Planting a Delicious Fall Garden in Louisiana

Yesterday, my family and I cleaned out the summer garden and planted the fall garden. We had a nice time working together outside as a family. It was very hot, but with all the hands helping out, we got a lot done in just a few hours.

In my zone, we have mild winters, with an average first frost date in mid November, and only occasional hard freezes throughout the winter. It’s a prime location to grow all the cool-weather veggies, such as cabbage, peas, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, beets, carrots, lettuces, and all kinds of leafy greens. Most of these veggies will grow really well through December or even longer, if protected from really hard freezes.

The only catch is that in order to have that beautiful fall garden, we have to prep and plant the garden in the brutal heat of late summer. On Labor Day, my family and I all donned our sun hats, work boots, and gloves, to rip out lots of weeds, and all the spent summer crops: mostly cucumbers and zucchini (my tomatoes were a total fail this year.) Some things were left to grow, including okra, which is just getting started. Then, we planted seeds: lettuces, peas, beets, carrots, and garlic. We left room for seedlings that are growing indoors: cabbage, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and broccoli.

I follow the LSU Ag Center’s Vegetable Planting Guide to know what to plant when. It’s really tough to grow these cool-season veggies in the spring and summer here, because it just gets too hot too fast. For some, you can try to plant them out in February, but in my opinion it’s much easier to grow them in the fall and focus on growing seedlings for the summer garden in February.

Summer Garden Recap

This summer’s garden had some successes and some failures. Due to lots of rain in March and April, my tomatoes died, and my peppers failed to thrive. But I was able to grow a lot of cucumbers, zucchini, basil, indigo, coreopsis, and okra. In a separate field, I have been growing a small amount of cotton as well, which will be harvested throughout the fall. We ate a lot of fresh produce, and I was able to preserve:

• Over 10 gallons of pickles, both fermented and canned. (I used this book for canning recipes.)
• Seven quarts of shredded zucchini, frozen for future baking
• Half a gallon of pesto, frozen (read instructions and watch video here)
• Half a gallon of frozen sliced okra, with more coming in daily (perfect in my gumbo recipe)
• Four ounces of dried coreopsis (a dye flower)
• A lot of indigo dye powder (maybe about 6 ounces? Some is still drying so I can’t weigh it.) (Read/watch my indigo extraction process here)
• A quart of basil salt
• A half pint of Thai basil salt
• Various dried herbs, mostly oregano and basil
• A pint or so of dried cowpeas
• Three gallons of frozen blueberries (Check out my Blueberry Muffin recipe!)
• Three gallons of frozen muscadines (jelly recipe coming soon!)
• Two gallons of frozen blackberries (We made delicious Blackberry Ice Cream with some of our harvest!)
• Three gallons of frozen plums (My Blackberry Plum Jam recipe has been very popular recently!)
• Four volunteer luffas

Fall Garden Plans

I’ve decided to plant the following in my fall garden. Hopefully I will get a good harvest!

• Green and red cabbages
• Cauliflower
• Brussels sprouts
• Garlic
• Carrots
• Beets
• Red and green lettuces
• Spinach
• Collard greens
• And I might tuck in some radishes in empty spaces

Hopefully I will be able to share some delicious recipes and preservation tips using these crops!

Fall Garden Growing Tips

Besides making sure you plant the right crops within the right date range for your zone, I have a few more tips for growing a fall garden.

• Make sure you keep the seedlings watered. In my area, September and October are often hot and dry. I have to watch my little tender baby seedlings very carefully to be sure they get enough water and don’t dry up. Sometimes this means watering them more than once a day.
• Mulch can really help hold moisture in the soil, so I recommend mulching as soon as your plants are in place.
• Some seeds need to be planted indoors first, to get a head start. Others do better sown straight into the ground. Reed your seed packets to know which planting methods are required for which seeds.
• Be sure to add a round of compost and fertilizer before planting to feed your soil after the summer garden has used up some of its nutrition. I didn’t this time around, but I will add fertilizer and mulch the beds with bunny poop and dead leaves very soon
• If you need to protect your plants from hard freezes, I recommend getting some hoops and some frost cover. The size and shape you will need depends on the size of your garden beds. It’s not hard to set these covers up, and typically you can reuse them for years.

I created a video of my family working in the garden, cleaning up the dead cucumbers and zucchini plants, and planting all the seeds. It was hard work in the heat, but we got it all done, and ate ice cream afterwards. Enjoy the video, and happy planting! Leave a comment to share your fall garden plans and dreams! Does your climate have a mild winter or a long, cold winter?