Four Season Growing

Late summer and fall is a great time for gardening. Cooler weather, reduced pest pressure and staggered plantings make for a relaxing experience in the garden. And of course, nothing beats garden-fresh, nutrition-packed food in late fall and winter. By choosing the right crops and planting times, and employing a few simple season-extending techniques, your garden can flourish long after the last tomatoes are canned and pesto frozen. Many fall-sown crops can also overwinter to provide early spring food and, along with fall-transplanted perennials, host pollinator and other beneficial insects as they flower in early summer. Fall cover cropping is great way to protect and build your soil, as well as beat spring weeds and add to the ecological diversity of your garden. So while you are enjoying the beauty and bounty of summer, "plant ahead" for a continuous and fruitful harvest.

Summer Sowing For Fall Harvest
Depending on where you live many of these crops can be planted well into summer for fall or winter harvest: Broccoli, Carrots, Gourmet Greens, Beets, Cauliflower, Spinach and Kale.





Learn more about late season planting here:
Succession Planting
Fall Gardens: Harvest Well Into Winter
The Leafy Greens: Nutrition Packed and Raring to Grow!

Cover Cropping
August is a great month to start to look at cover crops. You can still sow the quick growing summer cover crops like buckwheat or oats in the unused beds or between your rows. The seed will begin to grow and provide a cooling ground cover. After the first killing frost, you can leave it standing or cut the crop and let it lay on the ground and begin to break down. Cover crops are an excellent way to build vital soils rich in nutrients and organic matter. It's great winter cover for beneficial insects and prevents winter weeds from taking over. Come spring it's easily forked or tilled in. If you don’t have a tiller to incorporate the material, you can employ a "mow and mulch" strategy or sow crops that will winter-kill, leaving a mat of mulch to sow into in the spring. Cover crops can also be cut with the kama or scythe and removed to feed the compost pile. The remaining stubble can be forked lightly and transplanted into, or allowed to break down for two to three weeks before being worked into the soil as planting beds are worked up.

August is also a good time to plan ahead for the cooler weather cover crops like clovers and vetch. Get clover started on the ground that you'll want to plant first next spring. Legumes will need to get large enough before winter to begin to fix nitrogen and get a good growth of green matter that will break down over the winter months. Clovers can be started now and then either forked in or lightly tilled in October. This will allow the organic matter to break down over the winter and then be worked into the soil in the spring for a great early spring planting bed. If you're in a milder area where the soil doesn't freeze, August-sown cover crops can get fairly large, and if allowed to grow and not worked in this fall, they can do a great job breaking up hardpans or tight soil. Thoughtful fall planting means a more successful garden next spring!

Learn More about cover cropping here:
Feeding The Soil: Cover Crops
Cover Crops: Regenerating and Sustaining Healthy Soils
Cover Crops



Below is list of great cover crops to sow now:
Austrian Winter Pea, Crimson Clover, Hulless Oats,
Winter Triticale, Winter Rye, Hairy Vetch.

Season Extension and Overwintering
The gardening season can be extended into the fall with a few simple techniques. Existing tender annuals like tomatoes and peppers can be kept productive through light frosts with Frost Blankets, or portable coldframes and greenhouses, especially in combination, while salad greens and braising greens can thrive well into winter in almost any climate with protection from the elements. Learn more here.

Many crops can be established in the fall and left to overwinter in the garden. Although the plants will largely go dormant and won't experience much growth in the short, cold days of winter, with proper timing they will be primed for rapid growth in the first warmer, longer days of spring. Overwintering is the best way to get an early spring crop of many varieties of greens, and enjoy, abundant, garden-fresh food much earlier in the season.

Some guidelines for successful over-wintering include:

• Ensure that plants are well-established but not overly mature or leggy.
• Use loose mulch to delay soil freezing and to shield your plants from extreme temperatures. In the spring, pull mulch back to allow soil to warm.
• Plant in well-drained soils as excess moisture will inhibit spring growth.
• Protect over-wintering plants from wildlife such as deer and rabbits.
• Season extenders, such as greenhouses, coldframes, frost blankets, and garden tunnels can shorten dormancy time and allow for earlier spring harvests.
• Experiment with different varieties and timing to see what works best for your bioregion and microclimate.

Gourmet Greens: Flavorful, Nutritious Food for Fall and Winter
Leafy greens are beautiful, flavorful, and healthy, bursting with nutrition and fiber. They are easy to grow, cold-hardy, and extremely productive. With the aid of cold frames, cloches, or greenhouses, many can be grown year-round, even in northern climates. Whether raw in salads, steamed, braised, or used in soups, these greens add a gourmet touch to every meal.

Braising Greens: "Fast Food" for the Fall Garden
Our Braising Greens Collection is a fun and economical way to explore four-season gardening. It features ten of our favorite fast-growing varieties that are cold hardy, versatile, nutritious, and delicious. Baby greens will be available in as little as 3 weeks after sowing and are great additions to salads, while mature plants are perfect for steaming, stir-frying and soups. Contains one pack each of Broccoli Raab, Komatsuna, Red Ursa Kale, Bau Sin Mustard, Osaka Purple Mustard, Purple Top White Globe Turnip, Maruba Santoh, Beetberry, Catalogna Frastagliata Chicory, and Arugula. Save over 25% over individual pack prices.





To enjoy delicious fall harvests of fresh greens, sow these cold-hardy varieties:
Arugula, Beetberry, Broccoil Raab, Chicory, Cress, Endive, Huazontle, Komatsuna, Mesclun Salad Mix, Mesclun Spicy Salad Mix, Mustard Greens, Orach, Purslane

Save up to 25% over individual packs when you buy our Asian Greens Collection or Braising Greens Collection.

Learn more about gourmet greens here: The Leafy Greens: Nutrition Packed and Raring to Grow!

Succession Planting
Many crops like Spinach, Mustard Greens, Chinese Cabbage, Arugula, Broccoli, Radishes, and Lettuce will provide a continuous harvest only when sown successively, one to three weeks apart. Lean more about succession planting.

Fall is the Time for Growing Great Garlic



17 of the finest garlic varieties:
Hardneck
Chesnok red, Georgian Crystal, German white, Music Pink, Persian star, Purple Glazer Garlic, Purple Italian Easy Peel, Romanian Red, Spanish Roja, Russian Giant

Softneck
Inchelium Red, Applegate Giant, Chilean Silver, Kettle River, Shantung Purple, Siskiyou purple, Transylvanian

Garlic Planting Information:
Garlic Planting Tips
Growing Garlic

Growing Great Garlic By: Ron L. Engeland
Ron Engeland, a garlic farmer for 15 years, tells you which strains to plant, when and how to plant, when to fertilize, prune flower stalks, and harvest; plus how to store, process and market the crop. He also includes a brief history, cultural requirements, sites and soils, pests and diseases. The definitive guide to growing great garlic for organic gardeners and small scale farmers.

Seed Saving
Collecting the seed of any plant, whether a vegetable, flower, herb, tree or shrub, completes a cycle begun when the initial seed was placed in the earth. By growing and collecting seeds, we connect with ancient practices that have played a critical role over generations in the preservation of food, medicine, fiber, fuel and ornamental plants. Furthermore, saving seeds and replanting them in your garden from year to year allows succeeding generations of plants to adapt to your particular location. Learn more here.

Seed Cleaning Screens
Completing the cycle of seed to seed is a deeply soulful process at the core of sustainable growing. These high-quality sieves are the same ones used by our professional seed cleaners to test clean small batches ensuring that seed is clean enough to package. Whether you're saving seeds for your own use and to share with friends, or cleaning your home-grown amaranth and quinoa to enrich your baked goods, these professional seed cleaning sieves make it easier than ever to participate in this venerable tradition.

Seed to Seed By: Suzanne Ashworth
"Seed to Seed" is a complete seed-saving guide for 160 vegetable crops with detailed information on botanical classifications, flower structure, pollination methods, isolation distances, caging and hand-pollination techniques, and proper methods for harvesting, drying, cleaning and storing seeds. Invaluable for both beginning and experienced seed savers.

Tips on Storing Autumn's Bounty
Now that you’ve grown it, what do you do with it? Learn more here.