Fall Garden Direct Seed Planting Guide

The last couple of weeks I have spent a lot of time looking into and thinking about planting a fall garden.  I have never planted a fall garden before so this is a new adventure for me.  I decided that while I could search the internet and find lots of peoples' opinions on what to plant, it is still hard to know what works for my northern climate & growing season.  This last spring I created a Seed Starting & Planting Guide for starting plants indoors and was happy with how it worked for me in preparing for my spring garden.  Since it did work so well for me, I returned to the Weekend Gardener's Grow Guide armed with the date of the average first fall frost for my area and created a spreadsheet for planting a fall garden.

Here is what I came up with.  The guide covers the 12 weeks prior to the date of the average first fall frost (contact your local county extension agent if you can't find your date).  It lists what can be direct seeded for each week and notes the first and the last week for planting each listed species.

Fall Garden Direct Seed Grow Guide
Week 12		Week 11		Week 10		Week 9
kale*		kale		kale		kale
kohlrabi*		kohlrabi		kohlrabi		kohlrabi
mustard greens*		mustard greens		mustard greens		mustard greens
peas*		peas		peas+		beets
				beets*		carrots
				carrots*		turnips
				turnips*		swiss chard*
Week 8		Week 7		Week 6		Week 5
kale		kale		kale		kale
kohlrabi		kohlrabi		kohlrabi		kohlrabi
mustard greens		mustard greens		mustard greens		mustard greens
beets		beets		beets+		swiss chard+
carrots+		turnips		turnips+		radishes
turnips		swiss chard		swiss chard		spinach
swiss chard		radishes		radishes
radishes*		spinach*		spinach
Week 4		Week 3		Week 2		Week 1
kale+		radishes		radishes+
kohlrabi+		spinach+
mustard greens+
radishes
spinach
Week 0				*new
average first 32F frost				+last chance

Good luck with your fall garden.  I hope to plant mine this weekend... I'll let you know. :)

Happy (Fall) Gardening! :)