Time to plant fall seeds—already?

Even though it is scorching hot right now in mid-July, it is time to look ahead in anticipation of the cool days of autumn and plan the fall garden.

Fall gardens are planted from mid-July into August. Gardeners who wait until September to sow seeds will be disappointed, as the crops will not have enough time to mature and produce a crop. Seeds that are planted into the fall garden are cool-season crops, even though it may still be in the 90s. It is hot now, but the crops that have a relatively long growing season, like the cabbages, will be maturing when the days are cooler.

Cool-season vegetables that have a longer growing season can be planted when soil temperatures are warmest. Above the ground crops that are long season are cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower; long-season root crops are beets, carrots, turnips, rutabagas, parsnips, Asian radishes. All these can be planted now.

Leafy crops such as Asian greens, arugula, lettuces, chard, parsley, endive, friseé and spinach can wait until the end of July or early August to be planted, but not much past mid-August.

As the gardener plans the crops and where they are to be planted, it is critical to incorporate a crop rotation strategy. The benefits of rotating your crops include fewer pests and soilborne diseases, improved soil nutrition, and better soil structure.

Crop rotation is the approach of placing annual vegetables in the garden by botanical family. Crops in a family are rotated together. Because members of a botanical family are genetically related, most have common vegetative or reproductive traits.

Cool-season crops that are members of the same family and can be planted together are beets, chard, and spinach, members of the Chenopodiaceae family; carrots, parsnips and parsley, Apiaceae; turnips, radishes, cabbages, Asian greens and arugula, Brassicaceae; lettuces, endive, friseé, Asteraceae.

Sow the garden in sections. The standard rotation period is three years, or three seasons before planting the same crop in the same spot in the garden.

Group the Chenopodiaceae members together year one; the following season in year two, plant either members of Apiaceae, Asteraceae or Brassicaceae in that section; year three plant a third different family. Repeat this strategy by moving families around the garden in sections.