by Lisa Giroday, Sandra Lopuch and Sam Philips | Take a look outside. It’s becoming crystal clear that Fall is just around the corner. But is it too late to sow and transplant veggies in the garden? No! Well, for some things, the correct answer is almost.

So this is just a friendly reminder to get busy in the garden and transplant the rest of your winter seedlings and sow some seeds. If you haven’t read our post from last season about “winter gardening” and overwintering, we want to briefly explain these two often confusing terms with more clarity. Winter gardening is summer planting for a fall/winter harvest. This can include veggies such as carrots and winter greens (eg. arugula). Overwintering is summer planting for harvest the following spring and summer. This can include veggies such as garlic and broad beans. Kale overwinters as well, except that you can harvest throughout the fall and winter. You can still squeak in some transplants this week, such as our beloved purple sprouting broccoli cultivars, Walla Walla onions, scallions, kale, and winter lettuces like Merlot and Rouge D’Hiver. Great news, eh?

You can also still direct sow an array of winter veggies from seed. Think savoy spinach, parsley, chervil, arugula, gai lan, mizuna, cilantro, radish, mustard greens, and corn salad. Several of these you can sow well into September, and both broad beans and garlic are planted in late September and early October. Plus you can also sow Calendula, a speedy bloomer (and edible, too). If you sow now, winter blooming is possible (if you sow before the first frost, Calendula overwinters and blooms in spring). It’s not a bad list of possibilities, really. With the nice weather that we’re supposed to have next week (crossed fingers), it’s an opportune (if not the last) time to take the initiative and get your garden going for 365 days a year.

THE VICTORY GARDENS ARCHIVE

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Victory Gardens is a team of local urban farmers for hire. Lisa, Sandra and Sam help transform tired or underused residential and commercial green spaces into food producing gardens. Their goal is to challenge the way communities use space and to participate in the change needed to consume food more sustainably. For the rest of the growing season, they’ve hooked up with Scout to share some cool tips and tricks on how to get the best from of our own backyards.