In spite of the sun and hopefully ripening summer crops in our gardens, August is the start of the Pacific Northwest’s second spring season. Time to plant for three up-coming seasonal crops: a fall harvest of short-term salad greens, a winter-long bounty of hardy brassicas, and an early spring burst of over-wintering hardies, such as purple sprouting broccoli.
Given our mild maritime climate, and with simple protective covers during the coldest spells, you can dine on fresh produce throughout the fall and winter, as well as get an early surge of spring sprouts. When the sun is low in the sky and the weather is damp, it’s especially rewarding to harvest fresh salad greens, sturdy kales, or dig up a sweet parsnip. Think of the garden as an outdoor winter pantry offering fresh bouquets in the cold. In sum, garden year-round!
August is the time to transplant brassicas (it is too late to start them from seed): cabbage (fall and winter), kale, broccoli (fall and spring sprouting), collards, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower. Transplants are available from nurseries. Spinach, mustard greens, and chard can be seeded out, along with radishes, as well as turnips (for greens). Winter-hardy lettuces of all kinds can go in, as well as Oriental greens, especially Tatsoi, a rosette-style bok choy that will last all winter, with protection. To spice up your salads, try arugula and cress, or long-lasting black Spanish or white Daikon radishes. To keep your seedbed moist during the heat of August, sow seeds with a light covering of half compost and half fine soil to prevent drying out. (Note: parsnips and leeks, mainstays of a winter kitchen garden, require an extended growing season and need to be planted in spring.)
Winter protection: To extend the season of more delicate plants, construct a grow tunnel of plastic over bent pvc pipes, or use a floating fabric row cover spread loosely over a frame. Plastic row covers will require watering but offer more warmth; a fabric cover allows rain and sun in, but is less resistant to cold. I also over-winter parsley and garlic chives in large galvanized tubs covered with row cover during February cold spells. Kales and Brussels sprouts need no protection and actually get sweeter after a frost.
Warning: constructing any kind of physical barrier offers a warm, protected dining area for rodents (mice, voles, and shrews). They will clean out your cultivated beds, so set mouse traps all winter. A simple covered wooden box with small holes at two corners, with multiple un-baited mouse traps inside, works best for voles. Another benefit of fall planting is the absence of insects, although aphids will show up early on overwintered crops.
What to expect: The key to coolweather crops is to start early enough to allow the plants to maximize growth before winter. Quick-growing fall greens will mature in 1-2 months and last until the diminishing light and first hard frosts claim them. Hardy greens will be full-sized by Thanksgiving, and then offer mature leaves all winter. Over-wintered broccoli will sit there, small and unnoticed, all winter, then erupt very early in the spring with small purple sprouts for spring salads or just munching in the garden. If you plan ahead and plant yearround, the outdoor garden store never closes.
- courtesy Over the Garden Fence by Anacortes Community Gardens