Written by: Charlotte Glen, Horticulture Agent

Fall is a busy time in a southern vegetable garden. There are crops to be harvested, and others to be planted. Pests and weeds must be kept at bay to keep crops healthy, while soils need to be covered to prevent erosion over winter. Apply the following tips to keep your vegetable garden healthy and productive from now until spring.

Harvest Time!

Many crops planted in late summer are ready for harvest. Broccoli should be harvested when the buds are still tight closed – if yellow flowers have started to open you have waited too late. Leave broccoli plants in place after harvesting the initial head. Side shoots will develop and will be ready to pick within a couple of weeks. Cauliflower may be ready to harvest now as well. Once the main head has been picked, cauliflower plants can be removed from the garden since they do not re-sprout. Too extend the harvest season of kale, spinach, and swiss chard simply harvest a few leaves from each plant each time you need some. Root crops like carrots, beets, and turnips should be mature soon. Harvest them as you need them. Most of these crops are fine left in the ground and harvested as needed through winter, though a layer of mulch will help protect them from hard freezes.

Not Too Late to Plant Some Crops

While it is past the ideal time to plant many cool season crops, there are still a few particularly hardy vegetables you can put in the ground now. Spinach and mustard greens can be sown directly into the soil from seed through Thanksgiving. These leafy greens are often sown in a patch one to two feet wide rather than in a single row. Kale and cabbage plants can still be purchased and transplanted for harvest later this winter. Now is also the ideal time to start garlic and onions for harvest next summer. Garlic is grown from cloves available from garden centers or mail order suppliers. Soft neck garlic varieties perform best in our area and are excellent for braiding. Elephant garlic also does well here and has a milder flavor than other garlic varieties. Onions can be set out from sets now or started from seed sown directly into the garden. Be sure to purchase short day varieties such as ‘Granex’ or ‘Texas Supersweet’.

Extend Planting and Harvest with Cold Frames and Row Covers

Many crops can be planted now if provided protection from heavy frost. Two commonly used tools for frost protection are cold frames and row covers. Cold frames are like miniature, unheated greenhouses with open bottoms. They can be built of wood, concrete blocks, or even hay bales, but must have a clear cover. Old windows have traditionally been used as covers, though other materials like plastic can also be used. Beds can be covered with cold frames and vegetables planted directly into them, just be sure to open the lids on warm days to prevent overheating.

Row covers are specially made light weight fabrics laid directly onto crops or stretched over support structures such as PVC hoops. Light weight row covers generally provide protection up to 28 degrees and let up to 80% of sunlight through, while heavier weight materials can protect crops down to 24 degrees but only allow 50% of sunlight through. Light weight row covers are often left on crops throughout winter while heavier weight covers are just put on at night or during extended cold spells. Vegetables that can be sown from seed or transplanted now into cold frames or under row covers for winter harvest include lettuce, carrots, beets, spinach, broccoli, radish, green onions, kohlrabi, and turnips.

Control Pests and Protect the Soil

Fall is the time to cover bare soil, either with mulch or by planting a cover crop, to prevent soil erosion over the winter. Good winter cover crops that can still be planted in November include wheat, annual rye, barley, and oats. Hairy vetch, crimson clover, and winter peas are also good winter cover crops for our area but it is a bit late to plant them now. They are better sown at least a month before the first fall frost or up to a 6 weeks before the last frost in spring. In addition to holding soil in place, cover crops can be turned into the soil in spring to return nutrients to the soil. Mulches can also be used to prevent soil erosion. Suitable mulches include hay, pine or hardwood bark mulch, or leaves. Mulches also help prevent cool season weeds such as chickweed and henbit, which come up at this of time year.

Learn More!

If you have questions about growing or harvesting vegetables, pest identification and management, cover crops, or other gardening topics, contact Pender County Cooperative Extension by calling 259-1235 or visit us online at http://pender.ces.ncsu.edu/, where you can post your questions to our ‘Ask an Expert’ widget.

Learn more about organic caterpillar control from this Pender Gardener article: http://pender.ces.ncsu.edu/index.php?page=news&ci=LAWN+40

Many garden centers and online suppliers sell floating row cover such as Remay - here is one example: http://www.gardeners.com/Row-Covers/5111,default,pg.html

Find out more about building and using cold frames from this Missouri Extension fact sheet: http://extension.missouri.edu/publications/DisplayPub.aspx?P=G6965

Learn more about cover crops from Clemson: http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/vegetables/gardening/hgic1252.html

Also from Clemson, access detailed fact sheets on many different types of vegetables online here: http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/vegetables/crops/

NC Cooperative Extension has guidelines on when to harvest different vegetables: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-8108.html.