Making the Most of the Fall Garden
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My mom has always said that gardens at the end of summer make her feel sad.
They really are usually quite pathetic, with no green left but the weeds.  We,
however, try to capitalize on the fall as a time for harvesting far more than
just winter squash.  In fact, we continue to eat greens from the garden with no
greenhouse or coldframe summers until the end of December.  Keep in mind that
fall is just spring backwards as far as plants are concerned -- if you can
sprout it in very early spring and it doesn't die from the heat of July, then
you can probably start it in July and keep it alive until November.

Swiss Chard
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Chard is one of my favorite greens and has to be the easiest thing to grow in
the fall, because you just keep using the same plants you started in spring!
Here in Western MA, we have been able to harvest chard every 2-3 weeks from
early summer through mid-fall.  The only trick is not digging it up.  Harvest 3
weeks before your first frost and you will have another crop ready to go in
October.

Salad Mix
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I've got a favorite salad, and it does as well in the fall as in the spring:
romaine, escarole, and arugula.  All these things can be started in soil blocks
in mid-summer and be dropped in the ground in late summer.  They'll all
tolerate dips below 30˚F quite well.

Escarole and arugula are particularly fast growing.  If you start harvesting in
early September by clipping the heads almost all the way to the ground, a new
head can form in two weeks. Romaine is less so, so unless you are a fan of
bitter flavors, keep the romaine:escarole:arugula planting ratio 2:1:1.  We
cram 36 of each of these into 4'x4' beds, and they manage to form their own
weed barrier (with the exception of arugula).

Kale
----

Kale is indestructible.  We once had so much kale we couldn't eat it all, and
we just left it in the ground all fall.  By the end of December, it was more or
less frozen solid, just in time for the first snow. I didn't want them to get
buried, so I snapped 20 plants off at the base and threw them in a 20-gallon
trash bag.  We pulled them off the front steps for soup all winter!

Kale really does last into December, so it's worth the effort to get it into
the ground.  It needs a lot more time that lettuce or chicories; you'll need to
start soil blocks by mid-June if you are in New England.  I recommend Tuscan
(Dinosaur) Kale for fall plantings -- it's far more heat tolerant, and if you
transplant it at the end of July like I do, the seedlings will have a few 90˚F+
days, which have killed weaker Scottish Blue seedlings for me in the past.

I know some gardeners who welcome the fall after the harvest-heavy days of
summer.  The beauty of the tips above is that by the end of August, there's
nothing more to plant, and you have a supply of fresh produce just waiting to
be brought to the kitchen. Planned carefully, that harvest can last through the
end of the year.