By August it may seem as though the vegetable planting season is long past, but there are actually quite a few crops that can be seeded or transplanted in August for a late season harvest.
A bountiful autumn garden begins with clean up. Pull up any vegetables that have finished cropping and prepare that space for new plantings. I add spent the vegetable plants to my compost bin and then amend the bed with an inch of compost and a handful of slow release organic vegetable fertilizer before reseeding.
Once you’ve sown your seeds, keep the soil consistently moist until the seeds germinate and the young plants are growing well. This can be a challenge in the hot, dry weather of August. To reduce water evaporation from the soil, place low wire or PVC hoops above the bed and hang a piece of shadecloth or row cover overtop. When the seeds germinate, remove the cover.
The autumn harvest focuses on cool season vegetables like greens, root crops, scallions, and cabbages that thrive when the days grow shorter and the weather cools down. However, certain fall crops, like peas, broccoli, carrots, and cabbage need to be planted in mid to late July, depending where you live. Once August arrives, that planting window has closed. In this article I’m going to focus on the vegetables that can still be seeded in August in most regions.
Niki’s Top 5 Vegetables to Plant in August:
Turnips
Crisp, delicious turnips are a fall favourite at the farmers market, but they’re also very easy to grow in a home garden or in containers. My go-to variety is Hakurei, which has ping-pong ball sized roots that are tender and sweet. And, this fast-growing variety takes just 40 days to go from seed to harvest. Purple Top White Globe is another classic salad turnip with pretty bi-coloured pink and white roots. It’s ready to pull just 50 days from seeding.
Leafy Greens
I couldn’t just pick one type of green to plant in August as so many of them thrive in autumn. My favourites include spinach, arugula, leaf lettuce, baby kale, mizuna, mustard, and mache. I sow seed for salad greens in my garden beds, polytunnel, and cold frames so we can enjoy them well into winter. Consistent moisture is the key to healthy, bitter-free greens so water often if there has been no rain in late summer.
Radishes
One of the fastest growing vegetables, spring-type radishes should be seeded every few weeks from late August until late September for a non-stop crop of crunchy roots. Autumn is also the prime growing season for larger, daikon radishes which and should be seeded in early to mid-August for an October and November harvest. My favourite fall radish is Watermelon (also called Red Meat) which has 2 to 3 inch round roots that are greenish-white on the outside but neon pink inside.
Kohlrabi
This quirky crop loves the late summer and autumn weather, and is easy to grow, quick to mature, and so tasty. The round green or purple stems are the edible part, although the leaves are also delicious when stir-fried. Harvest when the stems are 3 inches across and enjoy them raw or cooked.
Beets
Growing up, I only knew blood red beets like Detroit Dark Red and Cylindra. Today, I grow a rainbow of beets for autumn harvesting - red, white, gold, striped, and pink. The lighter coloured ones have a mildly earthy, sweet flavour and leave less mess in the kitchen. Sow seed in early to mid-August for a bumper crop of autumn beets.
3 Garden Covers to Use in the Fall:
Row covers are handy when frost threatens. They can also be used to keep birds away from just-planted seeds or provide a bit of shade over beds to hold soil moisture.
Shadecloth is one of my secrets for establishing great autumn crops. I float a piece of shadecloth on simple wire hoops over my beds to cast shade and give my seeds a chance to germinate in the hot summer weather.
Mini hoop tunnels are essential for extending my harvest weeks or months later into late fall and winter. Use a PVC hoop mini hoop tunnel to shelter cold hardy crops like spinach, beets, kale, mache, and arugula into November and December.
