Oftentimes we hear people say that if you can grow vegetables in Oklahoma, you can grow them anywhere. This is of course, an exaggeration, but there is some truth in this statement…especially this year.

This growing season has been weird, hasn’t it. We had what seemed like a longer spring with cooler temperatures. During this period of time, we also experienced a record-breaking monsoon season with more rain than we had gotten in years. These cooler temps and excessive rain of course happened shortly after we all got most of our plants in the ground.

Then we moved into real summer; the time of year we question why we are gardeners in the first place because it’s so darn hot. And then now here we are in the midst of an early fall…at least for now. Who knows what weather-related aberration awaits just over the horizon.

The wet spring seems to really set us back. In my experience, plants don’t really recover well from sitting in water. It seems to stunt their growth, and they never seem to catch up. For example, okra is always a great, reliable producer at our Seed to Super Farm. By this time of year, we are typically harvesting buckets of okra from plants that are about 6 feet tall. Not this year. Currently our okra plants are only about 4 feet tall, while some of the replacement ones that got planted in the spots where others drowned out are only 2 to 3 feet tall. It’s not a varietal difference because it’s from the same seed packet as previous years. So, I am left to conclude it has to be an environmental issue that is to blame. And when I say environmental, I mean temperature and water.

The good news is that fall gardens give us a time to reset, to try again with hopefully better results. And we are approaching the final days of fall planting, at least the final days where we can realistically expect to get a harvest.

When we plant now for a fall harvest, we need to be concerned about how many growing days we have left because, mid-November is the average first freeze date of the year and that first freeze brings garden season to an end for most (not all) of our vegetable crops.

So, let’s assume we don’t get our first freeze until mid-November. If we plant on September 1^st, that gives us about 76 days. And if we have an early freeze like we did a couple of years ago in mid-October, that only gives us about 46 days. There are not a lot of crops we could plant now that would give us a harvest in 46 days, so many of us are gambling on the later date of mid-November hoping for a good 76 days.

The good news is that while we have some crops that fit in the “tender” category (meaning that a light freeze will take them out), we also have a variety of crops that fit in the semi-hardy to hardy category that can stand a little cold. Tender plants would include beans, corn, cucumber, eggplant, pepper, pumpkin, summer squash, and tomatoes. Semi-hardy plants can take a light frost in stride and continue to produce. Semi-hardy plants would include beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, collards, garlic, potatoes, kale, leeks, radios, spinach, Swiss chard, and turnips.

From this list, you can see that there are still quite a few crops that would be safe to plant now, but if we are going to do so, we need to get moving.

At our Seed to Supper Farm, we have planted our fall crops of carrots, beets, Chinese cabbage, collards, and turnips. We already planted sweet potatoes, followed by butternut squash and a second round of cucumbers. Disease took out our first batch of cucumbers, so I located a disease resistant variety. We are trying it out to see how it does. So far, so good.

Some of those semi-hardy vegetables do best when they are planted as transplants rather than being direct seeded into the ground. Those would include broccoli and cabbage. It’s too late to start these seeds indoors and them move them outdoors. But, if you have your heart set on some cabbage, I would suggest direct seeding some Chinese cabbage. We planted it last year for the first time and it produced huge heads of cabbage for us. So, give that one a try if you haven’t grown it yet.

All this to say, if your summer garden is looking as tired as you are, try planting some crops for a fall harvest. It’s not as hot outside (making it more enjoyable) and some of the insects that give us trouble each year have already gone through their life cycle, thereby reducing the pest load we have to deal with. So get some seeds and get planting. See you in the garden!

You can get answers to all your gardening questions by calling the Tulsa Master Gardeners Help Line at 918-746-3701, dropping by our Diagnostic Center at 4116 E. 15th Street, or by emailing us at mg@tulsamastergardeners.org. Phot: Tom Ingram