You still have time to plant some frost tolerant and cold hardy plants this year. You still must give them time to get established before the temperatures begin to drop. This takes us to planting by mid-September. Using row covers and minigreenhouses can extend your season by two to four weeks. These plants fall into four groups; bulb crops, leafy greens, herbs, and cover crops. Some may not develop to full sized, mature plants if not planted until late September. The temperatures will be too cold or the days too short, but they will still be healthy and tasty as "baby" produce.

Group 1
This group includes bulb crops, such as radishes, beets bred as "baby" produce, green onions, scallions, short season carrots, and salad turnips. Salad turnips are not the typical storage turnips. These are grown mostly for their tops, but the smallish bulbs can still be eaten, pickled or fermented like the other bulb crops. Green onions, if planted very early in September, can often mature enough to overwinter without any protection. You can harvest them throughout the winter, or be the first plants you harvest in the spring.

Group 2
Leafy greens include lettuce, spinach, arugula, endive, escarole, collards, chard, kale, corn salad, and clatonia (aka miner's lettuce) make up our second group. Some may not develop into mature plants if planted late in September, but will still be great for baby salad greens. If chard and kale are planted in early September they will generally mature enough to continue producing until late November. Pick your leafy green varieties wisely. There are some within each specific type of plant that can overwinter with no protection, while others in the same type may melt away after the first frost. A great source for such information is Johnny's Selected Seeds. They have a lot of information about what varieties are best for each season, including those best for fall planting.

Group 3
Several herbs make up the third group. Cilantro, dill and parsley are very cold tolerant. Grow these for their leaves rather than seeds. Cilantro and dill won't develop enough to produce seeds before frost. They will all produce foliage before frost if planted by seed in very early September.

Group 4
Cover crops are the fourth group to consider. I will cover four that I've found best for our area. Cover crops feed the soil either by transferring nutrients from the air through their roots, or as they decompose on the soil's surface after being frost killed or "chopped and dropped". They protect the soil by covering it from pounding rain, heavy snow, and being dried out by the sun.

Harmful insects winter over in any dry debris on the soil's surface, so the first task is cleaning off all unplanted areas in your garden. The exception is hard, hollow-stem plants like corn, lovage, and so on.

Helpful insects winter over in these stems, but not in the debris. Cut these stems to about 6" to 8"tall, but remove all the debris around them. Then plant your cover crop seeds.

The first of these is Diakon (aka "Tiller") radish. Harvest a few randomly as food (Group 1 above), but leave the majority in the ground. Diakon will survive until hit by the third hard freeze. Depending on the nutrient level in your soil, Diakon is best planted four to ten weeks before our first frost.

Diakon's bulb will break up your soil, including clay, for a better soil structure. When the third heavy freeze kills the plant, cut each off at ground level with a sharp edged spade or shovel, including the protruding part of the bulb. Let them lay over winter. The plant and the remaining bulb and roots in the soil will decompose and add nutrients to the soil.

Don't worry. Bad bugs survive in dry debris, not this semi-live material. As you cut them off you could tear the plant into smaller pieces to help make decomposition more complete. In the spring simply move any residue aside and plant among it. It will serve as a temporary mulch and continue decomposing to feed the soil.

Buckwheat is another good cover crop. Planted by mid-September it will almost mature by our first frost. In the meantime it covers the soil as a living mulch.When frost kills it you can either press it over to ground level, or cut it at ground level with snips. Let it lay to cover the soil and decompose over the winter.

With either Diakon or buckwheat, when you cut them you can tear or cut them into smaller pieces and spread them around the growing bed. This gives more ground contact to the plant parts for more complete decomposition.

Other cover crops often grown in our region are annual rye and crimson or white clover. They should be planted five to seven weeks before first frost. Their roots help break up our hard soil. Both annual rye and clovers will winter over, and revive in the spring. Then they must be cut off near ground level, and can be left laying as a mulch. Rye, however, will occasionally regenerate, and become another weed to pull during that next growing season if you don't till it under.

Crimson and white clover accumulate nitrogen from the air and feed it to the soil. White clover, though, is a low growing perennial with a very dense growing habit, and will often inhibit the growth of seeded plants, whether weed, flower or vegetable. Therefore, do not plant white clover anywhere you may intend to start plants from seeds, such as bulb crops, leafy greens, squash, etc.

White clover may be beneficial in areas where you intend to only ever use transplants. Remove the clover, roots and all, about 8" around each transplant. Then plant your transplant as usual. The young plants will grow with a living mulch already growing around them.

Until next month, Happy Gardening!
Gary A. Reneker, Head Gardener

Volunteers Welcome!

NYCHAPS (especially Gary!) is always looking for volunteers to assist with garden maintenance. Everything from planting, mulching, weeding, and learning/sharing your knowledge with others!  Contact Gary Reneker at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.