fall vegetable advice for newbie

15 years ago

Please forgive me, I am brand new to gardening and in need of some advice... I planted my first spring garden this year which was very rewarding and also very disappointing results. So I decided to ask all of you experts for some tips before I start my fall garden.

First off, my spring gardens were small 8'6" x 4'6" raised beds with the top 6-8 inches being Miracle Gro Vegetable/Flower mix on top of my tilled (clay) soil. I am wondering if I should use raised beds for fall or plant directly into the ground unraised(tilling in the miracle gro mixture.) Will this keep the plants/roots warmer during the colder months and protect from frost?
When is a good time to start planting????? all of my research says to start now, but when I go to buy seeds and seedlings everyone tells me it is too early!! I did manage to obtain a few seed packets and according to the directions on the back for my zone I have from july-aug. Well it is AUG 2nd!!!

(I live in zone 5a... Southern Indiana, about 20 miles north of Louisville Ky.)

This is what I am planning to plant, advice and comments please!!!

from seed:

melting sugar peas

sugar snap peas

cauliflower

broccoli

lettuce - bibb

lettuce - romaine

green beans

cocozelle squash - says july is last date.. is it too late?

cucumber - says july is last date... is it too late?

plants bought from store: IS IT TOO EARLY???

broccoli

Cauliflower

brussel sprouts

Also one more thing... some of you tried to help me through my yellow squash/zuch disaster, thanks for your help, but I lost the battle... Well, I was telling a small local nursery owner of my disappointing loss and he gave me a small zucchini plant and told me to try again, that it may do well this late or may not, however I failed to ask him if I should plant it somewhere different in the garden, or in the same area. I know you are supposed to rotate every season, but what about mid season? And I am pretty sure that it was the SVB that killed my last ones, are they still a threat this time of year? Isn't there a way to protect it from being infested again?

Thanks for any suggestions and advice, and I am sorry if all of my questions are answered somewhere within the HUGE forum... I tried searching and reading, I know they are out there... SOMEWHERE!!!!

A.Ling

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Comments (10)

farmerdilla
15 years ago
Squash and cuke - touch and go. You may get some if frost holds off until October.

Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussels - Plants, now is the hour. Probably too late to start from seed.
Lettuce- anytime in August.
Beans - ASAP, ditto for peas.
SVB does back off as cooler weather approaches. Can be controlled by using row covers or insecticdes.
aling
Original Author
15 years ago
thanks farmerdilla! I appreciate your input. I will get those started ASAP!
Do you suggest a raised bed or non-raised for fall? I am digging out the sod today, hope to plant tomorrow, so I need advice quickly!

Thanks again,
A.Ling
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farmerdilla
15 years ago
Whichever suits your fancy. I am a field planter have little experience with raised beds. If you have good soil and can amend it as necessary in ground planting works well and requires much less labor.
aling
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks, I think I will see how far I get tomorrow and it I want to deal with constructing the raised beds in 102 degree heat!
jimster
15 years ago
Ditto to all of farmerdilla's advice.

Constructing raised beds will delay the important part, getting the seeds in the ground. It also adds expense, unnecessary expense in my opinion, especially if you purchase dirt to fill the beds. DARFC

Jim
MGPinSavannah
15 years ago
I've got raised beds that I "filled" the first year with the potting mix from the year before, when everything was in containers, tilled in. Now I amend every year, or throughout the year, with compost from my small compost tumbler, as well as any extra potting mix left over from the window boxes and hanging flower baskets. So I haven't found my raised beds to be much of an expense. Without them I'd be trying to grow in pretty much pure sand, which is GREAT for drainage but not much else!
User
15 years ago
Ditto mgpaquin on raised beds. This is my third year of raised beds and I have never had this much success when I was in ground where clay is a problem. With the raised beds, labor is less, very few weeds, and outside of the first year when I made my own mix of peat moss, compost, and vermiculite, every year thereafter has been inexpensive. All I do is add compost from my own compost pit. I also add leftover potting mix from pots and baskets.
andrea_san_diego
15 years ago
The soil in my area is just rocks, sand and more rocks so I'm very happy with my raised beds and purchased soil. The first year I tried growing veggies in the ground and had success but the soil prep was so time consuming and expensive. I rented a gas powered tiller and ruined the blades on the rocks! Every time I planted I had to heavily amend the soil and remove more rocks. Somehow they work their way up.

I've also had virtually no weeds or pests in the raised beds.
pam225
15 years ago
I wanted to add that many municipalities offer free compost. We live outside of Philadelphia, PA and we decided to do raised beds this year due to the awful clay...errr dirt...in our backyard. we built three raised beds - 1 16x4, and 2 8x4. We filled our beds with free compost offered at the recycle center within Fairmount Park. It ended up being 5 trips (10 miles each way) with 5 recycle containers each time in our Chevy Equinox (we don't own a pickup truck or this would have been ONE trip). Took us one day, lots of exercise, but my beds were filled for free, and my veggies have NEVER LOOKED BETTER! Also, I have lots of worms squirming around in the beds already, so they must have really liked the compost. I have added no chemicals, just the barrels of free compost, some UCGs from Starbucks, and veggie cuttings from my kitchen.

Go into the "search" section on this site and search "free compost"...there is a list posted somewhere that lists all the locations for free compost. If there is one close enough to you, I would suggest using it.

Pam
Havertown, PA
sakura2006
15 years ago
pam225, my husband and I did same thing you did.
We made trip to Fairmount Park to get compost several years back and put in my vegetable garden.
Do you think it is perfectly safe to use compost from Fairmount Park to raise vegetables?
I am just wondering.

fall vegetable advice for newbie

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fall vegetable advice for newbie

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