Issue 31 • Seasonal tips and featured varieties coming to a retailer near you • August 28, 2009

Fall & Winter Vegetables

It seems like just yesterday we were looking forward to setting out tender starts in the lengthening days of late spring…and here it is, nearly September, with dusk creeping up sooner each evening and bucketloads of summer tomatoes, squash, beans, and peppers to carry in from the garden.  As you reap the summer fruits of spring planting, however, remember that right now is not just prime harvest season, but fall planting season.  Those of us in the milder valleys of the Pacific Northwest are fortunately able to eat from the garden year-round, but the last few weeks of August and first week or so of September represent a limited window of opportunity for transplanting vegetables that can be harvested later this fall, over the winter, or even next spring.

Veggies like salad and cooking greens, broccoli and cabbages, and root crops are particularly suited to winter gardening in the Northwest, as they prefer to grow and mature in the cool wet weather of late fall and winter.  Others, like peas, onions, and some overwintering brassicas (broccoli, cauliflower, kale) will start growing in autumn, do little during the coldest months, then take off again for a spring harvest.  See our Fall and Winter Gardening Guide for the specific planting and harvest dates of many of the varieties we’re offering right now.

There is also a helpful 8-page guide on Fall & Winter Gardening from the Extension Service available for free download at the OSU website.

Previous issues of Garden News are in the Log House Library.