Fall gardening is the most underrated gardening season of the year. It’s often overlooked after a long summer season. But instead of skipping out on fall gardening this year, we recommend taking advantage of the decline in pests and cooler temperatures in exchange for a longer harvest window, sweeter greens, and even, a better spring garden (scroll down to the section on cover crops). 

Cool Season Veggies for Fall Planting 

Like other gardening seasons, there are certain crops that prefer to be direct seeded and others that need to be started indoors ahead of planting. If you missed the window for starting your seeds ahead of time - fear not! At the end of the summer, your local nursery or hardware store will likely have a wide variety of plant starts available. 

Seeds to Direct Sow

You could fill a whole garden with cool-weather seeds that you plant outside in the fall! These are some of our favorites. 

Leafy Greens

Who doesn’t love leafy greens! Whether in salads, sandwiches, or soups, the variety of greens that can be grown in fall is truly endless. 

Spinach 

Succulent, rich leaves are delicious raw or cooked. Spinach is extremely cold hardy, so you’ll be harvesting deep into the winter. Some of our favorite varieties include Winter Giant and Bloomsdale Long Standing. 

Lettuce

Who doesn’t love a fresh garden salad? Lettuce is super easy to grow and does great toward the end of summer and fall when it won’t bolt. It’s relatively frost sensitive, so you’ll want to extend your season with some row cover - or just be ready to enjoy the harvest while you can! Try our house-made Herb Salad Mix or the heirloom and delightfully playful Freckles variety. 

Arugula

An addition to your garden salad (or sandwich, pizza, etc.). This spicy green is delicious on everything! We love the classic Arugula or the lesser known Wild Arugula, also known as rocket, which is perennial!

Collards

Collards are a Southern kitchen staple, and close cousins of kale and cabbage. These delicious greens are known for their cold tolerance and get sweeter when touched by the frost. Try your hand at the Morris Heading or, for the more adventurous grower, Purple Ultracross. 

Swiss Chard

A close cousin of beets, swiss chard is like growing just the beet greens if they were particularly large, succulent, and slightly less sweet. Both cold and heat tolerant, this is one of our favorite close-to-year-round greens. Try the rainbow blend for a mix of colors or the Fordhook Giant for impressively large leaves and stems. 

Root Crops

Roots crops are quintessential autumn foods and are, in many cases, incredibly easy to grow!

Carrots

A fistful of carrots from the garden is sure to bring out the childlike delight in anyone! There’s a whole rainbow of shapes and colors to choose from. Carrots can sometimes be tricky to grow if your soil quality isn’t just right. For those of you working with clay soils, try the Danvers or Shin Kuroda varieties. If you’re fortunate enough to have loamy soils, or a good ‘ol fashioned raised bed, try your hand at the popular Scarlet Nantes or unique Black Nebula.

Beets

What’s better than a warm roasted beet smothered in goat cheese in the winter? In our opinion, just about nothing. Try the Chioggia beet - a true kitchen table show-stopper, or Detroit Dark Red, a reliable garden workhorse. 

Radishes

Radishes are a great way to have a delicious win in the garden. They mature in a snap, are resilient and tolerant, and taste great raw, cooked, or smothered in butter. Try the classic French Breakfast radish, or the stunning Watermelon radish.

Turnips

Whether you desire a turnip green, or salad turnip, this easy-to-grow crop offers an accompaniment for hardy stews, braised meat, or even just a hummus snack! The heirloom Seven Top turnip produces an abundance of delicious greens, while the Purple Top While Globe turnip produces large roots that stay mild. 

Parsnips

This relative of the carrot, is sweet, hardy, and slow to mature. With some love and patience, this delightful vegetable can be yours! The Harris Model parsnip is a very reliable producer. 

Herbs

While many herbs are sun and heat-loving, reserving their growing season for summer, there are a few beloved culinary companions that appreciate cooler weather. They make great companion plants to many cool-weather crops and add a je ne sais quoi to culinary dishes.

Cilantro

Classic cilantro is a must-have for many dishes. Whether pureeing herbs for a sauce or looking for a unique addition to salads, this herb is a great addition to your garden. The seeds can be harvested as coriander, a common spice used in Indian cuisine, and will also reseed itself easily - which we love! 

Dill

Now, we know all about dill pickles, but what about dill in soups, salads, and sauces? It deserves a spot outside of the pickle jar this fall. We love that dill reseeds readily. Try the Mammoth Long Island variety! 

Parsley

This bitter green makes a great garnish, but also a digestive-friendly addition to many dishes! Flat leaf parsley and curly parsley will sometimes have different culinary applications, so grow them both!

More to Grow

Fava Beans

Fava beans are an extremely cold-hardy legume that, in warmer climates, are best planted in fall and overwintered for a spring harvest. In cooler climates, where the spring is longer and cooler, they can be planted as soon as the soil is workable. We love the Sweet Lorane for its cold tolerance down to 10 degrees Fahrenheit.  

Snap Peas

Who doesn’t love a fresh pea out of the garden? Whether you’re partial to snap peas, shelling peas, or snow peas, this vining legume is the perfect addition to your cool weather garden. 

Garlic

The most iconic fall-planted allium! Garlic is best pre-ordered ahead of time for October shipping, when it can be planted and overwintered (easily) and harvested nine months later. Try a hardneck variety if you’re in a cooler climate, or a softneck variety in zones eight or warmer!

Shallots

When you need a shallot in the kitchen, no other allium will substitute for it. Grow your very own multiplier onions, and replant them year after year from your own supply. This way, you’ll never run out! 

Saffron

The world’s most expensive spice is a fall-planted flower bulb! Saffron is easy to grow and makes a stunning ornamental as well. This perennial will supply you with strands of saffron every fall for years to come. 

Seeds to Start Indoors

Certain longer season crops do better when they’re started indoors ahead of time. But fear not, these crops can be easily found at your local hardware store, or at Sow True Seed’s Garden Shop, as plant starts that are ready to go in the ground! 

Brassicas

The brassica family contains many of our beloved greens like kale and collards, as well as heading crops like cabbage and brussels sprouts. It even includes root vegetables like turnips, and asian greens like bok choy. It’s a wide reaching plant family that loves cool weather. There are quite a few brassicas that should be started from seed ahead of planting, to ensure that they mature before hard frosts in fall, or bolting begins in spring.

Broccoli

Broccoli is harvested as the plant's flowers are in its budding stage, creating that tree-like affect on the head. We love the Waltham 29 for its reliability and frost tolerance, particularly in fall gardens. 

Brussels Sprouts

Brussels sprouts are an extremely long-season crop. In Southern gardens, they’re best grown as a fall crop so they have plenty of cool weather time to mature. We love the unique Red Rubine or the compact Long Island Improved. 

Cabbage

Cabbage is a classic autumn vegetable and a staple in many dishes. Not to mention the storage ability of many varieties! Try the Red Acre for a storage cabbage or Michihili for fresh eating and a fresh batch of kimchi.

Cauliflower

Similar to broccoli, cauliflower should be harvested when the flower head is in bud form. The self-wrapping leaves of the Snowball variety ensures that the heads stay crisp and white even in the sun! 

Kale

Kale doesn’t strictly need to be started indoors but it’s a common fall plant start because the earlier you start it, the more of a harvest you can enjoy. Lacinato kale is a common and beloved heirloom fit for any dish, while Red Ursa is the award winning, frost tolerant, curly variety that we think belongs in any garden.

Cover Cropping in Fall

Ready to put your garden to bed? Just one more thing! Don’t leave your beds fallow for winter’s harsh hand. Plant cover crops! Fall is a great time to plant cover crops. Soils may be spent after a long and productive growing season. Cover cropping is the spa treatment you can treat your garden to at the end of the season so it’s all ready to roll come spring planting. 

Why Cover Crop

Cover crop is the umbrella term for plants that are used not exclusively for harvest or ornamental purposes, but mainly for the benefits they offer to the soils. Cover crops can add nutrients back into the soil, prevent erosion, protect microorganisms, retain moisture, and reduce weed pressure. Cover cropping is like growing your own compost in your very own garden bed! So before you call it quits in the garden for the year, throw down some of these seeds. 

What To Plant

There are different cover crops that should be planted at different times of year. Fall cover crops can be selected based on their benefits or whether or not they winter kill. Cover crops work best in conjunction with each other, so these are our favorite mixes for fall planting.

Over-Wintering Mix

Our over-wintering mix is exactly what it sounds like. Once established, it will withstand frost and prevent erosion all winter long. This diverse mix of cover crops also offers benefits in the name of fixing nitrogen and biomass building to add organic matter into the soil. 

Cover and Color Mix

This beautiful cover crop mix is designed for maximum improvement in soil health and nutrient cycling. It will help increase organic matter, loosen compacted soils, and suppress weeds. If planted early enough, you’ll also see a smattering of beautiful flowers that will attract all kinds of beneficial insects. 

Fall Cover Mix

This combination of legumes, grasses, grains, and brassicas work together to loosen topsoils, add aeration, and suppress weeds. It will winterkill with the frost, making for easy work come springtime. 

Flowers for Fall Planting

Now, we can’t magically get you a wild flower meadow in the dead of winter - but there are  plenty of flower seeds that should be planted in fall so they’ll germinate effectively in spring. This is because these seeds require stratification in order to break the dormancy of the seed. There are plenty of seeds that require stratification, but these are some of our favorites. 

Flower Mixes

Sow True Seed carries a variety of flower seed mixes, in seed packets and bulk, that perform best when planted in fall. These mixes are a great way to create your own wildflower meadow or pollinator garden. Try the Southeast Native Mix or the Beneficial Attractant Mix to benefit your future gardens. 

Native Plants

And on that note, many of our North Carolina native plants require stratification in order to grow. Milkweed, Goldenrod, and Echinacea, are just a few of the beautiful native species that should be planted in fall. 

Culinary Herbs

Did somebody say kitchen garden? Some of our favorite culinary herbs can be fall planted for an early harvest in the next growing season. Sage, Oregano, and Thyme, are some great culinary choices for fall planting. 

Get Growing

Ready to start planting? Sow True Seed has everything you need for your fall garden from seeds to supplies to support you from planning to harvest. 

	Article Written by: Hannah Gibbons
	About the Author: Hannah Gibbons, an employee and owner at Sow True Seed since 2020, has a decade of experience in the agricultural industry. Their passion for environmental education and regenerative agriculture has been the cornerstone of their work, aimed at making gardening accessible to all.