I've been planting cilantro, spinach, basil, chard, arugula and lettuce (being left to go to seed)

I've had the best luck with lettuce and spinach in the past . I'm staying away from peas as they never seem to get to maturity.

Anything that gets attacked by flea beetles or cabbage aphids won't get planted.

Having seedlings started indoors seems to help.

And if all else fails there's cover crops.

My advice would be if you have open areas turn them over to remove competing roots and experiment to see what works for you.

I have grown Asian greens and peas for the fall, Mary. It's "for the fall" not really "in the fall."

The schedule is one of the reasons that I plant early varieties of potatoes. As those potatoes are harvested, mostly Asian greens replace them. That process of replacing the potatoes begins this month.

Let me back up just a little. I will pull a bed of peas today and plant bush beans in their place. I think of beans as a summer crop but a mid-July sowing means September harvest. Beans are killed by frost but it has been quite a few years since we have had a frost in August.

Okay, back to the spud patch. I harvest about 4 plants at a time, a couple times each week. The first seed in that ground will probably be snow peas. More than once, I've picked frost-covered pods off those pea vines. However, I'm completely ready to harvest the tendrils rather than wait for the pods if time runs short. About 8" - 10" of the tendrils can be taken. I like them to have flowers and they can be used in salads or stir-fry.

After digging potatoes, it's best for the ground to settle before sowing the small seeds of Asian greens, like bok choy. I have tried lettuce a couple of times but the plants have not made much growth by frost. Everything really slows at that point.

If it doesn't freeze in September, I'll have weeks and weeks of bok choy for stir-fries. Plants from a July 20th sowing will be too mature by mid-October. Plants from an August 7th sowing may be real tiny, however. They can take a frost. It may or may not damage them. They won't necessarily stop growing.

Here's wishing You the best, in the fall.

Steve

I am wondering if/when I can plant mesclun seeds. I think it's too late now, but maybe I could try them before Fall. If so, when?

Mesclun is a mix of veggies, I am sure you know, Popmama.

There is lettuce in there for sure. Maybe mizuna, an Asian green I've grown but not in the fall. Arugula? That might be easy because it's related to radish and quick but once again, I've only grown it in the spring. Spinach? Endive? Again, never grown in the fall.

My advice is to schedule back about 60 days from the official first frost and then sow seed weekly. If you have enough plants for a salad, it seems to me that you should not go saladless though the late season. You would gain an idea of the best sowing dates for future fall gardens.

Steve

Thanks, digit. I made an entry on my electronic calendar to plant August 2. I'm pretty much already saladless. I have some red-leaf lettuce growing still but it's looking pretty sparse. I had to throw out the remaining freckle lettuce plant because it got moldy inside.

I now have peas where I once had potatoes, in the little veggie garden! The picture was taken about a week ago. These are snap peas, because I couldn't find the snow pea seed ... worked out! Now, my questions are why didn't I plant more seed & why not a better trellis?

Also, there are peas in the big veggie garden! Those are volunteers in the old pea bed pulled in early July. I just left them in the beans sown then. The bean plants have been sheared by 2 frosts.

Steve

Saw this note pop back up again. I ended up planting bok choy, mustard, radish. All did quite well. I had forgotten about the radish & it got to be about 4 inches long. Too hot for regular eating though not yet pithy. (It was in a mostly shaddy part of the garden.) Both the bok choy & radish were wonderful in my first attempt at kimchi!

Do you have a good kimchi recipe to share, comary? I've done the simple salted cabbage recipe before but would love another to try.

Oh and I would very much like to know!

Hopeless in my attempts to make sauerkraut, a year or so ago, I made a pickled cabbage that went in the freezer. It was simple and good, simple tho ... but, good. I've liked the kimchi I've had but I'm not very experienced. It looks complicated.

Two "by the ways:" a lady I know has a husband with some sauerkraut renown. She volunteered the information that "massaging" the shredded cabbage is an important secret to his success.

I may have found a tasty refrigerator dill pickle recipe. Hopeless is also a good description of how a crock or two of conventional pickles turned out.

Steve