It’s Time to Order Your Fall Seeds

Here's what you should order now to have the best fall gardening season.

Starting in late July, some of the crops you planted for spring or summer are going to be done producing and will be ready for harvest. That leaves space for something new. There are vegetables that are “short crops,” meaning that they can be harvested, under optimal conditions, in 60 days or fewer. You might be able to get another rotation of these crops in before fall hits, if you live someplace with a late fall and enough sun and warmth through early September. There are also plants that will do well up until a hard frost, like brassicas. Then there are the vegetables we plant in the fall for the spring, which includes carrots and garlic. In any case, the time to get these seeds started is now, and each year, seed houses have new seeds to get excited about as they innovate and cross breed and try to find new disease resistance, flavors and colors to explore in their seeds. Here’s what I’m excited about. 

Brassicas

Fall and winter are prime time for brassicas—cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower—which can struggle in heat but thrive in a bit of a chill. And if these sound bland, you aren’t paying attention: There are so many gorgeous varieties of each out there you can turn your garden into a neon light show if you do it right. Just make sure you’ve got your slug population under control because you are creating a garden of delight for them. 

Savoy cabbage is a winter star. I love it in hearty minestrone soups or for cabbage rolls or wrapping fish and grilling. Alcosa is just gorgeous. I love to make sauerkraut in winter, so I put a few green cabbage in, but I tend to prefer sweetheart type cabbage, which have a conical shape instead of a ball. Caraflex is a reliable variety. Out of personal preference, I go hard on red cabbage, which I braise for a dish that my friends love. Continuing the conical trend, because I think they fare better, you can’t deny how gorgeous Kalibos is, and it is a stunner in the garden. Last year I did very well with Ruby Ball Improved for a round red cabbage that was crisp with minimal core. 

Cauliflower comes in more colors than you think, from pale green to shocking orange, purple, and then a whole array of white that will blush pink. Grow them all. Clementine for orange, Purple Moon, and Vitaverde for green. I trust Snowball for my white cabbage, since it self-blanches, and Veronica has been my most reliable Romanesco for years. 

You can create a color wheel of broccoli, too. Each year my Purple re-sprouting broccoli provides harvests for weeks if you keep cutting it back. Broccoli is generally reliable, so almost any seed you pick up for green broccoli is going to give you great results. 

Peas and beans

Think of fall as spring, in reverse. You can get a quick crop of peas or spinach in if you can sustain enough cooler weather with sunshine before the rain sets in. Since you have a shorter runway with fall peas than spring peas, I focus on bush-type peas rather than climbing peas. This year I’m trying Burpeeana, from Burpee. 

Each fall I religiously plant fava beans, both because I think fresh favas are an overlooked gourmet treat, and because beans are fantastic for your soil. They’re basically a cover crop if you chop them down before they go to seed and produce the beans, and then let them compost in place. I like the Small Fava from Territorial Seeds—the compact nature of the bush means it’s less likely to get blown over in the fall storms. 

Garlic and shallots

No lie, you can usually just plant garlic cloves from your supermarket with a good level of success. But if you want really great quality garlic, you should buy from a nursery or seed supplier. While there are hard and soft neck varieties, like a lot of gardeners I know, I’m a devotee of a hardneck variety called Music that reliably produces hearty bulbs. If you dry your garlic properly, it will last through the spring. 

The shallot seed I’m most excited about is the stunning Creme Brulee from Park Seeds. While shallots don’t have the lasting storage that garlic does, being able to harvest your own and make shallot jam is something I wish for every gardener. 

Carrots

Carrots are hard to germinate, full stop. But once the rain sets in, you’ve got a constant source of watering. Get as many carrots in as you can for spring harvest. Those that overwinter will be sweeter. Although carrots come in all shapes, for wintering over I am a fan of the hardy pie-shaped carrots, and this year I’ll be trying Coventry, from Territorial. But I also love the new seed tapes I’m trying out from Park Seed, and their Little Finger seed tape is one I’d get in early in fall, for hopes of a harvest before winter. 

Greens

I have nothing nice to say about kale. I grow it because that’s what gardeners do, so each fall I put out a few starts for the neighbors to enjoy. To those who enjoy kale, the good news is that it is an easy to grow, hardy winter green, which makes sense since it’s basically herbaceous cardboard. Lacinato is a classic, and you can get seeds almost anywhere.

Chard will take a winter hit and keep trucking until serious ice, and has a tendency to perennialize, so I always suggest putting some rainbow chard in. The past few years I’ve only grown Neon Lights from Territorial. The real trick is to make sure you get your seedlings large enough to see the stalk color, so you can choose a variety to put in. 

Alliums

For fall, you’ll want to get bulbing onions in the ground. You can purchase onion sets, which are tiny onion bulbs you plant, or you can grow your own from seed. These onions won’t be ready until spring, but the nice thing about them is that you can put them anywhere, since they won’t inhabit space you need for summer and spring vegetables. Make sure they go into well-composted soil with enough space between them to get a nice bulb. The two onions I always make sure to have in the ground are cipollini like these beautiful purple cippolinis from Burpee, and Candy, a particularly sweet Walla Walla onion. 

Don’t forget to plant plenty of bunching onions, too, providing scallions all winter long. The great thing about these is that they germinate quickly outdoors. I’m trying Evergreen Long White from Burpee. 

If you’re not growing leeks, honestly, what are you even doing? The ability to grab a leek out of the garden all winter and into the spring, when they really beef up in size, is invaluable. They're easy to grow from seed—start them inside in a four inch container. Once they’re three inches tall, chop them back down, and allow them to grow again. When it’s time to plant them, you’ll tease the seedlings apart and plant them six inches apart, as deep as possible. In the spring, dig them up, cut them all to 10 inches long and then replant them nine inches deep. This will produce a leek with a lot of white, rather than green. Some new leek seeds I’m checking out are Oslo, from Johnny’s Selected Seeds.