People who live on the East Coast tend to forget that we have two whole planting seasons. And there’s still time to seed for fall vegetables such as broccoli, potatoes, kale, lettuce, and turnips.
Here are a few simple ways to get started.
1. Find out your frost date. In Williamsburg, the average date for first frost is October 15th (although it can vary wildly). Check out this handy guide from Victory Seeds for other local frost dates.
2. How many days until that first frost date? You’ll need at least 30 days, and more like 40-80 for most plants. Some vegetables do well through a frost, and others won’t, as you’ll see in this list of fall vegetables and their days to maturity.
3. Figure out which vegetables you can or want to plant. Using this chart, you can do that easily. Look at the top row. The first frost occurs at “00,” so above this column write in your frost date. Work backwards from this frost date by writing in the dates for every 10th day. So print out our fall vegetable planting chart and write in your local frost date here.
4. Happy planting! Let us know how you do.
Read more about it:
Fall Vegetables at Colonial Williamsburg, howitgrows.com
Fall Vegetable Gardening, Virginia Cooperative Extension Service
Growing a Fall Vegetable Garden, North Carolina State University
Your Planting Guide Spring and Fall, Powhatan, Virginia.com
