So often clients contact me around this time of year to ask if they can still seed edibles. Their busy schedules — whether due to work or kids or vacations or visiting family — get in the way and delay their time in the garden. I get it. Most aren’t like me. I’m in my garden at least a few times daily during summer, giving me the opportunity to monitor everything very closely. That doesn’t mean I get everything done, but I sure do get a handle on how quickly a weed can grow in a day! For my clients, however, their forays into the garden may happen once every couple days. So, they’re often struggling to know just how open a seeding window really remains.
Closed Hoop House Keeps Brassicas Growing in Cool Weather
Whether you have time to seed more edibles really depends on where you live and what the edible requires to grow and set edible fruit (or root or leaves). Here in Seattle in mid-August, the window for seeding summer crops like cucumber and sweet corn has passed for the year. However, there is still a small window open to seed fall crops like cauliflower, chard, beets, broccoli and lettuce. And, actually, for some of these items, there are many weeks remaining. Too, if your edible gardening spaces include a greenhouse or a hoop house or even a cold frame, that seeding window may stay open even a bit longer. Too, crops like garlic don’t even get planted until October.
The message is: if you’re in the Seattle area and you plan to grow fall edibles from seed (or even from start), don’t delay much longer. If you’ll be rotating out summer crops to make room for fall crops to harvest into early November, monitor those summer crops carefully, removing spent plants right away to deter disease and to make way to put in those fall kales, broccoli and turnips. If you don’t, that window will slam shut even as summer sun continues to warm warm our days and ripen our summer harvest. Of course, if you miss the chance to seed, local nurseries are stocking up fall edible starts right now. Beginning from starts may give you a little more wiggle room as the season wanes, but it is still critical the plants have time to get in the ground and begin to grow strong roots before the soil cools for the coming fall and winter.
Need help? Get in touch to schedule a vegetable garden consultation session now!
