These are from last spring.

Nice veggies. Looks like you have a good, rich soil vgkg! I am in zone 5a, when do you sow the seeds in your zone 7?

Be careful. USDA zone numbers pertain to winter gardening and frost tolerance, not summer gardening. If you're growing stuff in the summer, pay attention to summer conditions. USDA zones don't tell you much about summer conditions. The name of the state that you're in is far more meaningful for summer conditions than the USDA zone that you're in. Ever wonder why there are gardening forums grouped by state but not by zone?

Autumn planting is always a gamble. A too hot Sept can sometimes be as limiting as an early winter frost/freeze. My planting window for most fall crops to mature (carrots, beets seed), and (broccoli, & cabbages transplants) is during the 3rd week in Aug, no sooner or later and just within this short window. Others like kale, collards, spinach, lettuce, peas, & turnips (all seed) can be planted up until Labor Day or the 1st week in Sept. Spinach and turnips can be planted a 2nd time in mid Sept, and spinach can be again planted even later (late Oct) for an early spring harvest.

What a difference between your zone 7 and my zone 5a! Here the first autumn frost usually comes as early as 20-25th of September. It often gets warmer again after that but, well, all tender vegetation is already gone! Days are getting shorter, too, so nothing will grow here anymore anyhow.

windberry, I'm at the cold end of zone 5 in NH. Usually we get a first, light frost around 9/18 but last year didn't. I have a goal of having bush beans blossoming by then so if I can provide some protection they get a chance to actually produce some beans. My husband made a portable (not quite) low tunnel for me which we cover with Agribon fabric. Wire hoops and fabric should work the same just as long as the plants don't touch the fabric. Johnny's Seeds website has a planting calculator I use - you put in your first frost date so it figures what you can plant now. Just got an email with a link to varieties to plant now. However, I left my plastic dome covered seedling tray in the sun and everything I tried to start got cooked. There's still time but as you pointed out, not for tender things.

It's amazing how variable a climate can be. I'm in zone 6b, average last frost (50% chance) of April 22, and an average first frost (50% chance) of October 10. My aunt in south central Indiana, zone 5b, has an average last frost of April 17 and an average first frost of October 16, again, a 50% chance. A zone colder and yet earlier frost dates in spring and later in fall (though not by much mind you). It's elevation we have, of course, here in our part of the Ozarks, but just goes to show that USDA zones certainly don't tell you everything.

I agree with Veggieking that fall crops can be a real gamble. Last year we had an abnormally cool, rainy August that gave way to a fairly nice September, but right about the fall equinox we had a heat wave with a straight couple of weeks in the 90's. NOT NORMAL at all around here, and many fall crops bolted. But yet, in my shady fall garden, I can't afford to plant late. Fall gardening is a race against shade as the sun gets behind a tree line here. Luckily, the shade does have some benefits. If we get late heat, it helps plants survive better and keep from bolting. If it doesn't come, they were planted so early that the shade wont bother. Win/win I guess.

Planting transplants of broccoli and cabbages in late Aug can be tough here too and I sometimes have to shade my transplants on those really hot cloudless days. I bought some of those 3- ringed plant cages at Lowes and cut each them into 3 umbrellas to use for covering the transplants, just a piece of cardboard with a rock on top works well. I used one today to shade a watermelon that was showing signs of sunscald.

Thank you everybody for your interesting comments.

I am afraid the weather is NOT NORMAL lately not only where you are jackoblockcuff. Here where I live in southern-central BC in Canada the weather is also not normal and very unpredictable for a couple of years already. This year we had a very hot May, after that unusually cool June with very low night temperatures (about 2 C (35 F) on June 12th - almost killed my Peppers), and again excessively hot July and so far August . My plants are already showing symptoms of stress, I wonder how they will take record breaking 38 C (100 F) in the forecast for tomorrow and 40 C (104 F) for the day after tomorrow. And all this in zone 5a! I wish I had some more shade here :-)

Could you post a pic of the umbrellas vgkg?

Sure, below are 2 pics of the M&S melon I covered yesterday. Since it just involved 1 umbrella I used a plastic cover that was readily handy (cardboard works fine too). The wire rims are nearly invisible but it's just a typical Lowes tomato or pepper cage cut into 3-4 sections depending upon the number of rings attached. Generally after cutting they end up 12" tall so good enough for low/young broccoli transplants.

I do something similar but use 2"x4" welded wire fencing to make rings of various diameters and heights to protect young seedlings from marauding critters and thin drape shade cloth over the cages.

Thank you both for sharing these interesting ideas. Something to think about and follow when gardening in dry and hot climates.