Summer is here but that doesn’t mean that the planting season is over, there’s lots you can still be sowing to squeeze more produce out of your garden. Read on to find out what to plant in summer for fall harvests and how to work out what you can plant in the growing season you have left.
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Figuring Out First Frost Dates
Ok, I know I said this post is about plants you can start in summer and harvest in fall but it is important to consider how many days until the frost, that way you know what you can sow right now and what you should be able to harvest in the days you have left before the frost.
As an example, my first frost date in fall is usually 10 October. If you are unsure about your frost dates, you can find out your frost dates here.
So now you know your first frost date, you can Google how many days until *enter your frost date*. For example, I would type “how many days until October 10 2018” and Google very conveniently tells me that I have 81 days until October 10. You can of course count the days with a calendar 😉
Figuring Out What To Plant In Summer For Fall Harvests
With your number of days until your frost date in hand, you can now look for seed varieties which will grow in that time. You can search online at some seed suppliers for the days to maturity and select varieties which will mature before your frost date (those with a smaller days to maturity). Alternatively you can look for early varieties of a vegetable. Early varieties usually have short days to maturity written on the seed packet or in the catalog.
If you don’t have time to search, don’t worry I’m going to break it down for you with over 100 popular varieties of vegetables you can grow in summer for fall harvests! I made a printable PDF of these varieties in the Homesteading Resource Library especially for email subscribers.
Ready In 20-30 Days
- Cut and come again salads and greens like Mesclun green, Red Sails Lettuce and Braising greens,
- Radishes: Cherry Belle, French Breakfast, White Beauty, Sparkler
- Oriental or Asian Greens like Mizuna, Giant Red Mustard
- Arugula
- Swiss Chard: Flamingo Pink
- Pea Shoots
Ready In 30-40 Days
- Orach or Mountain Spinach
- Swiss Chard: Yellow, Bright Lights, 5 Color, Cardinal
- Salad Greens: Jericho Romaine Lettuce
- Spinach: Bloomsdale, Japanese Oriental Giant
- Radish: China Rose
- Beets or Beetroot: Bull’s Blood
- Oriental or Asian Greens: Tendergreen Mustard, Pak Choi Baby Shanghai
- Kale: White Russian
- Turnip: Tokyo White
Ready In 40-50 Days
- Beets or Beetroot: Early Wonder Tall, White Albino
- Lettuce: Rouge d’hiver, Red Salad Bowl, Green Salad Bowl, Royal Oakleaf , Little Gem, Black Seeded Simpson, Red Deer Tongue, Mereille des 4 Saisons, Lolla Rossa
- Broccoli: Di Cicco
- Turnip: Purple Top White Globe , Golden Globe
- Summer Squash: Dark Green Zucchini, Early Yellow Straightneck, Patty Pan Scallop, Astia Zucchini, Ronde de Nice
- Oriental or Asian Greens: Tatsoi, Southern Giant Curled Mustard
- Okra: Burgundy
- Endive: Tres Fine
- Bush Beans: Golden Wax, Provider, French Garden
- Greens: Champion Collard Greens
- Radish: Watermelon, Daikon
- Tomato: Tiny Tim, Siberia
- Spinach: Verdil, Catalina
- Pole Beans: Scarlet Runner
Related Post: Growing Beautiful Beans
Ready In 50-60 Days
- Tomato: Valencia, Gardener’s Delight, Stupice, Siletz, Sweetie, Aunt Ruby German, Silvery Fir Tree, Matt’s Wild Cherry
- Lettuce: Buttercrunch, Freckles, Summer Bibb
- Pea: Oregon Sugar Pod, Progress #9, Sugar Daddy, Sugar Snap
- Kale: Red Russian (Ragged Jack), Ripbor, Scarlet, Siberian, Blue Curled Scotch, Roja
- Pole Beans: Filet Emerite, Filet French Gold
- Radish: Black Spanish
- Summer Squash: Summer Early Crookneck, Black Beauty Zucchini, Summer Fordhook, Timbetta di Albinga, Cocozelle
- Bush Beans: Blue Lake, Royalty Purple, Contender, Roc d’or
- Cauliflower: Snowball, Red Swan
- Beets or Beetroot: Golden Detroit, Cylindra, Chioggia
- Cucumber: Muncher, Lemon, Sumter, Marketmore 76, National Pickling, English Chelsea Prize, Green Finger, Parisian Gherkin, Poona Kheera, Sweet Armenian, Double Yield
- Carrot: Little Finger, Parisan
- Cabbage: Express Red, Greyhound
- Okra: Clemson Spineless 80
- Sweet Pepper: Sweet Chocolate, Padron
- Broccoli: Rapini, Te Tou (Chinese Broccoli)
- Swiss Chard: Fordhook Giant, Red Ruby
- Winter Squash: Table Queen Acorn
- Kohlrabi: Purple Vienna, White Vienna
- Eggplant: Shooting Stars, Mixed Fingers, Snowy
- Mache or corn salad
- Purslane
- Watercress
- Shiso
Planting Tips
There’s so much you can still be planting, even if you have a short growing season. Keep sowing every 2 weeks to have continual harvests of your vegetables to make the most of your growing season. You can even sow the faster maturing varieties whilst you are waiting for the slower growing varieties to mature so that you can be harvesting something fresh from the garden each week.
Keep the planting area moist when sowing in summer to stop the seeds from drying out and not germinating. If you have a very hot summer consider using shade cloth
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