When is it time to plant a fall garden
How to PERFECTLY Time Your Fall Garden Planting
what's up everyone Kevin here from epic
gardening today we're talking about one
of my favorite seasons to garden ever
which is fall a lot of us as we move out
of somewhere we get kind of bummed out
we're losing those Tomatoes those
peppers those eggplants all of our
classic summer crops are kind of going
out the window they're spent we've eaten
them we've harvested them we preserve
them and they're gone right so a lot of
us might close up shop and we should say
okay we're done for the season we're
done for the year but there's so much to
explore in fall gardening so in today's
video I'm going to talk about why fall
gardening is so effective and
exceptional and things that you can
really do but we're also gonna give you
a complete understanding or at least the
way I think about growing in fall so
that includes crop selection all the way
down to certain cultivar selection as
well as how to know I think the biggest
question people have is when do I start
my fall crops so that they don't get
killed by the frost and how do I make
sure that that's all perfect so we're
going to go through a calculation that
you can do to make sure you're planting
all your crops at the exact right time
so that you're pulling these beans or
you're pulling whatever you want before
the frost and you don't lose your crops
timing is so important in fall remember
in the spring you're moving into longer
days and warmer temps then you have your
summer period and then as summer fades
out and you're moving into fall into
winter you have shorter days and colder
temps
so the first thing that you think about
when it comes to fall gardening is what
plants can I even grow so there's a lot
of plants that work and of course it is
zone dependent or climate dependent but
the things that should come to the top
of your mind
most root crops your radishes your
turnips your carrots your beets all do
fantastic anything that's an Asian green
your pact choice your Chinese cabbages
your collards your chards I'm now going
into the brassicas your broccoli and
cauliflower so all of these really love
to mature as the days get shorter and
colder and you'll find that even the
flavor of them can tend to get a little
bit sweeter tends to get a little better
as you get closer to that looming frost
date so those make them a really good
option for growing now to speak nothing
of the plant but to get into the
specific cultivar so even in the world
of radishes you have your almost twenty
five day radishes all the way up to like
a 55 60 day radish like a large daikon
radish and so depending on your frost
date you're gonna want to be choosing
varieties that are maturing at the
appropriate time so if you know you only
have about 45 days until your first
frost you certainly don't want to choose
a 55 day radish you may want to choose
the 30 35 45 day radish and then you
know you're gonna get it out in time but
now we're gonna get into exactly how to
calculate your fall planting time
okay so here we have the fall planting
calculator this is the way that I like
to do it yes it's a little technical but
it does guarantee that you're gonna get
it right so the thing to think about
before we even get into this is when
you're thinking about planting and fall
you have to think backwards in time
because you have the date that many of
your plants will die if you have a
killing frost it's named that for a
reason right things will die if they get
hit by attempts that are that low and so
what you have to do is say okay now I
need to think backwards if that's the
day that everything will die or certain
things will die then I need to make sure
I've given enough buffer so that I can
get my harvest out before that so this
is how I like to do it so the first
thing you got to do is you got to start
at the bottom you have to know when that
frost date is so just for our purposes
in this little exercise I'm gonna put
November first so let's just say it's 11
1 then you have to know let's imagine
we're doing a radish because radishes
are a really easy crop to calculate this
out on so radishes
it says days from seed to transplant
days from transplant to harvest radishes
are a direct sown crops if you are going
to start a seed let it germ and then
transplant it into the garden you would
put a number here and then from here you
would say okay well once I transplanted
it to harvest what's that period of time
so radishes since their direct sown it's
actually going to be a zero there so
that makes this a little simpler and
let's go with 30 days for the seed to
harvest because many radishes are a 30
day variety so I'm gonna put a 30 right
here and now let's explain some of these
important things here now harvest period
is if you're growing like a cut and come
again style crop like if you're growing
kale you don't just pull the entire
plant at the same time most of the time
and you can see my video up in the right
hand corner here you're going to be
harvesting over a period so let's say
kale has a 2-week harvest period you
would put a 14 there and that lets you
know you got to back your planting data
up even a little bit more but for
radishes you just pull it as soon as
it's ready so that's going to be a zero
now the fall factor this is something
that's basically saying okay the days
are far longer getting shorter and temps
are higher getting lower right which
means that the plant is getting less and
less of what it needs it's getting less
Sun and it's getting less favourable
temperatures so it will the
growth of the plant a little bit or it
will slow it down and so what you're
gonna do here is it's anywhere from
one to two weeks so seven to 14 days I
have a more mild fall off here in zone
10 B so what I'm gonna do is I'm just
gonna put a seven here and I can even
honestly with my climate get away with a
zero here but just for the intents of
this exercise I'll put a seven here and
that's basically saying I'm giving
myself an extra week just because it's
going to grow a little slower these the
days to harvest might be a little bit
slowed down now here I'm not gonna put
anything but frost tender factor means
even if you have low ish temperatures
there's certain plants that you really
want to pull and harvest before it even
gets that low so something like a corn
is a great example corn doesn't really
want to even come into contact with some
frost and so you might put a frost
tender factor of a week to give yourself
that buffer so if this frost date is a
little off because remember these are
all averages then if this is a little
bit off you give yourself a little weak
buffer and you say you know what I'll
make sure I back that planting up even
one more week just so I don't hit those
cold temperatures but again for radishes
we've got a zero so in this case you
then add all this up so zero zero zero I
know there's a lot of zeros but I want
to make it simple for you guys so 37
days right so 37 days before November
first so basically that's September 23rd
ish so that means today's video is it
coming out or it's being filmed on the
9th of September so that means that in a
couple weeks that's pretty much my last
day to start radishes right and so now
what we're gonna do is I'm gonna bump
you in to my little planting spreadsheet
to show you kind of how I calculate all
this stuff and the only reason I do with
this complex is because I'm trying to
really really perfect it and make sure I
have everything pumping out so I can
show you guys everything that's going on
if you're more of a laissez faire
gardener you can just be much more calm
about this you don't have to go this
crazy but I do want to kind of teach you
this is the mentality that's certainly
like it an urban farmer or a farmer
would be thinking on because they can't
really get this stuff wrong so if you
want to guarantee success then this is a
really good way to do it let's go ahead
and now hop on the computer and take a
look at my planting spreadsheet so guys
here is my fall planting calendar and
schedule and spreadsheets though this is
just a map of the front yard and the
numbers here up here correspond to the
different beds the bed numbers and then
all the numbers within the beds these
are all one square foot correspond to
the plants that I'm putting in there so
this is just my way of visualizing the
garden but the real special sauce in my
opinion and it talks about the planting
calculator that we just talked about is
right here so you've got your crop name
the date you planted it how many you
planted in which bed did you direct
solar did you transplant it then you
have your germination time and your days
to maturity or days to harvest and then
you have the spring and fall factor and
it spits out an expected harvest so
let's say you take a look at this red
Ursa kale right here so I saw those
seeds on the fifth of September so four
of them and they're going to go in bed
three so if we go over here we say okay
bed three there it is it's going to be
number seven so it's gonna be right
there in the bed right then you've got
germination time and days to mature you
so 5 foot 65 about 70 days plus another
7 for that fall factor means that if I
plant it on the 5th of September is
coming out of the ground on the 21st and
of course I can also add that harvest
period in here as well maybe another 14
days so that would push it more towards
the beginning of December but that's
basically it the other thing that I
really like about the spreadsheet that I
made here is it's a little space
calculator so if you say ok I have I
have you know 10 square feet available
it will tell you okay you can plant this
many of you know a particular plant so
you could say okay well basil is about 4
per square foot if you really want to
cram it in there you can get 40 in 10
square feet so if you have you know a
couple square feet left in a bed you say
ok I have 2 square feet left but I want
to put some chart in there I need to be
starting 8 plants so that's what I
really like about this spreadsheet just
something I whipped up really quickly to
help me visualize fall and really
squeeze things out because what I can do
now is I can say okay well you know if
if all the plants in this bed are 3045
day crops I know they're coming out in a
certain period of time then I know how
to start succession sowing and really
getting into my next level of planting
so that's that I hope that was really
helpful on it on just the planning I
know this is very analytical and nerdy
it's the way that works for me a lot of
people are more intuitive about it or
aren't quite as particular about it that
certainly works for me to refined so now
we're here in the front yard all the
seeds that you saw in the spreadsheet
most of them have been started most of
them have germinated so I just got
finished putting a lot of these
and so what I like to do really depends
on the type of seed so for certain
things like all my leafy greens I prefer
to start and then transplant in just
because just helps with germination it
seems like a little more success right
there I can guarantee they germinate
without drying out there's some carrots
and radishes a lot of root crops in the
secondary bed here and you'll see this a
little frost blanket here this is a
really helpful tip you can use burlap
you can use a wooden board you can use
frost blanket something like that what
you're trying to do when you're doing
these carrots which are very sensitive
germinate errs the seed is tiny if they
germinate and dry out at all they just
die you want to put some sort of cover
over the top to make sure that that
moisture is held in when you're doing
these fall root crops like a carrot or a
turnip or something like that so that's
what I've done here I sowed these just a
few days ago so I'll take a little bit
of time for them to come up they haven't
come up quite yet and I make sure that I
my drip is run every day I make sure
that I might even hand water over the
top just to make sure that they're nice
and moist so that's a good fall crop
germination tip but I just got a couple
more things to put in here I got some
daikon radish that I actually did start
in a seat tray just because I wanted to
experiment with it so that's going to go
in this over here and really guys fall
is such a fun time to garden I can't
wait to show you guys what's going on in
these beds as we move into the next
couple of months so if you have any fall
gardening questions any specific things
definitely drop them down below
but for now gonna get back to work I'll
see on the next one good luck in the
garden and keep on growing
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