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It’s not too late to plant these 11 vegetables

Through the Garden Gate: You can plant peas, lettuce, carrots, green beans and several other veggies through mid-August.

Fran O'Leary, Wisconsin Agriculturist Senior Editor

July 5, 2024

3 Min Read
Vegetables in raised garden beds
ROUND 2: Now is a great time to plant a second crop of several of your favorite vegetables, which will be ready to harvest in September and October. FRAN O’LEARY

Maybe you already harvested your lettuce, but you want more, or you realize you should have planted a second row of peas in your garden because you never have enough. If you are longing for more of your favorite vegetables, you may be in luck.

While it’s too late to plant tomatoes, eggplants, pumpkins, potatoes, butternut squash and watermelons, now is a great time to plant a second crop of several vegetables that will be ready to harvest in September and October.

Hopefully you bought some extra seeds at a garden center in May or June. But if you didn’t, you can still visit Jung’s Seeds online at jungseed.com or go to one of its stores in Wisconsin, located in Randolph, Sun Prairie and Stevens Point, to purchase the seeds you want to plant now.

You can plant these 11 vegetables through early to mid-August and harvest this fall:

1. Spinach. Spinach can be planted from now through mid-August for a second crop in fall. This crop grows best in cool temperatures.

2. Swiss chard. Like spinach, you can plant Swiss chard from now through mid-August for a second crop in fall.

3. Lettuce. I like to sow my lettuce seed in large flowerpots on my deck. I usually grow a pot of black-seeded Simpson lettuce, and two weeks later, I sow a packet of mixed lettuce varieties in a second pot. That way I can harvest from one pot one week and switch to the second pot the next week for plenty of lettuce. If you prefer, lettuce can be planted in a row in your garden or raised garden bed.

Related:5 tips for growing lots of tomatoes

4. Radishes. Radishes are often the quickest vegetable seed to go from planting to harvest in the garden. Radish seeds usually germinate in less than a week, and some varieties are ready for harvest in a month.

5. Green beans. You can plant green beans now through mid-August to harvest a second crop this fall and pick them through October or until the first frost.

6. Broccoli. Broccoli prefers cool temperatures. You can start broccoli seed on your deck or patio and transplant seedlings into your garden by mid-August. Broccoli can handle a little frost. You can harvest broccoli through the end of October.

7. Cauliflower. Like broccoli, now is a good time to seed cauliflower in containers outside and transplant seedlings into your garden by mid-August to harvest in October.

8. Cabbage. Similar to broccoli and cauliflower, you can seed cabbage in containers outside and transplant into your garden by mid-August. Cabbage prefers cool weather and will be ready to harvest by the end of October.

9. Peas. There are two main types: snap peas and snow peas. Depending on the variety you select, pea plants can grow 2 feet tall. They will need to be supported with some type of fence. I like to use chicken wire, and I plant a row of peas on each side of the fence. I plant each row about 2 inches from the fence.

10. Carrots. Carrots planted in the vegetable garden in July or August are often some of the sweetest, especially if they mature in the cooler days of fall. It is important to thin a row of carrots to one carrot every inch or 2 after the tops are a couple of inches high. Otherwise, you will end up with carrots that are crooked and small.

11. Beets. Beets can be planted through early August for harvest in October. Similar to carrots, make sure you thin beets to one beet per 2 inches when the tops are 2 inches tall so your beets can grow large.

Make sure you mix in composted manure and topsoil into the areas of your garden where you want to plant new plants or vegetable seeds. Your garden needs about an inch of rain or water each week. Check to see if the soil is moist or dry. Gardens need moisture every other day if it is hot and dry.

About the Author

Fran O'Leary

Wisconsin Agriculturist Senior Editor, Farm Progress

Fran O’Leary lives in Brandon, Wis., and has been editor of Wisconsin Agriculturist since 2003. Even though O’Leary was born and raised on a farm in Illinois, she has spent most of her life in Wisconsin. She moved to the state when she was 18 years old and later graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater with a bachelor's degree in journalism.

Before becoming editor of Wisconsin Agriculturist, O’Leary worked at Johnson Hill Press in Fort Atkinson as a writer and editor of farm business publications and at the Janesville Gazette in Janesville as farm editor and a feature writer. Later, she signed on as a public relations associate at Bader Rutter in Brookfield, and served as managing editor and farm editor at The Reporter, a daily newspaper in Fond du Lac.

She has been a member of American Agricultural Editors’ Association (now Agricultural Communicators Network) since 2003.

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