Fall Vegetable Gardening: What to Plant in September

Are you the kind of gardener who thinks the season is over once your tomatoes ripen? Maybe life got in the way and you didn't plant a summer garden and think it's too late to grow anything? Well, I have good news for you. Fall vegetable gardening is a thing and here's what to plant in September.

The First Frost

The most important thing to consider when deciding what to plant in your garden in September is figuring out when the first fall frost happens in your gardening zone. For example, the Farmer's Almanac Frost Chart says that the first fall frost happens in Chicago on October 24. Figuring this date out is important because I know that if I plant seeds the first week of September (at the latest) I will have at least 54 growing days. Which is plenty of time for a lot of cool season crops.

Preparing the Garden for Fall Planting

Hate to the bearer of bad news but you're going to have to tear out the last of your summer crops if you need to make room for planting fall season crops and seedlings. That means tear out the tomatoes, peppers, melons and cucumbers that are limping along. Since your soil is depleted, it is a good idea to amend your garden soil with some fresh compost.  

Seeds to Sow in September for Fall Vegetable Gardening  

You won't have time to start seeds indoors for a fall vegetable garden so your best bet is to direct sowing seeds right in the soil. However, you should check with your local garden centers to see what seedlings and starts may be available in your area for planting.

To get a great fall harvest stick to crops that mature in 40 days or less. Fast-growing crops like greens and root crops will make planting a fall vegetable garden worth it and extend your growing season.

Radishes
Arugula
Mustard
Spinach
Turnips
Carrots
Green onions
Tatsoi
Mizuna
Beets
Broccoli
Kale
Cabbage
Swiss chard
Brussels sprouts
Lettuce
Collards

Caring for your Fall Garden

Don't let the cooler temps and rainy weather of fall lull you into a false sense of security. You will need to water your seedlings and starts. Newly amended soil looks darker, and sometimes you don't get enough rain to really soak the ground. The soil may look like it's really moist on the surface, but be really dry if you go deeper than an inch.

If you're really worried about a frost killing your fall vegetable garden, you can cover your crops with a blanket, sheets or buy dedicated row covers. If you're growing in a raised bed, you could even build a dedicated cold frame to protect your plants. However, many fall crops--like Swiss chard--will taste sweeter if they're allowed to be "kissed" by frosts and some--like spinach--could overwinter with a bit of protection.

What's your favorite plant to grow in your fall vegetable garden?

Easy Plants to Grow From Seed

Do you want to start plants from seeds, but lack experience or confidence? Don't worry, a lot of gardeners start out that way. Growing plants from seeds can seem like a daunting task at first, but once you narrow down what kinds of seeds you want to start indoors it will get easy. Here are some recommendations for east plants to grow from seed.

10 Easy Vegetables to Grow from Seed

Peas
Beets
Beans
Chard
Lettuce
Carrots
Squash
Melons
Radishes
Cucumbers 

If you're starting your own garden because you would like to grow some of your own food, give these 10 easy vegetables to grow from seed a try. Not only are these vegetables easy to grow yourself, they are staples in a healthy diet and can save you money on your grocery bill. You can start them indoors, but they are also good candidates for direct sowing/seeding into the ground when the weather warms up in your area. This article on seed starting tips for beginner gardeners should be of help, but you can also look over the seed saving tab for all articles about starting and saving seeds. Got any suggestions for easy vegetables to grow from seeds?

Easiest Seeds to Grow for Kids

Peas
Beans
Melons
Cucumbers
Sunflowers
Nasturtium

Starting seeds with kids can be rewarding and a challenge at the same time. For starters, kids have small hands and tiny fingers. Their dexterity sometimes leaves a lot to be desired. But finding easy plants to grow from seed for kids isn't very difficult. Choose garden seeds that are easy for little fingers to handle. The easiest seeds to grow for kids are large, easy to handle, and germinate quickly. You can plant these easy seeds in cups, soda bottles, milk containers, and yogurt cups in addition to biodegradable seed starting pots. 

Easiest Seeds to Grow Flowers

Zinnias
Pansies
Poppies
Cosmos
Marigolds
Nasturtium
Sunflowers
Bachelor buttons
Aquilegia aka columbines
Nigella aka love-in-a-mist

Every year I come across people online who want to grow their own flowers for a wedding or party and want to know what the easiest seeds to grow flowers are. Well, that answer is very complicated especially since I deal with gardening and not floriculture (flower farming). But I can tell you which are the easiest seeds to grow flowers from my experience as a gardener. Sowing these seeds in your garden or garden bed will almost certainly lead to flowers. If you're looking for easy care flowers from seeds, stick to fast growing annuals like these. 

These are just some of the easiest seeds to grow from seeds. If you come across a seed that isn't very easy for you, try, try, try, again. There are several garden seeds that I do not have much luck germinating. But I don't let a few failures overshadow my successes in the garden, and you shouldn't either. Do you have any recommendations for easy plats to grow from seed? 

How to Make Seed Bombs

Undoubtedly you have heard of guerrilla gardening and seed bombs. The most popular seed bomb recipe was invented by Japanese farmer, Masanobu Fukuoka. If you would like to beautify an empty lot or neglected planters seed bombs are the perfect option. With a bit of clay, soil and seeds you can create seed bombs in an afternoon that will sprout plants and flowers in hard-to-reach areas. I call my method of making seed bombs, the lazy guerrilla gardener’s way of making seed bombs, because the ingredients do not require mixing, and you don’t need water. See the video and photos below on how to make seed bombs for all the details.

Guerrilla Gardening Seed Bomb Video

I've held hands-on workshops where I've taught urban gardeners how to make seed bombs at seed swaps and events in Chicago like a Prince concert (yes, that Prince) and at Macy’s Flower Show. Here's a video demonstrating how I make guerrilla gardening seed bombs really quickly and easily. Please note that in the video I accidentally say morning glory when I meant marigolds. :0)

Seed Starter From an Ice Cube Tray

There are many seed starters you can buy at local garden centers and nurseries. You can even save money and be a little eco-conscious by making your own biodegradable seed starting pots. Then there's a whole world of possibilities in things you can upcycle into seed starter pots like a ghetto greenhouse made from plastic soda bottles, and this seed starter from an ice cube tray.

A little backstory: I came across this idea one day when I wanted to buy seed seed starting trays with individual cells for multiple starts. Instead of buying the seed starters to make I came up with the seed starter ice cube tray. The idea is similar to starting seeds in cardboard egg cartons, but this seed starter can be reused and can last you for a couple of years.

Seeds to Sow in Summer for Fall Vegetable Harvests

For most of my gardening life I thought that gardening happened in April and May when you sow your seeds and plant your summer vegetable crops and then you spend the rest of summer battling weeds. But as I've encountered more serious vegetable gardeners I've been doing more second season planting in the garden. Whether you call it second season sowing or succession planting, you should plant a second crop of vegetables in summer. Yes, there are seeds to sow in summer for a fall harvest.

Make Your Own Rooting Hormone From Willow Twigs

Bonsai was my gateway drug into gardening in my late teens. I even worked in a bonsai nursery for a bit, and one of my favorite gardening tricks I picked up in those days was to make rooting hormone from willow water. Yes, you can make your own rooting hormone from willow twigs. Use your willow water rooting hormone to start seeds, propagate cuttings and water transplants in your garden.

Planting Biodegradable Seed Starting Pots

Starting your plants by growing from seed in biodegradable seed starting pots is one of the most earth-friendly methods of starting a garden. Homemade biodegradable seed starting pots range from: seed starting pots from newspaper, toilet paper tubes--even eggshells can be used. These are just some of the seed starting tips for beginners I've covered in the past. Then there are the commercially available biodegradable seed starting pots at your local garden center. However, not all biodegradable seed starting pots are created equal. Below I'll offer some tips on selecting commercial seed starter pots, how to water seedlings, and how to plant these pots in your garden.

Square Newspaper Seed Starting Pots

When you are in the grips of seed starting season you’re looking around the house for items you can upcycle into seed starting pots. Along with yogurt cups, takeout containers, and soda bottle seed starters don’t forget to dive into the recycling bin and make your own seed starting pots from newspaper. You can roll-your-own seed starting pots from newspaper, but you can also make square newspaper seed starting pots, too.

Seed Starting Tips for Beginner Gardeners

Over the past few years, I have amassed a number of posts here about growing from seed that should be helpful to beginner seed starters. While these seed starting tips are aimed at beginners hopefully, they will be of use and interest to more experienced gardeners who may not have done much seed starting in the past. These tips on seed starting cover what items you can repurpose in your home to make seed starting pots, seed germination, and the types of seed staring mixes you can use. If you find that there’s a seed starting question that has not been answered you can leave a comment below or try my seed snatcher search engine which is exclusively devoted to information on seed starting and seed saving.

Organize Your Seeds Before Seed Starting

Grow Lights for Indoor Seed Starting

One of the most popular seed starting questions I get from people interesting in growing from seed is whether they need grow lights when starting seeds indoors. The answer to that question depends on several factors. How many seeds are you trying to start? How much money can you invest in buying grow lights? Do you have any south-facing windows? Is your season long enough for direct seed sowing in the garden? The way I see it, buying grow lights for indoor seed starting is a luxury, not a necessity.

Eco-Seed Starter From Burpee Seeds

If you've read this blog before you probably have noticed that I blog quite a bit about starting seeds and especially about frugal ways people can start seeds at home. You can start seeds in plastic shoe boxes that are pretty inexpensive, empty plastic bottles makes great seed starters and even plastic sandwich bags can be used for germinating seeds. Since the day I dawned on me that so many seed starting kits and seed starting bio domes were unnecessary I haven't purchased a product like this seed starter kit from Burpee. In fact, my track record remains because it was sent to me for free by a representative of Burpee to review in my garden. So, what made me change my mind and give one of these commercial seed starters a try? I was intrigued by the manufacturing of the product. It is one of the new eco-seed starter kits that are made from biodegradable plastic.

Seed Starting Bio-Dome From Plastic Bin

While you can easily make a bio-dome from plastic bottles for starting seeds and you can even buy a bio-dome from sources like Park's Seeds and seed growing kits from Burpee, there are a lot of options you can explore. You can make your own bio-dome from any plastic container that has a cover. Recently I found myself in a hardware store where these plastic bins were on sale and purchased one to use as a seed starting bio-dome.

Seed Scarification, Seed Stratification & Seed Soaking

Maybe it's just me, but I had the darnedest time trying to remember what seed scarification and seed stratification meant, and which seeds needed which treatment before planting them, when I first started gardening. Seed scarification and seed stratification were the seed starting equivalent of its and it's. You may see its and it's misused here on this garden blog from time to time. Fortunately for my garden I've pretty much mastered scarification and stratification.

Seed Scarification

Direct Sowing Purple Coneflower Seeds

Growing plants from seeds is probably my favorite part of gardening. My second favorite part of being a gardener is finding ways to make gardening easier for myself and spending less money. While I spend a lot of time growing seeds in plastic baggies, and making homemade biodomes, I find direct sowing seeds to be the best method for perennials. Take, for example, this purple coneflower seed head I direct sowed in the garden last fall. Purple coneflowers are so inexpensive at garden centers and nurseries, but they're even cheaper to grow from seed, especially if you direct sow your purple coneflower seeds in the fall.

Make a Seed Organizer to Store Your Seed Collection

Like many gardeners I have a seed collection scattered among drawers, boxes, envelopes, seed banks. Sometimes I come across seeds I forgot I had and oftentimes I find them after the seed sowing window has closed for the gardening season. This year I’ve decided to try to be more thoughtful about what I plant and have made myself a seed organizer to file away my seed packs. With this seed organizer I know where the seeds are when I’m looking for them, I’ve categorized them in a way that makes sense to me, and when I’m done I can just place the seed packs back in the organizer until I need them again. The best part is that the seed organizer cost me $2.00 to make.

Testing Older Seed Germination

Before tossing away old seed or ordering new seeds from your favorite seed catalog you should test the older seeds you have to save you a bit of time and money. Testing older seed germination rates can save you from wasting time, seed starting soil and supplies on seeds that may not sprout. A seed germination test is really simple and can be done by any home gardener with items you already have around the home. Do this seed viability test at home before planting your older seeds.

How To Water Small Seeds And Seedlings

My favorite part of gardening is growing plants from seeds I haven't grown before. Oftentimes it seems like the best flowers come from really small seeds. Small garden seeds, like the bee balm pictured below, pose the unique problem of how to best go about watering the small seeds and seedlings. You can water seeds from the bottom to keep the small seeds from spilling out of their seed starting pots. If you're growing a lot of small seeds you may not have enough time to sit there and submerge individual seed pots in water. Then there's the issue of gardening with kids. Their little brains sometimes don't easily grasp the idea of when they should stop watering your seeds and seedlings.

Direct Sowing Nasturtium Seeds in the garden

This week I finally got around to sowing my Nasturtium "Spitfire" seeds in the garden. I find Nasturtium seeds to be so easy and carefree that I can't bring myself to starting them indoors or in a seed starting kit/greenhouse  like the ghetto greenhouse, newspaper pots, paper tube seed pots or even in plastic baggies.

The direct sowing method is definitely the way to go with these annual seeds in my experience. I just take one of the seeds and sink it into the ground with my index finger and move on until I am out of seeds. To give myself a challenge for the seed GROW project I started a www.GardenBloggers.com I decided to pre-soak some of my nasturtium seeds and direct sow the rest straight of out the seed packet.

Paper Tube Seed Collars For Direct Seed Sowing

I couple of years ago I purchased some ridiculously expensive seeds. I knew I was going to direct sow the seeds in the garden and I knew that eventually I'd forget where they planted and would probably get neglected. That same day I had made a number of homemade seeds pots, in particular some paper tube seed pots and I got the idea to take the paper tube seed pots outdoors in the garden.

Out I went into the garden with extra paper tubes, some seeds and a pair of scissors. I cut the paper tube into sections about an inch tall and sunk them into the soil, I then placed a couple of seeds inside of each of the sections of paper tube and watered them in.

Edible Gardening In 2009

I've been reading a lot about how growing your own fruits and vegetables is going to be huge this year. The bad economic news apparently has people turning to gardening to in an effort to feel like they have some control in their lives or they're turning to vegetable gardening in order to feed their families.

Whatever the reason people are turning to gardening it is welcomed news not only to the seed companies, who are reporting increases in sales, but to those of us who garden. All of a sudden family members who once made fun of my dabbling with plants and seeds are now calling and emailing me asking for advice. This year tiny urban garden in Chicago will be a lot more edible than it has in the past. I feel a bit like I'm jumping on the edible gardening bandwagon but in reality it is more out of necessity. Last year I was too busy to tend to my garden and this resulted in a lot of plant deaths-instead of replacing them with more perennials I'm going to fill the space with vegetables.