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You still have time to plant yummy crops for Fall harvesting. Many vegetables actually taste better when they ripen during late summer’s cooler nights. Try the same crops that do well in early Spring: broccoli, spinach, lettuces, carrots, and peas.

To be sure you’ll have enough time for the crops to grow, look up your area’s first Fall frost date. You can easily do this on the Internet. Then, check the seed packet of the crop you want to plant. For example, the first frost date in my hometown is October 15th. If I want to plant spinach that is ready in 40 days, I count backward 40 days from October 15. I should sow that seed before September 5th. I usually back up a few more days in case we have an early frost. So to be sure I don’t plant after August 31.

In the  photograph below you may notice some white pipes. This how I protect my crops from early frost. I’ve built a cold frame from inexpensive PVC pipes. If I can do it, so can you. In fact, my young son helped me.  I went to the local hardware store and bought four PVC pipes, each 12 feet long.  The diameter isn’t important, as long as they bend easily without breaking.  I put one end of the pipe in the ground, bent it over the crop, and stuck the other end into the ground.  I spaced the other pipes about 2 feet away from each other, filling my 8 foot raised bed. This makes a sort of rib-cage looking structure.  If the low temperature will be less than 45 degrees, I cover the “cage” with clear plastic sheeting. This keeps enough warm air inside to extend my harvest season. We can sometimes enjoy fresh greens, broccoli, rosemary,  tarragon, and parsley until Thanksgiving!  In the Spring, I can get tomatoes into the ground early with this same system. In fact, I just harvested my first tomatoes June 12th in Omaha, Nebraska. Yum!

I’ve had those same pipes 14 years now. The plastic has been replaced every 3 years or so, but the wonderful fresh food we’ve eaten has more than offset the cost.

Even if it’s June and almost as hot as July in your yard, it’s not too late to plant some new crops or flowers. Some plants that love early season cool temperatures start to wane now.  Those colorful pansies from March are going to be replaced in my pots with petunias, zinnias, and other annuals that like hot weather. But I will press those pansy blooms between sheets of white paper in an old phone book so I can use them in craft projects later. Pansies always make me smile, so I look forward to making some greeting cards with them.

The lettuce and spinach are starting to bolt in our 90 degree heat–even under the shade cloth I put up weeks ago. So they will be harvested for kitchen use and a second crop of green and wax beans will be planted in their place. The first crop of beans planted earlier are blooming so this second crop should be ready when the first crop is finished bearing beans. Planting several crops in the same space, or succession planting, helps me make better use of the raised beds in my urban garden. If you decide to try this, remember to fertilize the bed and be sure to plant crops that will mature before the first frost date in your area. Our first frost date is usually mid-October.  So I have to choose varieties that will be ready is less than 120 days.

Some vegetables (peas, carrots, parsnips and turnips) taste better if harvested after a mild frost. Why? Because cool temperatures turn their starchy carbohydrates to sugar. Yum. Time for me to get busy planting!