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Photo courtesy of peanutblossom.com
Homestead Education Channel is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission at no additional cost to you.
Did you know that Spring and Summer are not the only seasons that you can plant vegetables? There are a lot of cool-weather crops that you can plant that will mature to harvest by the first frost.
We’re here to give you some tips and advice on creating a Fall container garden.
Types of Containers
When it comes to the size of your containers, you’re only limited by the space you have. The main requirement is that your soil is deep enough for the roots to spread out and that the root crops especially have enough soil depth so that the roots are not sitting in wet soil, nor will they dry out too quickly. It’s a balance of all of these factors that contributes to the success of your Fall container garden.
You don’t need a huge plot of land or a greenhouse to grow Fall crops. You can do very well with some containers or raised beds. If you only have a small space, pots and planter boxes will also serve as containers for your cool-weather crops. As long as you can provide nutrient-rich soil and room for your plants to grow, you will be well on your way to a fabulous harvest of vegetables. Food grade buckets or these fabric grow bags work very well, are portable and lightweight. This assortment will set you back about $30.
This galvanized tub serves as a great garden bed for about $20 on Amazon.
The size allows you to plant several types of veggies in one container, provided they all have the same watering requirements.
This garden bed kit is about $100 and made of galvanized metal for durability. As you can see from the product photo, this garden bed has a variety of vegetables planted. If there is limited space, and you only have room for one container, this would be a good choice.
Experienced gardeners don’t recommend that you use clay or terra cotta pots for growing Fall crops. The porous nature of the materials means that they will dry out quickly and you will be forever needing to water your pots. Choose other materials that will slowly dry out and won’t hold too much moisture. Either one of these conditions can mean failure of your Fall container garden. You need to have a balance both in nutrient rich soil and in moisture content for your plants to thrive.
Depending on where you live, you may want to have containers with covers to protect your plants from the elements. Row cover, sheet plastic or shade cloth are all materials you can use to cover your plants in cooler weather or to protect them from rain or snow.
Climate will dictate the length of the growing season where you are. Mountainous areas tend to have a short growing season and early frost, so you need to be mindful of this when you plan your Fall container garden. Be aware that climate change is affecting plant growth and time to harvest all over the world, so what worked last year, may not necessarily work this year.
Many community extension offices and community colleges offer courses and information on gardening for your local area. It’s a great idea to take advantage of any and all advice from locals about trends in farming and gardening. You might also want to consult the farmers almanac for information about when and what to plant in your area of the world.
Region Specific
The time of year you plant and harvest depends on the temperate zone you reside in. Reference the map of the United States for the hardiness zone where you are. Courtesy of the Arbor Day Foundation. Find your zone.
Here is the world map:
Fall Crops
Now that you know when to plant and harvest we need to look at the actual crops that fall under the designation of cool-weather, or Fall crops.
Cruciferous Vegetables
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Brussels Sprouts
- Kale
- Chard
- Cabbage
Root Vegetables
- Turnips
- Rutabaga
- Parsnip
- Radish; Red and Daikon
- Carrot
- Beet
- Onion
- Garlic
Some lettuce and greens such as collards and spinach will also thrive in cool weather in zones 3-10 depending upon the timing of onset of the first frost.
Potatoes, Sweet Potato and Carrots will also grow in certain regions and not in others. Sometimes it’s just hit or miss with some of the questionable varieties. Some gardeners discourage potatoes and carrots but we’ve seen great success with them when they are properly planted and thinned.
If you have the proper soil depth and enough room, they can do very well. However, if they’re planted in soil that is too shallow, or if the plants are too crowded, they won’t have the room to fully mature. You must thin them to the proper distance apart in order to give them the space to grow properly.
Soil Depth
The minimum depth for your soil should be 8 inches, and you may want to start with 10. Not only depth, but width is also important as the roots need to spread under the soil to give the plant a good foundation.
The root crops require deeper soil and also room to spread. If you want good sized carrots and potatoes, you have to give them room to grow.
Soil Type
Most container gardens do well with a combination of garden soil, and compost. You can start with some fill dirt in the bottom, but make sure that you layer up and mix in amendments to enrich the soil with the nutrients required to grow healthy plants.
It’s not a bad idea to get a soil sample test that shows what minerals your soil might be lacking so that you can make them up with either liquid fertilizer, a compound that you can purchase at any garden department or nursery, or with organic compost. This soil test kit off Amazon will give you a basic idea of how nutrient -rich (or poor) your soil is for about $30.
Watering Requirements
A simple drip line system is a great way to water your container garden. It’s a “Set it and forget it” system like this one from Amazon. Simple and easy to program, you can check it every once in a while, but don’t need to be out there watering all the time by hand or hose.
You’ll want to plant veggies that have similar watering requirements in the same container. If you’re unsure, you can use a soil monitor, or use this type of auto waterer.
They can be made of glass or PVC, and will slowly empty as the soil dries for consistent watering.
These glass waterers are also attractive and decorative.
Photo courtesy of Miles Kimball
Reuse Your Containers
Your containers can be reused over and over according to the season. Once you get the hang of Fall container gardening, you will be able to rotate your crops out for Fall and Spring. Plant in the Spring and early Summer after the danger of frost has passed. You’ll be harvesting into mid and late summer then clearing the bed and amending the soil for planting your Fall crops. After a couple of seasons of this, you’ll get into a rhythm with the seasons of sowing, tending and harvest that make having a container garden so rewarding.
What To Plant
Be sure to curate your choices of vegetables. While root crops do very well in Fall container gardens, they are not all to everyone’s taste. Crops like turnips and parsnips, beets and rutabaga grow very well in container gardens in most zones, which leave you with another issue: How to preserve or prepare these foods for your family.
We hope that your friends and family are adventurous in trying new foods. These root vegetables have long been staples of winter diets in Europe, but not quite as popular in the U.S. Keep this in mind when you’re selecting your seeds and planning out your Fall container garden. It might take you a few seasons to get to know exactly which crops do the best in your containers, and which ones you prefer to raise for your family to consume.
Once you have fine-tuned your planting and harvesting, you can add and subtract plants each year to keep producing a variety of food.
It’s a great idea to start small and plan your Fall container garden with a handful of plants the first year. This will allow you to dial in everything that you need without putting too many plants at risk at the same time. Read all you can, get advice from experts and try a few different techniques until you hit on what works best for you. You will be pleasantly surprised to find all the food you can produce out of a few small containers.
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