Your Fall Vegetable Garden Starts Here!
Hard to believe we’re just over 60 days from the average first frost in Boulder County! It’s the perfect time to get your fall vegetable garden in. We have the seeds, and seedlings you’ll need (seedlings expected to be available this weekend or early next week).
Choose from Botanical Interest seeds like beets, radish, greens, and more. Choose plants with 45 – 50 ‘days to harvest’ to ensure a harvest before the first hard frost. Or, be prepared to extend the season with ‘Ensulate’ row-cover fabric.
Many arugula, spinach, kale, Swiss chard, collard greens and some lettuce varieties can provide harvests well into winter if they are protected in a tunnel covered with Ensulate or planted in a coldframe.
Arugula: Peppery-flavored leaves on plants that can reseed and return year after year. In fact, Wild Arugula is a tap-rooted hardy perennial that will live for years, and can be cut many times through most of the growing season. Great fresh in salads, or use it cooked in soups, sautees and sauces and you’ll discover that when cooked, arugula loses its peppery ‘bite’.
Lettuce: These plants will appreciate a bit of shade and consistent watering. If growing from seed, you can sow thickly for multiple cuttings of baby leaves, or space 8 to 10” apart and harvest individual leaves, or a whole head! Harvest before hard frost, or provide frost protection.
Swiss Chard: Like Kale, chard is sweeter after a light frost and can produce, under protection, well into fall or winter. With edible stems and tender leaves, this garden vegetable can be prepared in many ways. In our experience, Red Rhubarb Chard is the most cold-tolerant variety.
Kale: Kale is the superstar of the fall garden. Plants grow strong, tall stems with substantial leaves, great for steaming, sauteing with garlic, or oven-drying as ‘kale chips’. Kale can take a light frost and tastes even better for it – and under row cover may provide you with greens into November.
Spinach: Quick-growing spinach needs cooler temps to germinate. It can help to put your seed packet in a ziplock bag and refrigerate for 2 weeks prior to sowing. In our high-altitude sun and heat, plant spinach where it receives afternoon shade. Spinach thrives in the shortening days of fall, and with protection can overwinter, providing the earliest of spring greens. Or, freeze the harvest and use all winter.
Kohlrabi: The most underrated fall vegetable of the year, according to Westword! This plant creates a juicy, sweet bulb-like swelled stem at ground level and if you haven’t tried it, give it a chance this season! You won’t be disappointed.
Asian Greens: Asian greens add a gentle, peppery bite to salads and sautés. You can harvest and enjoy them while they’re young and small, or when they’re mature – and they’re quick enough that they’ll produce before hard frost. They’re beautiful in the garden.
Collards: Despite being associated with Southern cooking, collards can handle quite a bit of cold. You can get a long season of harvest by growing it under an Ensulate row covertunnel. One of the most nutrient-rich leafy greens!
We’ve grown organic seedlings perfect to plant out this time of year. Here are the starts we are growing for you:
Lollo Rosso Lettuce
Lettuce: Lollo di Vino, Flashy Trout Back, Jericho, Little Gem
Bright Lights Swiss Chard
Swiss Chard: Bright Lights, Sea Foam
Red Russian Kale
Kale: Red Russian, White Russian, Rainbow Lacinato.
Spinach
Spinach: Long-Standing Bloomsdale, Acadia, Sun Angel, Nobel Giant
Joi Choi, courtesy Johnny’s Seeds
Asian Greens: Joi Choi Pac Choi, Lady Murasaki Mustard Spinach, Chinese Blues Cabbage, Choko
Arugula: Astro, Wild.
Kohlrabi
Kohlrabi: Purple Vienna.
Collards: Georgia Southern, Cascade Glaze
Endive: Capellina
Broccoli: Solstice (Heading), Raab Rapini, Piraciaba