If you didn’t get finished with your October planting, you get a reprieve this month. What you can plant is exactly the same as last month.
Other planting things are going on this month too. It’s a good time for planting trees – they grow their root systems over the winter and are ready to leaf out come spring.
Many herbs like the cooler weather and are good to plant now. Some of those include:
- Cilantro
- Dill
- Parsley
- Fennel
- Garlic
- Oregano
- Rosemary
- Sage
- Thyme
Lots of harvesting is going on this month. There are obvious things like your warm weather veggies and many of your tropical-ish fruits like papayas. But, don’t forget your citrus. Though it’s still green colored or mottled green and orange, and doesn’t look ready to eat, it is ripe. Citrus needs a certain amount of cold for the color of the peel to turn orange or yellow (the cold breaks down the green colored chlorophyll allowing the orange or yellow color to show). The only way to know for sure is to pick one and try it.
Days are getting noticeably cooler and many CFG Newsletter readers are worried about how much cold their veggies can take. In general, none of your warm weather plants can tolerate freezing temperatures or even a touch of frost (frost can happen when temps are above freezing)
All of your cool weather plants can take frost and some freezing… some more than others. It’s amazing to visit your garden in the morning after a frost/freeze and see everything stiff as a board. The plants will appear translucent and you may expect them to collaps into a pile of mush once they warm up. But they won’t. Just leave them alone and after they thaw they’ll be good as new… for the most part. Some of the leafy ones like lettuce may get the equivalent of ‘freezer burn’
Plan to protect your tropical-ish plants soon. Get ready to move them or cover them at any hint of frost in the forecast. We don’t expect any until December, but you never know.
Warm Weather Plants
- NONE!
Cool Weather Plants
- Beets
- Broccoli
- Brussels Sprouts
- Cabbage
- Carrots
- Cauliflower
- Celery
- Chinese Cabbage
- Collards
- Kale
- Kohlrabi
- Leek
- Lettuce
- Mustard
- Onion – bulb, multiplier, bunching
- Peas
- Potatoes (only if VERY protected)
- Radish
- Spinach
- Turnips
- Garlic
- Strawberry
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Frost sensitive (Harvest these plants when the temperature dips to 32°F or less)
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Hot peppers
Sweet peppers
Eggplant
Beans
Basil
Nasturtiums
Melons
Summer squash
Nasturtium
Sunflower
Somewhat frost hardy (These crops may survive temperatures as low as 28°F)
Lettuce
Arugula
Chard
Escarole
Endive
Cabbage
Nicotiana
Very frost hardy (Don’t rush to harvest these; they’ll be fine at 28° or colder)
Leeks
Scallions
Chives
Brussels sprouts
Broccoli
Kale
Parsley
Beets
Carrots
Winter squash (plant will die but the squash will be fine)
Pumpkins (plant will die but the pumpkin will be fine)
Sage