It’s that time of the year. No, not the back-to-school season. It’s time to start planting your fall vegetable garden.

But it’s still summer, you say. You’re kicking and screaming and trying to keep the warmth and sunshine present for as long as possible. Me, too. But, trust me, get those seeds in the ground now so you have something to harvest and include in hearty, bone-warming casseroles and stews later this fall.

What to plant now for fall harvest

Whatever you planted for early-spring harvests can be planted now. Ironically, back in the spring you planted when the temps were chilly and the days slowly warmed. Now, you’re planting when the temperatures are still sizzling. The good news is the warmer soil temperatures will help those seeds germinate more quickly. Expect to see seeds germinating sooner than they did in late March or April.

Last week I sowed a whole packet of lettuce seeds in a bare patch between my zucchini and cabbage. No, I know, lettuce isn’t one of those things that I’ll be harvesting for stews. But lettuce does like the cool temperatures that are right around the corner. If all goes well I will harvest lettuce right up through Thanksgiving.

This is the time to plant other leafy crops, too, like spinach, chard, kale, and beets.

Beets don’t like to be transplanted, or so I’ve heard. What I suspect is that they don’t like their roots—the developing beets—to be teased apart from one another. What I have done is sown one or two beet seeds in each cell of an egg carton. I will just pop one soil-filled cell right into the ground and see what happens.

In addition to the beets, I’ve chosen to sow the spinach and chard seeds on my living room windowsill to give them a chance to grow. So far, so good. In fact, they are really growing fast. I suspect they’ll be ready to transplant by the first week in September. When I do so, I will cover them with a row cover cloth to protect them from those flea beetles.

I’ve been having a hard time with flea beetles this summer—those nasty buggers with a penchant for bitter-tasting greens, who eat pin-sized holes in leaves. Pin-sized holes on full-grown broccoli isn’t so bad, but when those holes occur in a seedling’s first small leaves emerging from the ground, it can be the death of the plant.