Fall planting... great, when is it? What to plant?

At this time of the year, mid October, most of us living in the Northertn Hemisphere have no doubt that we have hit fall. I have to admit that here in the Laurentians, Quebec, it is only starting to feel like fall. Despite some very cold days and nights in early September, the weather bounced back and actually during the day it gets sunny and warm, with temperatures around 16 Celsius! The nights are cool but we have had only 3 frost advisory, 2 that actually happened. It ended up being a merry warm season for of us.

There is a mild inconvenience in all this, which is the fact that I planted things in August that actually bolted due to unexpected warm and dry weather, like my spinach and arugula. My garlic went in first week of October and as it seems so far, I would consider that too early!

Some of the 12 varieties planted this year throughout my garden

When is fall?

It really is something to be regarded locally: when fall starts for you, how long does that last and what does that mean.  It has been only a week now that the fall foliage shows itself with splendour, which is an undeniable sign of the change of the seasons. Compared to the last 2 years for me it seems to be shifting to later and later. 

Late summer for me is clearly the month of Spetember, and it is when I can actually have my second plantings of fast growing crops. If I am growing from seed outside I can try August, although the consitions still allow for a lot of pests to be strong and active. Transplants, the bulk of my second planting, should go in in September.

That means I will not consider fall before early October here in my area and I will consider late October as the bulb season, because bulbs should go in 6 to 4 weeks before the soil freezes. As it seems no soil will freeze before late November, we can do the math. The most difficult part of this equation being some seed companies send me bulbs in September and those things want to go into the dirt as soons as they can.That is really something that I will take into account when selecting my providers.

What do I plant? 

Another thing to consider is that technically what I have as fall is really only 2 months of cool temperatures, but compared to spring, not that much sun. Which means things grow slower and not everything reaches maturity by the time a hard freeze comes into view. My strategy really cannot follow some gardeners I adore on Youtube and Instagram because they are either in England or they are in Zone 5 US (USDA5), which is NOT the same as Zone 5 in Canada. Most of Canadian Zone 5 actually qualifies as USDA4 because the canadian norm takes into account a lot of things such as sunlight, temperatures and a host of other factors. I feel like it deserves its own post! But suffice to say that if you live in the Laurentians you cannot follow much the calendar you see in big numbers over the internet.

With my mix of plantings of late summer and fall, this is what I devised for myself that so far have worked.

Late Summer

Carrots and brassicas protected from the last pests of summer

Carrots are so finicky to germinate that they are the only ones I plant in mid-to-late august, but to be fair I find most carrots I plant throughout the season never risk bolting. So they are more of an all-season type of veggie for me. My last ones go into the soil in early September.

Slow Greens: Kale, Collard, Napa Cabbage in a a mixed approach. I plant seedlings of all sorts of sizes to have a wide viariety growing through the season as they are slow growers and at this point of the season might not develop much if they are planted in a part shade spot.

Quick greens: Arugula, Mizuna, Claytonia, Mache, Pac Choi. Just throw the seeds and wait for the goodies that can be snipped at any stage.

Radishes. A little bit of hit or miss for me, never underestimate radishes need for loads of sun. They go in from seeds and I sometimes have harvests. They take so little space that I usually do not mind wasting the space or seeds to get just a bunch of compost instead of food.

Beets for foliage. Baby beet leaves, so tender and juice, are a real treat. I never managed to get a real crop from fall plantings, so I am sticking to what works for me here.

Fall

Garlic is a must! This is the planting I wait all year to do and I cannot say how much I love the ceremony of preparing garlic and putting it into the ground.

Onions. Yes, certain types such as the multipliers Potato onion and Egyptian walking onion are in the ground at this time of the year, or I find it works best for me anyway.

Flower bulbs. My passion for crocuses and anemone never ends and I always have some to plant this time of the year, but I throuw in some tulips and glory of the snow as well. I also have a host of showy alliums in the ground to give later color and confuse pests.

It is very hard to find recipes and we all have microclimates in our regions and sometimes even in our properties! All I can say is that it is worthy and fun to experiment and observe and find your own custom-made solutions. Happy fall gardening!