Salad green seeds, like these lettuce and arugula plants, can be sown in July and August for harvest until fall and maybe even winter.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Life can get in the way of gardening, especially in the spring. Graduations, kid sports, home maintenance, maybe a bout of Covid, and the next thing you know it is July. Everyone is harvesting more tomatoes and zucchini than they know what to do with, and all you have is some unopened bags of soil and seeds and a lot of good intentions.

Fortunately, now is the perfect time to plant a garden bed or two of midsummer vegetables that will be ready for fall and perhaps even beyond. The key is choosing varieties with a relatively short growing time until harvest and a tolerance for cooler temperatures.

According to the National Weather Service, the average first frost in Northeast Ohio is in early to mid October, depending on your exact location, and can be as late as the beginning of November. That leaves us with at least 60 days to grow and harvest quick-growing leafy greens like Swiss chard, spinach, and lettuce, root vegetables such as turnips, beets, carrots, and radishes, and even the legumes like green beans and peas that are associated with spring. All of these plants are considered cool-weather crops and can be planted in July or even August for a fall harvest in 40 to 70 days, depending on the specific plant and variety. (The seed packet should have specific information.)

Plants in the Brassica family, such as cabbage, kale, and broccoli are also commonly recommended for fall harvest, and kale is said to tolerate cold temperatures particularly well. Unfortunately, the number of pests and diseases that attack these types of plants makes them more difficult for novice or time-strapped gardeners to grow.

Instead, I find salad greens particularly rewarding to sow at this time of year. Their seeds will germinate quickly in the summer heat and the plants will stay perky and productive when cooler temperatures arrive and keep summer flavors alive even as the days get shorter. Helpful reader Ray from Westlake shares that he can grow arugula (or rocket, as the English like to call it) into the winter months, and I am hoping to copy his success this year. I kept my Swiss chard going well into November last year and enjoyed its flavor and cheery color even more in the cold weather.

Another category of plant that can be sown now is herbs, which seem to be doubling in price at the grocery store yet are easy to grow at home. Tender herbs like cilantro will turn black at the first hint of frost but grow so quickly from seed that it is still worth planting them now. Hardier perennial herbs like oregano and thyme are slower growing, so it might be better to plant seedlings instead of seeds, but once established, they will likely survive cold weather long enough that you can use them in your Thanksgiving stuffing, and come back next spring too.

The gardening fun doesn’t stop with the first frost, either. As mentioned in the garlic scapes column a few weeks back, garlic cloves are planted in late fall and harvested in July, so I’m adding some fresh compost and sowing fall crops in my newly emptied garlic bed. Likewise, when the fall crops are finished producing, I will plant some garlic in the same location and have garlic shoots sprouting in early spring. That way, no matter what surprises and distractions come my way in spring of 2023, I’ll have something growing in my vegetable garden.

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