Cool Season Crops & Flowers

July to September is the time to plant lettuce and greens that bolt during the dog days of summer. The flavor is sweeter, the bugs are fewer and some can be harvested well into winter.You will enjoy the sweetest lettuce ever, when you grow it in your garden.

Cabbage, Chinese cabbage, savoy, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, pac choi, kohlrabi, turnips, rutabagas are happiest in cool weather. Head lettuce needs to be planted 60 to 75 days before the first fall frost. 

Beets, carrots, leeks, spinach and green onions can be planted as late as mid September. The seedlings will winter over and produce a crop in the early spring, even in a high altitude garden! I have done this at 8600 ft. in altitude, providing the deer with an early treat.

Cilantro, dill, parsley and chives like lower temperatures too. I have had cilantro survive -13 degrees before. Harvesting your fresh herbs is as simple as tying bundles with string and hanging them upside down to dry.

Keep your garden beautiful with flowers that like it cool. In warm climates, Alyssum, Nasturtiums, Snapdragons and Pansies should be planted in late summer. The best way to start Larkspur, Bells of Ireland, Bachelors Button, Iceland Poppies and Sweet Peas is direct seeding in the fall. Black Eye Susan, Flax, Coreopsis, Columbine, Echinacea, Delphinium, Foxglove, Gaillardia and Painted Daisy can be planted as late as two months before the last frost date.

If you enjoy gardening as much as I do, this is good news.
You can keep on planting!