week or two before planting in the garden. Leaves can be harvested as soon as they are big enough to use; cut from the outer edge to allow new leaves to grow in the center.

# Swiss chard: This leaf vegetable is highly decorative: ‘Ruby Red’ and ‘Rhubarb’ have dark red leaves and crimson stems; ‘Dorat’ has beautiful light green leaves; ‘Bright Lights,’ a 1998 All-America Selections winner, is actually a mix of chards whose rainbow-colored stems include crimson, orange, pink, white and yellow. Leaves range in color from green to red. You can harvest leaves 60 days from seeding; steam the leaf and chop the midrib. Don’t cook Swiss chard in an aluminum pot; the chard contains oxalic acid, which will discolor the pot.

# Turnips: These mature in two months from direct-seeding; they germinate in less than a week. Harvest green tops by cutting; if the growing point is left alone, more greens will grow. Pull roots (botanically they are swollen stems) when they are 2-3 inches in diameter, before they get woody.

To read the full article: http://www.gainesville.com/article/20071007/MAGAZINE01/71004038/1099/MAGAZINE?Title=Grow_your_own