salad greens, beets, radishes, spinach, english peas, kohlrabi, and other cole crop seedlings would be my guess

Morningstar is right. I just planted those same crops (except kohlrabi). I also planted brussels, cauliflower, carrots, broccoli, radish and swiss chard. Our frost date is around Oct. 22 or so. Some of these crops can take a little bit of frost from what I've read. This is my first time with a fall garden. I am planning on getting those hoop things and covering with plastic if we're expected to get more than a few nights of frost.

Homer, maybe we can compare notes. Good luck!

Hi! You'll definitely want to check out www.territorialseed.com an OR company - they have a great print winter catalog with growing hints. Their web site has a special winter gardening section.

Per their grow chart, you can still direct seed Arugula, spring cabbage, carrots, corn salad, spring peas/favas, lettuce, mustard greens, and radishes. And of course garlic!

Having said that, the last couple of years I've been experimenting with fall/winter gardens. Arugula does great. Have not had luck with the overwintering crops planted in July/August like cabbage and broccoli - they get all chewed up by slugs. Fava beans and peas croaked from the cold. I am sure I am colder than you, though.

So, other successes planted this late are: lettuces/greens. Some of these will grow slowly all winter under plastic cover, and burst into growth in early Feb. Some, like Arugula, Cracoviensis lettuce, Siberian Kale, will grow enough, if you plant enough, to harvest enough leaves for salad - or at least additives to store-bought.

Beets, carrots planted earlier do great left in the ground fall/winter. Minus is going into the garden in the dark after work when it is raining to harvest root crops out of the mud LOL!

I continue to experiment. This year I am seeing if I can get snow peas to bear under plastic this fall.

Check with your state's Extension Service. Each county has it's own Cooperative Extension Office which provides free publications and information for the asking.

The following two images are excerpts from the Vegetable Planting and Planning Calendar for Missouri complete with spring and fall planting dates, how much to plant per person, etc. Just call up the office in your county. Look under the "Government" section (usually blue pages) of your phone book under "Extension". They will have valuable vegetable/gardening tables available specifically for your area from data they've collected from growing those crops in your state.

Violet

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We usually plant seeds which we brought back from Italy and we have been using the seeds from each year's garden. Some of the plants did very well and some not so well. The ones that performed poorly are from a region in Italy where there is daily rain and/or a light covering of snow in the winter. This is Central valley of California and we get maybe 4 to 10 days a winter with frost over night.

The seeds that do well are Cicoria(chicory), Radicchio, Cime di Raba(turnip greens), Misticanza (mixed greens),Bieta (swiss chard), and of course Arugula and Fave beans.
I would love to also plant garlic and onions, but my husband thinks they take up room for nothing. He has also vetoed broccoli, brussel sprouts,and several others.
Since he does all the heavy shoveling, I'm not going to argue. I would like to find a bean(other than Fave) that would grow well in a mild winter climate, though. Does any one have an idea on this?

Gaaaaarlic.... if you use it at all, grow it. You wouldn't believe how easy it is, what amazing flavor you can get, and how many uses you can come up with... LOL Careful, though, it does take nine to ten months, so you'll need someplace you aren't going to be using for spring/summer crops right away. It really doesn't take up that much room, though, at 9 plants per square foot -- the spacing recommended by a couple of professional growers.

Kale and other tough greens laugh at frost -- it turns them sweeter than ever. Spinach does well under hoops, even in snowy areas. Brussels sprouts can apparently handle very cold temps, as I have heard of people going out into the snow and harvesting a few... but they need to be started at least 120 days before harvest.

Any of these can be started even at this late date. Good luck.

--Alison