Growing fall vegetables and flowers

Yes, it is possible to grow lots of different veggies and flowers in the fall. And no, you don’t have to do a lot of extra work or anything particularly special to do it.

When extending your garden into the fall, the main thing you should keep in mind is when you typically see the first overnight frost. This can vary a lot. Depending on where you live, it might be as early as early October, or it could be as late as January. Either way, you should know it because that first frost is going to kick off a cycle that can bring your garden to an abrupt halt unless you’re prepared.

What to Grow in Fall

Lettuces and Spinach are ideal for fall growing

Now that summer’s over, a lot of the cool season annual flowers and veggies from spring will do just fine in fall as well. Good choices of vegetables for a fall garden are generally leafy members of the beet, cabbage, carrot, and lettuce families, including:

Flowers that will bloom in fall include:

When it comes to choosing plant varieties, you’ll want to choose ones that mature or bloom in 65 days or fewer. If you’re lucky enough to live in an area where the frost doesn’t get there until winter begins (or later), then you can pick varieties that take up to 80 days to mature.

Direct Seed versus Transplant

Brassicas and lettuces ready to transplant into the garden

For vegetables, if your days are still warm in early fall and your first frost doesn’t come until November, you can direct seed a lot of your crops because the important thing is soil temperature. Warm soil encourages the seedlings time to sprout and get established before cooler temperatures set it. You can also keep the soil warm for a longer period with a good layer of mulch to act as a blanket early on.

If your frosts are earlier in the season, or you’re planting flowers, it’s probably best to use transplants. Transplants basically give you a four-to-six-week head start versus direct seeding, so they’re much more likely to make through any unfavorable weather than seedlings.

Any decent garden center or nursery will have a fairly good selection of young vegetable and annual flowers ready for transplanting. But, if you’re looking for veggies and flowers a little more exciting than those grown for retail shops, check your local farmer’s market. I’ve found they’re great venues for local growers with all kinds of interesting plants selected specifically to grow in the area.

Fall Garden Location

With the days getting shorter and the sun lower in the sky, certain areas of the garden aren’t going to be as suitable in fall as they were in summer.

The sun’s lower angle means areas in full sun during high summer might be shaded by shrubs, trees, or buildings for a good part of the day. With the days shortening, those areas won’t just receive less intense sun, but they’ll have fewer hours of it as well. That leads to colder soil conditions, and plants will struggle.

In fall, use garden beds that will be in full sun for 6 or more hours

Fall plants will do best in areas that receive at least 6-7 hours of direct sunlight (the equivalent of 4-5 hours of summer sun). Heat absorbing structures like brick walls, the side of the house or shed, are also good places for fall gardens – especially if they face south or west.

If the bed doesn’t meet the sun and/or warm wall minimums, let it idle through the winter. It’ll get a chance to rest and you won’t be fighting nature trying to get something to grow there.

Pots are also a good choice for fall gardens. You can move them around (even indoors) and keep them warm and watered more easily than plants in the ground. I’ll often have a few pots of plants I want but don’t need a lot of (dill or cilantro, for example), that I keep near the house. In the morning, they move into the sun, in the evening they move back to the warm, stucco wall.

Garden Bed Cleanup and Preparation

Whether you plan on using one of your garden beds from summer for the fall, or you’re going to let it rest until spring, you’ll still want to clean it up before the weather gets ugly.

Clear Garden Beds

The first thing is to remove the stakes, trellises, poles and other plant support structures. If you use soaker hoses or drip irrigation, clear those out of the beds too.

Once the beds are cleared of infrastructure, cut the leftover and spent plants to the ground and send them off to the compost pile.

Once the beds are cleared, if you’re going to let the bed lie fallow for the winter, just rake the soil to even it out and it’s done.

If it’s a bed you’re planning on using in the fall, rake the mulch (if any) up and put it off to the side. Then add fresh compost, manure, or fertilizer (I’m a fan of composted chicken manure) and till it into the bed.

Gaucho the Rooster helping me move chicken manure to the garden

Loosen and Aerate the Soil

Make sure the bed is well aerated and any big dirt clumps have been broken up after tilling. The summer growing season removes a lot of organic matter from the soil leaving higher concentrations of rocks and minerals that compact and prevent air and water from penetrating. Beneficial soil microbes and critters need air and water to survive, so you want to make sure the soil is loose and has plenty of gaps to trap it. (You can read more about what healthy soil is made of here.)

After your bed(s) have been amended, you can re-lay your irrigation, put any mulch back in place, and the bed is ready for planting.

Fall Garden Care

Pest Control

The nice thing about gardening in the fall is that you won’t have all the problems with pests that you do in spring and summer. Most insects will be gone (or close to) for the season, but you can still have problems with birds and rodents — particularly mice, squirrels, and rabbits, all of whom are active year-round and love to add fresh greens and veggies to their fall diet of mostly seeds and nuts.

The best control for rodents is a “tea” made with hot peppers and water. Spray it on the leaves and stems of your plants and after a single nibble, they’ll leave them alone.

Applying the rodent repellent tea with a garden sprayer

Sadly, hot pepper spray doesn’t work on birds because they can’t taste the heat. But I’ve found the physical deterrents like noise makers, flashy, metal streamers, and dummy predators (plastic owls, giant eyeballs, snake silhouettes, etc.) work – at least for a while.

If you find the birds aren’t being spooked by the deterrents after a while, try moving them to a new location in the garden. Birds don’t like change, so the same plastic owl that didn’t scare them in one place will in a new place – at least for a while.

Disease Control

Soil-borne fungi like fusarium and rust are more difficult to control because they’re widely adapted to different environments and can easily survive winters in zone 7 – 9.

Fusarium, which causes wilt, can be controlled (not eliminated, but controlled) with baking soda. Till dry baking soda into the soil around the plant’s base to control the spores in the soil. Make a water-and-baking-soda-spray to apply to plant leaves and stems.

Rust is a tougher one as most biological (organic) controls don’t work. You can apply a fungicide, but they’re often ineffective, not to mention toxic to people and pets.

The best control for rust is the removal and disposal of the infected leaves and stems. Don’t try and compost infected plants as the spores on the leaves can survive composting and will travel to other plants given the opportunity.

Frost Protection

Dry leaves are plentiful in fall and make a great mulch to keep garden beds warm

If you’re in an area where frost is a threat, make sure your soil has a good layer of mulch to protect the roots. If you don’t have any mulch handy, burlap landscape fabric also makes a good blanket.

Most of your thicker leaf and fall root crops (e.g., cabbage, kale, carrots, radishes, etc.) will get through a few frosts without additional protection just fine. But tender plants like lettuces and spinach will need some shelter.

Floating row cover will provide good protection from light frost. If your frosts are heavier, extended, or get down to a hard freeze (i.e., below 30° F), you’ll need to provide more substantial protection via structures like hoop houses, low tunnel row covers, or flexible polycarbonate sheets.

If you’re in USDA zones 7 or 8b, these protections will help extend the growing season through fall and sometimes into early winter. If you’re in the warmer zones 8a and 9, it’s possible to grow throughout the winter too. Where I live in San Diego County (zones 9a and 9b), we have lots of farm operations and those low row tunnels are a common sight in the fields in winter.

Garden maintenance

One of the other advantages to gardening in the fall is that weed control is nowhere near as big a task as it is in spring and summer. Things grow more slowly in fall, so keeping on top of the few weeds that do crop up is pretty simple. A once a week weed clearance is usually more than enough to keep the garden clean and tidy.

If you have a compost pile (and why wouldn’t you), the one thing to keep on top of is making sure the pile is turned regularly. In the summer it’s warm and there’s plenty of biological activity to turn that dead plant matter into compost without a lot of work.

My compost inspection crew checking my work in the compost bins

In the fall and winter, however, activity slows down and so it becomes necessary to turn the pile more often to keep the compost critters happily working.

Additionally, a compost pile, with its warm center and protection from predators, becomes a nice spot for rodents to set up a homestead and ride out the winter in relative comfort. Turning your compost more often keeps that from becoming an issue. It also ensures that you have plenty of rich, ready compost come spring.

Use the Heat Wave, Don’t Fight It

However hot it feels right now, the fastest way to be ready the moment the weather breaks is to spend this stretch planning instead of digging. Figure out your first frost date, get your seed packets sorted by “days to maturity,” and pencil in which beds are getting cleared first. Come the equinox, you’ll be a step ahead instead of starting from scratch.

Live and learn note: every single year we tell ourselves we’ll get ahead of the heat wave and have everything staged early, and every single year the AC bill talks us out of going outside to do it. This year we’re actually trying it. Ask us again in October how it went.

If you’re in USDA zones 7 and up, following the steps in this guide will get you a lively garden and fresh food well into winter — sometimes year-round. What’s on your fall garden planning list this week? Tell us in the comments, or tag us in your fall prep on Instagram @sagesacre.

These easy to grow fruit trees are ideal for home gardeners

Ripe Celeste figs in late summer

While not particularly rare, or hard to grow in most of the climate zones in the Americas (or anywhere else for that matter), a lot of people continue to think they’re some sort of exotic they could never grow at home. The truth is, there are few fruit trees that are more widely adapted or easy to grow than the these figs. They’re ideal both for less experienced gardeners looking to get started with fruit trees as well more experienced growers who want something that isn’t an apple or a stone fruit.

I have both varieties (thanks Exotica!). Here’s everything you need to know to grow a brown turkey or Celeste fig and enjoy fresh figs every year.

The Difference Between Brown Turkey and Celeste Figs

Fig enthusiasts might disagree with me, but I grow both types and there isn’t much difference.

Both are easy care trees, grow well in sun to part shade and don’t require pollination to produce fruit. Both are also well-adapted for USDA zones 7 and up, and will survive winters in zones 5 and 6 with a little protection.

I’ve read some literature that says the brown turkey grows larger than the Celeste, but that hasn’t been my experience. Both varieties grow around 20 feet tall, though the brown turkey grows more upright while the Celeste seems to like to branch out more.

Additionally, I’ve read that the brown turkey fig grows larger, milder tasting fruit and fruits twice a year, whereas the Celeste has smaller, sweeter fruit, and produces only once a year. But again, that’s not my experience.

In my zone 9 climate, both trees start fruiting in mid-to-late June and keep on producing until early September. The brown turkey does seem to have a lull in mid-summer, where the Celeste is pretty consistent throughout, but both have fruit on them all summer long.

As for taste, both types of fig are sweet, and I don’t really notice a big flavor difference. The birds don’t have a preference either. They flock to both trees with equal enthusiasm. If there’s one real difference in fruit, it’s that the Celeste fig’s skin is thinner and tends to ooze a bit. The brown turkey, not as much.

I’ve been told that the brown turkey is slightly hardier in colder environments, but here in inland San Diego, I’ve never had to test it.

Either way, both trees are great, and the care is the same, so pick whichever you like (or get both, like me).

Planting and care

My 20-year-old celeste fig between the shed and chicken coop

The origins of the fig are subject to debate, but most scholars believe that it’s a native of western Asia where it’s been cultivated for at least 6500 years—long before other foods like olives, grapes, and dates.

These figs are widely adapted to many climates and will grow pretty much anywhere except the coldest areas (USDA zone 4 and below). In Europe they can be found throughout the Mediterranean and as far north as the British Isles. Here in the United States, they can be grown outdoors all the way from the tropics and as far north as New England (although they appreciate some protection from deep freezes).

Location and Height

The trees do best in full sun, but will also grow just fine in a sun/shade mix. With too much shade they tend to become leggy and thin as they reach for sunlight.

Grown in the ground full sun, a mature fig tree can grow to be 25-30 feet tall with a 20-foot-wide canopy, making it an eye-catching landscape tree (but messy when fruiting).

Grown in a pot, the tree will remain much smaller – usually around two-to-three times taller than the pot is round (e.g., if you grow it in a pot that’s 3 feet wide, it’ll grow to be 6-9 feet tall).

Regardless of whether it’s in the ground or a pot, if you’re growing a fig for the fruit, you’ll want to keep the tree trimmed to a reasonable height that keeps the fruit within reach. Not only is it much easier to pick the fruit, but it’ll keep the competition with the many birds who also love figs to a minimum.

This fig is a 3-year-old volunteer some bird planted. It’s about 20 feet tall now.

Care and Feeding

When it comes to care, the fig is about as easy as it gets. Equally happy in the ground or a pot, other than not liking really alkaline soil, the tree has no special feeding requirements and will thrive even in marginal conditions.

For trees growing in the ground, a good mulching around the tree’s base every fall is more than enough fertilizer to carry it through the next year. If you’re growing a in a pot, a well-balanced fertilizer in early spring is all it needs for the year.

As for watering, if your tree is in the ground, it will produce a large tap root that will seek water deep in the soil, so, once established, it needs very little additional water. I live in arid San Diego where there is no rain from April to November, and my fig trees thrive even though I don’t water them at all.

If you’re growing a fig in a pot, a deep soaking once every few weeks is all it needs.

Keep in mind that those roots can be very aggressive, so you don’t want to grow a fig in the ground near hardscape or your house’s foundation or it will lift and crack the concrete.

When to Prune

Both Celeste and brown turkey fig are deciduous and shed all their leaves in late autumn, leaving a smooth, white trunk and branches bare. Although you can trim the tree any time of the year, winter is the best time to prune because the branches are visible and its easier to shape the tree to your liking.

Additionally, unlike other fruit trees that produce fruit on second year wood, the fig produces fruit on green, first year growth. So, if you prune in winter, you can trim the small offshoots all the way back to the larger branches. Those branches will produce new growth in spring and fruit in mid-to-late summer.

One other thing to keep in mind when pruning your fig is that the green wood has a milky white sap which can irritate the skin, especially if you’re allergic to latex (latex is actually made from the sap of a different member of the ficus family), so make sure to wear gloves.

Propagation

Propagating a brown turkey fig from a young tree branch

Figs are among the easiest fruit trees to propagate and will reproduce both from seed and cuttings. The easiest method of propagation is to simply cut a small branch that’s no longer green, stick it in some soil, and keep it moist until the branch roots and shows new growth (usually in 6-8 weeks).

If you propagate from a cutting in late fall, the new tree will produce its first fruit the following year.

Figs will also grow readily from seed, although it takes an extra year to begin fruiting. Around here, the bluejays and mockingbirds love the fruit, so I find (and remove) plenty of fig seedlings every spring.

A fig seedling planted last year by birds

Pests and Diseases

Figs grown in the ground have few if any pests. Aphids and scale insects are most common and are easily controlled by wind, rain and predatory insects like lady bugs. Figs grown in pots, especially if they’re grown indoors, are more susceptible to aphids, scale and spider mites because indoor conditions are more favorable to these pests.

If you see aphids or spider mites, the best control is to take them outside and give them a good hosing with water. This dislodges the insects and washes them away. If you’re dealing with scale or heavy infestations of spider mites (which leave a spider web-like netting), separate the fig from other plants, prune the affected areas and dispose of the cuttings.

Other pests such as mealy bugs and gnats are less common, but easily treatable. Check out this article for various pest control methods.

Harvesting and Storage

Both Celeste and Brown turkey figs are parthenocarpic, which means they produce fruit without the need of a pollinator. Fruit grows from the leaf junction on first year (green) wood, and usually appears in mid-spring after the tree has leafed out.

As Celeste figs ripen they turn purple and begin to droop on the stem

Fruit ripens in late summer, turning from a firm green to either a deep purple or brown. As the fruit ripens it goes from sticking out upright on the branch to swelling and sagging off the stem. Once it becomes soft and slightly cracked, it’s ready to harvest.

Fresh figs do not store well, so if you’re not going to eat them fresh, it’s best dry and place them in an airtight container for longer storage.

Figs are healthy too. Fresh figs are a good source of dietary fiber and trace minerals. Dried, figs are not only high in fiber but vitamins and minerals such as manganese, calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, and vitamin K.

Brown Turkey & Celeste Fig details

How to create outdoor spaces in your own yard that feel like a secret, secluded retreat

Where will this garden path take you?

Growing up in a planned community, the last thing I wanted when I finally got my own home was a cookie cutter yard. You know — a lawn, a concrete patio, a generic tree, and some sort of mass-produced shrubbery up near the house.

I wanted my family and friends to feel like my yard was a secluded retreat away from the outside world. Like a park or a camp – a place you wanted to go and spend time rather than a place you were forced to because your mom couldn’t handle the chaos of you and your siblings in the house anymore.

Over the years the yard has evolved from a sloped, dry acre surrounded by a chain link fence into a dozen distinct gardens, each with its own special ambiance. From dry and desert-like to oak forest to lush and tropical, each garden has its own special magic that makes people want to stop and spend some time there. (In fact, a lot of our friends drop by just to hang out and decompress among nature.)

Let me share with you some of the techniques I discovered that make these gardens unique, almost secret, places so you can try them in your own yard.

Hidden Gates and Entrances

The North Gate to the tropical garden partially hidden by kiwi vines and nasturtium

Gates and entrances are necessary for any garden, but when you obscure them a bit, or they obscure what’s on the other side, it creates a sort of mysterious vibe that makes you want to know what’s on the other side. All of my gates are utilitarian in purpose (keep the chickens out, keep the dogs in, etc.), but dressing them up as an archway or threshold, and using plants to soften their utilitarian features, makes them all the more dramatic.

Screen Sightlines

Using a hill with sages (right) and the ivy hedge (left) to screen the path to the vegetable garden

Another important piece in creating a garden room is screening out what’s beyond the garden to make the area feel more private. You can do this with structures like the side of the house, a fence, or lattice, with natural terrain like a hillside or a valley, or with hedges and dense plantings.

My yard is on a hillside, so I use the terrain in combination with hedges a lot. For example, the path to the vegetable garden runs along a terrace at the bottom of the hill. The path is bordered to the south by a hedge of English ivy and to the north by native sages. The sages are only 3 – 4 feet tall, but because they’re upslope they seem a lot taller and make it feel like you’re walking through a fragrant sage forest as you head to the veggie garden.

Make Natural Roofs

The yucca garden in the front is under the shade canopy of a large podocarpus tree

Another way to add intimacy and privacy to a garden room is to cover it with a natural roof. This can be the canopy of a large tree, an arbor over which plants grow, or wooden deck or latticework.

Our front patio area is covered by a large podocarpus tree, while the breezeway to the tropical garden is covered with a wood deck over which passion fruit vines grow. Down in the vegetable garden where it transitions to the Mediterranean and native gardens, a hanging gourd garden makes a shady roof that not only makes it feel secluded, but keeps the western-most vegetable beds shaded and cool in the dog days of summer.

Make Destination Spots

The raised deck beyond the tropical garden is a favorite destinations at Sage’s Acre

Placing a bench, a table and chairs, or any kind of seat, in the garden changes it from a place you’re passing through to a room where you can stop, take a seat, and relax. We have four year round “rest stops” – a bench in the front succulent garden, a bench at the goldfish pond, a table and chairs in the shade garden by the barbecue and smoker, and (my favorite), a table chairs, and chaise lounges on the back deck where we can while away the afternoon and watch the sunset.

Use Pathways and Transitional Spaces

To go from the vegetable garden to the Mediterranean garden, you pass through the hanging gourd garden

Paths connect garden destinations, but they should also have their own appeal. Stepping stones, winding walkways, and disappearing paths encourage visitors to follow them into the garden and see what secrets might lie around the corner.

In larger transitional spaces – areas with wider walkways (concrete, tile, wood, etc.) — it’s not just about taking the visitor to the next room, but providing a visual transition that gives a hint as to what’s in the garden around the corner.

For example, our barbecue area near the front of the house is a semi-public area covered by a rustic wood patio cover, but open on the sides so you can see the goldfish pond, the keyhole garden, and the oaks and hillsides to the west while you’re sitting there.

However, if you follow the walkway to the north it gets far more intimate, closed in by lush, leafy tropical plants like passion fruit overhead, and guava, root beer plant, bananas, and Monstera on the sides. The concrete walk switches to a wood walkway just before the overhead deck ends. Follow the wood path around the corner, and it changes again from wood to stone pavers leading to a raised wood deck under a cherimoya tree.

This transition takes you not from just one part of the yard to the next, but from an open, semi-public area up front, to a small, private area hidden in the foliage further back.

Use Naturalistic Planting

The transition from the BBQ to the tropical garden is a little wild, just like a tropical jungle would be

A garden that’s too structured, too sculptured and rigid, doesn’t make for a comfortable garden room. It will just look (and feel) fake or manufactured. While a garden room can have a theme (e.g., tropical, Mediterranean, native, etc.), let the plants go a little wild. Let them overgrow the path a bit, or get a bit too tall or a little shaggy on the fence. If they flower, after they’re finished let them go to seed. Insects and birds will get a little extra food and you’ll get a garden that’s a little more natural and softer around the edges.
The idea in doing this is to make the garden look like it occurred naturally, adding to the sense that it was “discovered” rather than “designed”.

Seasonal Adaptability

Native wildflowers add color to the sage garden in late spring

Unless you live in the tropics, your garden climate will change throughout the seasons. Knowing that, you should design your garden rooms with all four seasons in mind. Depending on where you live, that might mean planting early spring flowering bulbs, or choosing deciduous trees and shrubs whose leaves change color in fall. If you live in California or the Southwest, it might mean planting native sages that flower in winter, wildflowers that bloom in spring, and cacti and succulents that reach peak color in summer and fall.

The point is, think about how the garden will look throughout the year, what blooms and dies when, and how you can adjust the combination to ensure the garden remains a special spot no matter what the season.

Accents and Extra Touches

Solar lights from the raised deck to the tropical garden add a little wonder to the walk at dusk

The final consideration in creating a garden room are those finishing touches that make it look complete. It might be some interesting pottery, or garden furniture. It could be wind chimes or whirl-a-gigs. Or it could be an object like a small stone statue or a mirrored garden ball. It can also be dual purpose elements like a butterfly or bird house, or a bee hotel that not only adds visual interest but provides shelter for the critters in your garden.

One of the easiest extra touches to add is some simple accent lighting. Solar lights placed around the garden or strung in trees or trellises will add a real sense of wonder and delight to your garden in the evening.

Have you built a garden room or secret garden? Or are you looking to build one? Tell me about it in the comments below!