Smarten Up Your Fall Garden

-Jenn Hawthorne-

When you think of fall gardening, you think of changing seasons, cooler temperatures, rain, and even snow on occasion. If you are considering a fall garden, maybe you have thought about where you might want to put it. One option for at least some of your fall planting could be growing vegetables in Smart Pots. I, personally, believe that Smart Pots are the best thing that has happened to the container garden industry since the trowel!!!

Smart Pots invented the first aeration bag for container gardening 30 years ago, and they have been making them ever since. They come in a huge variety of sizes from 1 gallon to 45 gallon to hundreds of gallons. You can get a small herb pot up to an entire raised bed garden. We will concentrate on the smaller smart pots and what to put in them in this blog.

Here is a brief explanation of how Smart Pots work. All you need to do is fill them with soil, plant your seeds or plant starts, and water and feed them. Smart Pots make gardening super easy, clean, and portable, as smaller-sized pots can be moved anywhere. Instead of only planting plants that will do well where your garden is sited, you can plant anything you want and move it to the right place to do the plant the most good and increase your harvest. I have my entire Smart Pot container garden on my deck for easy access and critter control. Three other big benefits to smart pots are aeration, water drainage, and heat release.

Below is a list of plants that will thrive in our area and will provide you with a nice fall harvest:

Beets, beans, broccoli, brussel sprouts, turnips, collards, green onions, kohlrabi, lettuce, parsnips, cauliflower, peas, radishes, etc. There are several tomato varieties that you can plant for a winter harvest. Among them are Black Krim, brandywine, cherokee purple and green zebra.

Once you decide what you want to plant, then you can work on when to plant it. Here is a quick guide:

6 to 10 weeks before the first killing frost date plant alpine strawberries, arugula, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, carrots, lettuces, turnips, radishes, spinach, mustard, pac choi and other asian greens, etc. You can either start the seed packs, or plant young starts to ensure you have time to grow what you want in the time it will take for the plants to mature. You can also plant a cool weather herb garden in Smart Pots. Some of the herbs that will grow best in the cooler months are cilantro, dill, parsley, sage, rosemary, mint, chives,chervil, hyssop and lavender.

You can also consider using Smart Pots for indoor gardening. You just need a dedicated indoor area, lighting, and you are set. Some people have farm to table all year long. It just takes a little planning, work and care and you too can have a garden all year long.