Hi folks,

Hope all your summer gardens are going well. I'm fairly new to gardening (started last year with SFG) and am really committed to trying to grow as much homegrown organic produce year round.

So I'm starting to think about fall crops and am unsure how to transition the garden, since my summer crops will still be in full swing when I am supposed to be planting my broccoli and brussels sprouts seedlings. And my peas. We often get a nice "indian summer" here that can last through the first couple weeks of October. Our first frost date is usually sometime in November.

I've been told we can grow spinach, lettuce, and kale and chard through the winter... but that at the very least we need to have our brassicas and peas in the ground by mid-September for a fall crop.

I have a 4'x8' bed that currently has tomatoes and carrots in it (half on one side and half on the other). In September, after the carrots are harvested, I was planning on putting my broccoli and seedlings. In another bed between some squash and some peppers, I had a spot where I was going to put another broccoli or brussel sprout.

But I just did some reading about companion planting and it said absolutely you canNOT plant brassicas anywhere near tomatoes or peppers. If that's really the case, I'd have to wait until the summer garden is kaput in October before I can plant things, which means I would miss out on having a fall crop.

I think I also saw that it said you can't plant peas near tomatoes. So I'm just stuck.

Then I've also read, but don't know first hand, is if you start things like peas and favas and broccoli in the colder weather, they'll just stay stunted till the spring and essentially be a spring crop. But I'd like to have some food to pull from the garden this fall.

Can someone who has gardened "year round" fill in the blanks for me how you add in new crops when others are in full production?

Thanks,

KristiMama