My spring vegetables are giving up for the season. The lettuce in the cold frame is at least a couple feet tall, and my broccoli went haywire as soon as the temperature hit 90 degrees this week. It’s time to plan and plant for the fall harvest.

I’m a big fan of fall planting, primarily because once you have everything going, you don’t have to do a whole lot. Plus, the pest pressure on the plants is far less than in the spring, since it’s out of sync with their lifecycle.

While you typically have a fairly lengthy potential planting season (particularly if you live in Zones 5 or warmer), you should start planting now to enjoy a second harvest long into the fall and winter season.

Cool Down Soil with Straw for Fall Harvest

One of the challenges of planting cool season crops at this time of the year is the hot soil.

Spinach, radishes, and others don’t usually germinate well when the soil has been baking in the sun for weeks. The easiest way to cool it down to more conducive temperatures is to cover it with 4-6 inches of straw for roughly a week. Keep it well watered. You’ll be surprised at much cooler it is when you pull off the straw to plant your seeds.

After planting, cover the seeds with a little more straw, or better yet, use the floating row cover to minimize water evaporation. You have to remain diligent on watering for optimum germination. (In some areas of the country, you won’t have to water at all because of natural rainfall. Around here, I might have to do it twice a day.)

Once everything has germinated, it’s simply a matter of maintaining enough water on the plants, which is typically less of a concern than in the heat of the summer. You might have to pull a couple of tenacious weeds, but once again, they’re far less than the vigorous growth in the spring. And you’ll be surprised at how few insects you’ll have.

I tell you, I love this time of the season.

Direct Seeding Broccoli for Fall Harvest

An experiment for me this year is direct seeding broccoli. I love broccoli, but I don’t like it in the spring around here. It’s bitter and it bolts no matter what variety I use or where I plant it. When I grow it in the fall, it’s tender and sweet.

The problem, at least for me, is remembering to start plants. So I’m going to pull the lettuce in the cold frame and seed broccoli. That’s on my list for today. It would’ve been better to plant it earlier, but by planting it in the cold frame I will be able to buy more time.

If you’re going to plant broccoli for the fall, you need 85 to 95 days before your first frost. (This is why when I’m on the ball, I start the plants in the greenhouse in June.) Or, if you have a high tunnel, low tunnel, or cold frame, you can start closer to that date.

As I’m digging out the delicious French fingerling potatoes, I’m planting beans. They’ll ripen before the frost hits, and when more space opens up when the first block of beans are done, which will be in another week, I will plant a short season carrot. I also will find space for peas within the next week, plus lettuce, spinach and more radishes.

Planting in the late summer is fun. It’s good to see new growth, and it’s so much easier to avoid major weeding projects or the bugs. Plus, you can’t beat harvesting renewed crops when the weather has that fall nip in the air.