Generally most of my fall crops are planted during the 3rd week of Aug here in central Va - Z-7. It's getting late now before the first frost/freeze sets in here (late Oct?) but I planted spinach today and I planted the last turnips yesterday, both as seed. Collard seed could make it ok if autumn is kind. All 3 grow fast but if temps drop into freezing teens-F then that'll slow them down. I'll plant spinach again in early Nov for an early spring harvest, it's tough and makes it through winter here in good shape. Just clean it up by late Feb and it comes back strong.

One year I got ambitious and made pvc pipe hoops and used row covers. I had the most gorgeous lettuce all winter, plus spinach, collards, kale cartots and chard. The cover makes zone 7 into zone 8. I even planted seeds in January and they did fine. No bugs and no need to water. i never had time to do it again, but hope to some winter.

Bit late for planting now unless you want to provide cover and can ensure great sun exposure as the sun shifts. Like vgkg most of my Fall planting is done in August and leafy greens work well if I keep them well mulched and shaded somewhat early on when it is still hot and then cover them as needed when frosts approach. Look into the various methods of "season extending" like low tunnels and such.

Dave

I live in the Washington DC area and this is my first year doing fall gardening. Last year I did attempt to grow a collards plant on my balcony... I believe I bought it from Home Depot in October or November and transplanted it to a pot soon after. Needless to say, it didn't grow whatsoever but stayed alive during the winter. As soon as spring hit, it started growing and bolted after getting about 6 or 7 leaves on it. I have sense learned to start fall plantings indoors around August or September. I have broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, collards, kale, and mustard currently growing inside under grow lights (started in August/early September) with a plan to transplant them outside this weekend. I already have turnips, buttercrunch lettuce and radishes growing outside. So far everything everything is looking great (I expect to start harvestign turnips and rasdishes in the next couple weeks. I say all this to say that most leafy veggies I would expect to do well in Zone 7 as long as you start them early enough (particularly inside to avoid any weather mood swings). I don't think they will do much much of anything as seedlings if its cold. They need a little bit of age on them to keep going when the cooler weather comes.

giving you zone is the wrong information. if want useful answer what is you frost date.

vgkg: I like the idea that I could plant now and even if the harvest wasn't great immediately, it would be ready for an early spring harvest. I'll have to get an earlier start in August next year, too.

Candace: Oh, that does sound lovely!! I know what you mean about needing the time, though. I'll look into it. Fresh greens in winter is very appealing!

digdirt2: Good idea to keep the greens shaded while hot--not sure why I hadn't thought about doing this before. And thanks for the search term--I will definitely look into that and see what looks doable!

balconygardener19: starting seeds inside in late summer is brilliant! And that makes sense for the plants to get a little age on them to continue growing while it's a bit colder. Will try this!

war garden: I thought the zones were determined by first/last average frost date?! :) The last several years our first frost has been right at the end of October. Zone 7 is a big zone though, and I forget whether I am in A or B.

USDA zones are determined by the coldest average winter temperature.

frost dates. frost date has nothing to do with zones.

Agreed that USDA zones are often misused. They have little to do with summer gardening. They are defined by simply how cold it gets in the winter. Their value is thus to assess opportunities for plants to be perennial. But as it turns out, I think the frost dates are pretty well correlated with USDA zones.

dan if over lay zone map over frost date map you will see how wrong you are.

Sorry, I'm in 8b in Texas, and I used to be in 8b in the PNW. Frost dates were similar - within a couple of weeks. I know of others that behave similarly. Maybe you can give an example?

that is not how zones work.

frost date is last or first killing frost date.

zone coldest average temperature.

hence they not related

one is date and other is temperature range.

Geez. I'm saying that in the PNW and Central Texas, both 8b, the FIRST FROST dates are within a couple of weeks of each other, and the LAST FROST dates are within a couple of weeks of each other. No one ever said that first and last frost dates were related. You didn't answer my question. But you're right. USDA zone IS representative of the coldest winter temp.

I'm amused when people start blathering about USDA zones as deterministic for summer gardening. Summer gardening in the PNW is nothing like summer gardening in Central Texas. Been there, done that.

I am in the transition area between 7b and 8a. I’m growing spinach, chard, lettuce, arugula, Sorrell, claytonia, mache, fava beans, sugar snap peas turnip greens and mustard greens. I’ll be using row covers once it gets cold to add protection. The last couple of years I had chard and kale survive throughout the winter. Without protection, lettuce died back but it came back in the spring (as an aside, I left some to flower. The flowers are actually quite pretty. They are blue and look like an aster)

Which cultivars of lettuce did you grow that had blue flowers, Jamie? Mine only ever produce yellow flowers. Chicory and some wild lettuce species have blue flowers.

Well, I said "lettuce" but it was "mesclun mix" which is usually a blend of lettuces and other things. So, I don't know the specific variety. I'll see if I can find the photos I took of the flowers.

edit - I found the photo ... I also had some zinnias planted in that bed

Yup. Those are chicory flowers. Very pretty. And edible.