As summer is winding down it is time to get ready for fall gardening. In this video, which is the first in a series dedicated to fall garden planting, I talk about the first step in preparing for fall gardening: The kinds of plants you can grow in your fall garden and when to start planting. I’ll also share my top three recommendations for beginner gardeners when planting a fall garden.
Fall gardening brings on an entirely new experience and new opportunities to learn as a beginner gardener. You can grow many plants that you are not able to grow during the summer here in the desert due to the high temperatures.
Fall gardening is all about cool season crops, also called cool weather crops. Some common plants to try in your fall garden are leafy greens, such as lettuce, spinach and kale or root crops, such as carrots, potatoes, turnips, beets and parsnips. Also things like broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, cabbage, chard, and peas are great choices for a fall garden. And a couple you may not even have considered, such as cilantro and some herbs, like parsley sage and oregano can grow really well during the fall.
leafy greens, things like lettuce, spinach, kale and many others. There are tons of varieties of these and pretty much any should grow well during the fall. One of the best things about growing these specific leafy greens is that they grow fast and can offer an abundant harvest throughout the season. With these leafy vegetables it is possible to only harvest a few mature leaves from each plant and leave the plant growing to continue maturing. This will allow a continual harvest from these plants. This means the possibility of fresh salad almost daily. Also, they actually get better as the weather gets colder. Aside from below freezing temperatures, these do really well in the cold. Leafy greens are one crop I definitely recommend for beginner gardeners to try during the fall.
Peas, such as snap peas, sugar peas, and snow peas are also great for beginners. Peas are very easy to grow and fast to mature. They also continue growing throughout the fall and into winter much like leafy greens do.
Cilantro is one of the most common plants that new gardeners try to grow during the wrong season. Since it is often associated with summer time, salsa and barbecues, many people think it needs to grow during warm weather but cilantro is actually a cool weather crop. If you tried to plant cilantro in your summer garden, it probably grew well at first and then as soon as the first hot weather hit it went to seed. This is called bolting and many of the cool weather crops do this. When it gets too hot, the plant will go to seed, stops growing and focuses all its energy on producing seeds. In the case of cilantro this results in coriander. If you plant cilantro in your fall garden you will have much more success. So whether you tried growing it during the summer or not, I recommend giving cilantro a try in your fall garden.
Knowing exactly when to plant for fall is a bit tricky, especially in the desert. Our weather will usually stay hot until mid-September but sometimes its hot well into October. Other years its cold the first week of September. More often however, its hot and then cold, and then hot again and cold again before finally staying cooler sometime in October. For this reason its sometimes difficult to plant things directly in your garden bed for fall gardening. This is why starting with crops that can be started indoors is best for first time fall gardeners.
I recommend starting seeds indoors with the target of transplanting outside the first week of October. For most seeds you want to start them indoors 6 to 8 weeks before transplanting. This would mean starting seeds inside around the first couple weeks of August. Don’t stress however if you are starting late. Just start them as soon as you can and transplant outside as soon as the weather is staying cool.
If you choose to plant some of the root crops, like potatoes or beets, you will want to plant those directly in your garden so wait until the weather starts to cool and then sow directly into your garden beds. Regardless of what you plant or how you plant indoors or directly in garden beds, you will want to try to plant as early as possible but be prepared to plant again should we get a late season heat wave.

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In this video:
0:00 It's time to get ready for Fall Garden Planting
0:40 This is In the Garden
1:00 Fall Gardening is an entirely different experience
1:53 What can I grow in my Fall Garden?
2:35 Best Fall crops for Beginner Gardeners
6:15 When to start Planting a Fall Garden
8:04 Watch all Fall Garden Planting Guide Videos
8:19 Thanks for Watching

#FallGardening #FallGardenPlanting #LeafyGreens