A tale of two zones. It's interesting to read the perspective of someone from Texas. Most people's summer veggies here got zapped by a September 11th frost, and the cool-season veggies got damaged by a hard freeze on Oct 1st. However, I have hoophouses - that and a remarkably warm October mean that I am still picking bell peppers, plus tons of chard every week. I also have a fall planting of salad greens in a hoophouse that I hope to harvest through mid-November. Kale outside is still going strong. Our average high so far this October has been 59 degrees, whereas just two years ago, the average high was 42 degrees. Every year is a surprise here.

This year in Northern VA I planted mustard greens, swiss chards, an asian green and a final crop of bush beans. In October I planted softneck garlic. During the winter I plan to germinate artichokes to be transplanted into my raised bed shown in the picture. Last winter all of my chokes died. I plan to protect them better next winter. Also shown in the picture are my hardy kiwis to the left, my asian pears to the right, a goji berry in each end of the bed and a raspberry bush and fig tree behind.

I ripped my limas out yesterday, so we could run the belly mower over that part of the garden. They have been bearing all summer and still had blooms on them, but enough was enough and the first hard frosts aren't that far off. I do have a dedicated fall garden with just cool weather crops in it now. Cabbage, broccoli, carrots, lettuce and radishes. With food prices what they are............I'd be silly not to since I depend A LOT on my veggies to cover as much of our food needs as possible.

All but one tomato plant are gone (no disease, still tons of fruit--probably will rot on the vine with all the rain in our forecast), peppers, zucchinis, cukes, etc are also gone. For the fall garden, I have carrots, broccoli, cabbage, celeriac, turnips, chard, lettuce, leeks, cauliflower, & Brussels sprouts--keep trying these every year!! Oh, I also planted a mix of radicchio (new to me) and Asian greens, and am attempting Belgian endive (out of the 12 I planted, 10 bolted, so I still have 2!) Love the fall garden--just planted shallots & garlic...next up onion seeds in December. My goal is to not have to buy any veggies this year. Lots of summer veggies in the freezer to supplement.

All the tender stuff is gone now, but I still have the Asian radishes--soon to be harvested, and beets, carrots, escaroles, leeks, kale, collards, fall and winter lettuces, chard, and the savoy cabbages that will be harvested in Dec and Jan.

Seems like someone in zone 8 in Texas should be getting appropriate produce throughout the winter.

Well, I have just started my "Fall" garden here in Jacksonville. I have planted the garlic, carrots, beets, turnips, brussels, broccoli, chard, kale, artichokes, and onions. But we still have TONS of peppers growing and blossoming, mustard and collard greens, bush beans are finishing up, okra is still going strong (we are very tired of okra, but are freezing some), pole beans are about ready to be picked to dry, flowers are still happy, even the hibiscus... and it's not even cold enough to plant the flower bulbs yet. Best weather of the year here is right now. :)

Like Kalie_Florida, my fall garden is just going in. One of my neighbors has a wonderful plant sale in the Spring and Fall and I'm excited to see what they will have this year (sale is Nov 1&2.)

Tomatoes, several peppers and eggplants are still going strong from Spring and Summer plantings.

I bought a huge and beautiful ceramic bowl and several herbs to make an herb bowl. I don't like my herbs to get too big because they start looking rangy and raggy.
I'm also planting Easter egg radishes and peas. I may plant pansies under my container Meyer lemon tree. I have strawberries under the container orange tree.

I am planting my first fall garden ever this weekend. I have always lived in apartments and moved into a house last August and attempted to plant my first garden in the spring. We didn't really research it and just planted whatever seeds we found in a drawer. I also planted quartered potatoes that had started to bud. I am pretty sure the seeds were really old and there was no rhyme or reason to our garden so it really didn't produce much. The tomato and pepper plants did well as did the potatoes but thats about all. Since then I have done my research for my climate zone and we have been composting for the past year so we redid our garden with new soil and I planted starter seeds in pods a few weeks back and all but the parsnips have sprouted. So this weekend I will be planting spinach, arugula, kale, brussel sprouts, carrots, parsnips, beets, garlic, and sugar peas. I am excited to get them in the ground and am open to any suggestions anyone has to make these veggies bountiful since I do not really know what I am doing. :) Also I have a bunny who I allow to roam free in the backyard so any suggestions on how to keep him out of my garden would be appreciated.

I have three rabbits who are never allowed to roam. I'd be afraid of hawks, cats, and mosquitoes. Did you mean supervised playtime?

KImber NO NO to the bunny, or make some sort of fence!
As for Brussel sprouts, the first year I grew them they looked fantastic! But that was the year I didn't wear my glasses out into the garden!
I mentioned something about growing them to a produce guy and he said they never bought "organic" BS because they were always riddled with aphids!( and this is a chi chi organic store!)
I put my danged glasses on and went out to the garden and sure enough.....COVERED!!!!!! So covered that a shot from the hose wouldn't do the job!

So far, this is my best fall garden ever. I put nearly everything in earlier this year and that is translating into larger and earlier harvests. We are eating greens: turnips, Red Russian Kale, and Georgia Collards; lettuce, which will go under row cover in the next week or two; carrots, onions, garlic, broccoli (big and beautiful. Shouldn't be long.), rutabagas.

And we are still eating summer things: peppers, eggplant, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers in pots, and one section of okra is still making every third day or so.

It's been an abundant garden this year. My freezer and pantry runneth over, and I am thankful.

Great looking garden CharlieBoring and Kimberlywithluv,,,

Laceyvail, the winters where I am at (near Texarkana) are quite cool. Our first frost should be around Nov 8. Last year we had several days in the teens. I Generally, plant my onion in Jan/Feb. This coming year will be my first to grow new potatoes. They are so inexpensive here that I have never considered growing them.

I see a lot of people planted garlic. I will probably do that next year. I am expanding my garden this winter and dont want to plant anything this year.

Thanks for all the replies.

First time I am planting garlic. I planted some over the last two weeks. I noticed something which you all may already know.

I first planted some garlic right from the market, 3 weeks ago. That has still not germinated. However, I happened to put some in the fridge. After being in the fridge for just a week, I planted that. It germinated within a week. The plants are already a foot high while the non-chilled has not even germinated.

So, I am assuming that chilling it even for a week promotes germination.

I am thoroughly disgusted. I planted a late crop of spinach and lettuce like I always do. The spinach will winter over til spring, lettuce will freeze.
I got a good crop of each. However I am mad about the lettuce. It was a pkg of mesclun, like I always plant. supposed to have red sails lettuce, romaine, 2 kinds, arugula, and many more. I can't identify any of what I have growing. It could be a bunch of weeds.
this was Burpee seed, and if anyone has noticed, their seed has gone up in price. goodbye Burpee's.

Right now we're picking lettuce, collards, brocolli, cabbages, spinach, carrots, peas, turnips, and beets. It's been a good fall here in Va.

I am starting to eat spinach and lettuce i bought in 6packs and planted several weeks ago. Last week i planted one 6pack each of bok choi, toi choi, mizuna, collards, parsley, red kale, blue kale, some kind of lettuce..cannot remember...and italian dandelion.

Imeant to start marveille de quatres saisons lettuce seeds (pardon my french) but have not done so yet. I also have some chinese celery and japanese spinach seeds i might try. And of course peas...i can start them all winter here.

I am really looking forward to the miner's lettuce, aka claytonia, that grows as a wild native all over my yard in winter. I am trying for many different greens species and not just brassicas onky because the bugs love them too much.

Cooling weather brought another flush of peppers and cherry tomatoes, we will see what ripens.yelliw squadh and burgundy okra are still flowering tho the fruit is staying smsll, we are pretending they are pticey organic baby veggies we grew thst way on purpisr.