Check with your county extension. Usually there are different planting dates for brassicas for SEEDS and PLANTS. I do all my brassicas as indoor starts. It's just so much easier, especially for fall plantings. 6-8 weeks before expected planting. Also... it's easy for ME to say because we hardly ever get a hard freeze here, but brassicas handle frost pretty well -- upper 20's no problem.. Kevin

Naturegirl, my tomatoes are alive, but barely. The rest of them look like they are being eaten by any number of things. I got maybe 5 good ones, the rest of the ones that *would* have been good I think were eaten by the squirrels. The ones that are next to ripen have holes. :( Bummer. I only planted the yellow, low acid ones, and my husband was sort of responsible for the veggie garden this year - and since he doesn't eat tomatoes and doesn't think I should either (he's into the blood type diet and we're "type A" - meaning avoid tomatoes), they were a bit neglected and never properly staked, so a lot ended up drooping to the ground. I was lazy and didn't take care of it myself, I'm not really a true gardener, obviously, but next year I think I will try the little yellow cherry tomatoes, the pear shaped ones. Maybe they will ripen quicker and I can get them before the bugs and squirrels do. I really had no idea the Brussels sprouts were such a late fall crop, so hopefully we'll get something from those. None of the other cruciferous things did particularly well, though we did finally get some decent kale. The plants never got very big, but the bugs didn't bother those. The broccoli on the other hand got huge, but very full of holes and produced such tiny florets. Not worth the amount of space they took up.

alamo5000, I wanted to respond earlier with a photo but kept forgetting to take it. We are in the same climate zone. Broccoli, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts do wonderful as a fall/winter vegetalbe in our neck of the woods. I usually set out about 150 to 160 plants each year. They tend to do fine as long as the temperatures stay mid 20's or above. They do get a bit stressed in the lower 20's. And, when the temperature stays below 20 for long periods, there will be plants losses. Anyway, here is a photo. Plants on the back row were planted early September. They are just beginning to show heads. Plants under the date were planted the mid to late October. These late plantings are past our recommended planting window.

Johnny's Seeds has the best growing info I've found in a catalog. Below is the brussels sprouts info. If you do a hunt for cabbage or broccoli and click on one of the varieties and then go to the bottom of the page there is link to growing info, which if I remember right will probably give you info on fall as well as spring crops. (I have to admit to being tempted to answer "never" to the brussels sprouts question as it's about the only veggie that I'm not fond of . . . ) Here is a link that might be useful: growing brussels sprouts - Johnny's Seeds