3 Tips to Continuing Vegetable Gardening into the Cooler Months

As the weather changes from hot to cold there presents a great opportunity to extend your vegetable gardening season with cooler crops. Most home vegetable gardeners call it quits once their warm weather crops come to an end. A long growing season and lots of work as well as looking forward to other fall activities lead to many to say, “I’ll wait until next spring.”

Before you start thinking about your fall vegetable garden as being burdensome, take some of these tips into account and you will see you can extend your growing season without very much effort.

Keep it Small

One of the best ways to ensure a successful small garden is to keep it small. There is no need to grow lots of vegetables in the fall (unless you want to of course). You can grow a handful just to keep it going, and keep it fun. A four foot by four foot area is perfect.

Keep it Close

Fact is when you can see your garden and it’s within reasonable eye sight from your back door or kitchen window you are more likely to maintain it. My rule of thumb is no further than 10 feet away.

Grow What You Will Eat

I absolutely love spinach, and fortunately for me, spinach is a cool weather crop, perfect for my fall garden. Since I know I love to eat spinach, it makes it easier to grow it, since I am anxious for it to be done. Follow this tip and you are sure to keep your fall vegetable gardening at its peak interest. Grow what you know you will eat.

Sure none of these tips are ground breaking news, but implementing them after a long summer growing season will definitely go a long way to growing even more vegetables in the cooler months that follow.

Start with picking our your area no more than 10 feet away, plantings vegetables that you know you will eat and you will be all set. In a few short weeks, before winter sets in, you will have some more great tasting fresh vegetables on the dinner table once again.

About the Author
Michael C. Podlesny is the president of and a contributing writer for Mike the Gardener Enterprises, LLC the exclusive home for the Seeds of the Month Club.