There’s still good time to grow a garden or plant a hedgerow this year
What, me, plant a garden, now? Yes! Spring has the public’s heart when it comes to gardening, but there are good reasons and many things to grow into and through the fall. And if one has an interest in getting started (#coronagardening!), now is as interesting, as fruitful, a time as the spring.
There are a number of leafy and root vegetables that grow best in the cooler temperatures of autumn, and should be started now. August is a fine time, too, to plan for more ambitious plantings of trees and shrubs. Below are a few thoughts on extending – or starting – your garden and planting this year.
Vegetables
Northwest gardeners can generally succeed with brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts), other leafy greens (lettuces, spinach, chard), and root crops (carrots, radishes, leeks).
See the descriptions in seed catalogs (resources below) or seed packets: Slower-growing crops like kale or Brussels sprouts are usually sown in the garden earlier in the summer, but they can be had as starts from local nurseries and transplanted in August. Faster-growing crops like leaf lettuce and radishes allow a gardener to succession plant, sowing a second round of seeds in the same bed a week or so apart. This can extend the harvest bounty of the succession-sown crop and also hedges against the risk of unpredictable weather or early frost.
The fall gardener will want to keep an eye out for tips on extending the season with row covers – hoop houses, floating row covers, cold frames – in the resources linked and listed below. Other ideas to get familiar with include:
- mulching (covering bare soil to buffer temperature swings, retain moisture, and reduce weeds);
- feeding the soil (scraping back the mulch first, naturally) by adding compost, which slowly releases needed nutrients;
- and, crop rotation, or alternating plants from different families from season to season or year to year, to reduce soil-borne plant diseases.
A first start for fall planting ideas couldn’t be easier than this quick-tips list of vegetables and 1-2 sentences each of what to do with them, when. Or, check out this recent online webinar, “Growing Vegetables for Fall and Winter Harvest in the Pacific Northwest,” with Diane Decker-Ihle, hosted by the WSU Snohomish County Extension Master Gardener program.
First Frost
A general rule for fall gardening is that the planting window is four to eight weeks before the first expected frost of the year. Different plants want more or less time in the ground prior to the first expected frost of the season. Some, like Brussels sprouts, are sweetest after touched by a little frost. Finding that expected first frost date is pretty easy: Ask an experienced gardener. (In White Salmon and Hood River, it’s generally reckoned as the first week of October.) Or, find it online. Here’s an easy link to do that: https://davesgarden.com/guides/freeze-frost-dates/
Bulbs
Seeds and starts for the next few weeks aren’t the only thing to plant this fall: There is also a world of bulbs. There are bulbs (and bulb-like things such as corms, tubers and crowns) that bear in spring, and others for summer-fall. Spring bulbs flower forth from the ground in, well, the vernal season. They thrive when planted in the fall and are allowed to overwinter, as they need several weeks of cold temperatures to break their dormancy. A general rule of thumb is to plant bulbs about six weeks before the ground freezes: So, September and October, depending on the plant you’re growing from the bulbs. Again, do your reading for more specific directions based on particular plants.
And there are all sorts of bulbs to plant this fall, including flowers like crocuses, tulips and daffodils, and edible crops such as garlic, shallots, rhubarb and asparagus. Many bulbs form perennial plants; some needing to be dug up and replanted (dahlias, for example, that generally perform best when cut back, dug out of the ground and dried over the winter), while others grow and grow, needing only to be divided at some point. To add some interesting early-season flower spice to the palate, consider the common tulip – but search for exotic varieties with interesting colors and textures such as fringed petals; and, start looking soon, as those tend to sell out quickly.
Trees and shrubs
There are at least as many woody plants that thrive with an autumn planting as there are vegetables and root crops. Many ornamentals (do your online research first, naturally) enjoy fall’s combination of warmer soil and cool air, which, with a bit of rain or watering, stimulates roots to grow. This gives the root system time to establish before the harsh aridity and wind of summer. This is generally true, too, of the backyard fruit trees.
Native species of trees and shrubs often succeed very well when planted in the fall, for those same reasons. Washington Department of Natural Resources suggests putting conifer seedlings (that is, evergreen trees like Douglas-fir) in the ground when they’re dormant, generally December-April, and the ground is damp, but not frozen. (Here’s an online brochure from DNR about seedling planting: https://www.dnr.wa.gov/publications/frc_webster_plantingforestseedlings.pdf ).
Drew Merritt, co-owner of Humble Roots Nursery in Mosier (https://www.humblerootsnursery.com/), says that, for native plants and shrubs generally, fall is a fine planting time. Most plants will be going into dormancy.
He adds, “plants will be in the ground to utilize the seasonal moisture as soon as temps raise enough to begin development” – which lessens the need to irrigate the plants much during the crucial first growing season. Also, “many plants and conifers continue root development through the winter.”
There are, of course, any number of native plants that might be a choice fit for a landscaping project. But for many purposes, native shrubs might be a wise choice for the backbone of any project: They combine beauty, hardiness, and habitat. Consider, for instance, a property line hedgerow for privacy, pollinators, as a windbreak – or all three at once. Whatever the goal, the greater Columbia Gorge is excellent habitat for a wide variety of native flowering shrubs, from the evergreen tall Oregon grape to the edible blue elderberry and the gorgeous drought-tolerant mock-orange.
Cover crops
A person looking not to grow crops immediately but rather to improve the soil health of a patch of ground might consider early autumn for planting a cover crop. The basic tenets of soil health are to disturb it as little as possible, keep it covered, and keep things growing in it. For best soil health, soil needs to be alive, to host a community of organisms – just like an above-ground forest with a diverse range of species tends to be more resilient to pestilence than, say, a single-species plantation or orchard.
It’s a big topic, like all of gardening and farming. Here’s a place that might be helpful to start:
Be sure to follow the links at the bottom of that web site for introductory thoughts on what cover crops to plant and how to manage them. They may not be appropriate for every site – but will benefit many a slumbering garden or field.
Further resources
A great overview document, what you might call the essential introduction, to cool-season gardening is “Winter Vegetable Gardening the Pacific Northwest,” a booklet jointly published by Washington State University, Oregon State University and the University of Idaho.
A more general introduction to vegetable gardening from WSU can be found online here: https://pubs.extension.wsu.edu/home-vegetable-gardening-in-washington-home-garden-series
The Internet, the experienced gardener-neighbor, and local shops with local expertise – all of these are excellent resources for exploring vegetables and bulbs. There are more YouTube gardening channels than there are plants, almost: Explore a few.
Seed companies often have online seed catalogs – a wealth of inspiration and information. There are a bunch of these; some old favorites are Adaptive Seeds, Burpee, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Osborn Seed Company, Uprising Seeds. All have websites. Besides selling vegetable seeds, bulbs, and such, and dispensing valuable information about how to grow them, seed companies often publish seasonal growing charts. For example, Territorial Seed’s fall and winter growing guide, linked here.
There is a galaxy of gardening books. A few that speak specifically to fall gardening include:
o Cool Season Gardener: Extend the Harvest, Plan Ahead, and Grow Vegetables Year-Round: Bill Thorness
o Fall and Winter Gardening: 25 Organic Vegetables to Plant and Grow for Late Season Food: R.J. Ruppenthal
o Salad Leaves For All Seasons: Organic Growing from Pot to Plot: Charles Dowding
o The Kitchen Garden: A Month-by-Month Guide to Growing Your Own Fruits and Vegetables: by Alan Buckingham.