Tamara O’Brien has always planted a fall garden. She sows various types of greens, cucumbers and heirloom squashes much later into the summer than less-seasoned gardeners might dare and harvests all the way through October.

Planting a fall plot is a strategy that lengthens the growing season and increases the amount of food one can grow even from a relatively small space.

O’Brien admits to a few gardening-related “covid responses,” which places a little more excitement around her fall harvest than in years past.

“Potatoes are my covid thing,” said O’Brien, 39, of Mt. Lebanon, who has also added several gardening beds and a long-planned patio in recent months.

Gardening, or gardening more, has been a covid-response for many Americans. The chairman of Burpee Seeds, George Ball, told Reuters that they sold more seeds in March 2020 than any time in the company’s 144-year history. The hashtag #victorygarden has been added to over 104,000 Instagram posts.

It’s a trend that comes with people being stuck at home for long periods during the pandemic, said Raynice Kelly, part-owner of Beltzhoover’s Soil Sisters plant nursery and Learning Garden Educator with Grow Pittsburgh.

“I think it has people realizing, ‘Hey, I do have that little space on the side of my house,’ ” Kelly said.

To identify a good fall plot crop, look no further than the seed packet. Listed there are the days to maturity, ideal temperature and frost tolerance.

With an average frost date of Oct. 15 in the Pittsburgh region, O’Brien recommends selecting seeds that can be harvested by Oct. 1, providing a buffer in case of an early frost.

“We have so much beautiful sunshine left, and things will mature and come to life and you will pretty much have anything you want to grow that takes less than 65 days,” said O’Brien.

Whether new to the gardening game or experienced and newly-inspired, a fresh look at what is possible from a fall gardening plot is a good reminder that one’s gardening season need not end with the summer heat.

Peas

While they don’t always grow perfectly in a fall garden, there’s also no such thing as failure with these multitasking climbers.

“If it’s too hot, the peas won’t like it, and if we get a lot of really early, cold weather, they don’t like it, but they do thrive in cooler temperatures,” said Tara Rockacy, farmer and owner of Churchview Farm in Baldwin.

Sugar snap and snow peas, Rockacy’s recommended varieties for fall plots, are so cool weather-inclined that she doesn’t recommend planting until mid-to-late August.

“They can be a risk, but it’s worth it,” said Rockacy. “And, worst-case scenario, if the peas don’t work, you still have those delicious greens because pea sprouts are just so tender and delicious anyway.”

Greens

Intentionally a broad term, “greens” applies to lettuces, collards, mustards, kale and more.

“We grow greens all year long. Anyone can grow greens all year long,” said Raqueeb Bey, founder and managing director of the Black Urban Gardeners and Farmers of Pittsburgh Co-Op and Garden Resource Center Coordinator for Grow Pittsburgh.

With their tolerance to frost and shade, greens are among some of the easiest and most satisfying vegetables to grow, but soil quality and looseness is paramount, according to Bey.

“I shy away from topsoil because it’s heavy. I like to use soil amendments such as cottonseed meal, blood meal, revita and alfalfa meal, because it’s a compost accelerator,” said Bey. “I came up with the mixture last year, and I put it in my compost and then with my greens. They usually take about six weeks to grow, but I used this mixture last year, and they were fully developed in four weeks.”

Bey cautions that white moth butterflies like to eat greens, making your greens look like Swiss cheese. A mixture of water and neem oil, an organic pest management strategy, sprayed each morning will keep them at bay while leaving the greens’ flavor unaffected.

Turnips

Turnip leaves are also “greens,” but there’s a bonus: a white, fleshy taproot which is typically reserved for roasting or mashing.

While those more common varieties are delicious in their own right, Rockacy has another approach.

“My favorite is the hakurei turnip, which have become popular in restaurants over the past five years or more,” she said. “Unlike other turnips, hakurei turnips are so delicious raw that when we got our spring harvest of them, I don’t think I ended up cooking any.”

Growing this smaller variety turnip is also hugely satisfying for the gardener. With only around 30 days from germination to harvest, they can be planted in late August with turnips on your plate in just over a month.

As a regular restaurant supplier, Rockacy grows this variety during both spring and fall at Churchview Farm, but the later harvest has slightly more to offer.

“They’re very, very sweet, and the fall crop is even sweeter because of the cold weather.”

Squash

The Oasis Farm & Fishery program’s growing space in Homewood aims to distribute as much produce to its immediate community as it can possibly grow. It’s a goal that makes a fall garden essential and emphasizes plants which excel in small spaces.

For Tacumba Turner, the program’s manager and a Grow Pittsburgh garden educator, trellised squash, specifically butternut squash, is an ideal choice.

“In my situation, I would be working in confined spaces. So, I’d be looking to make the most of that,” he said, referencing the use of circular, metal cage trellises. “If I can get that going vertical, that opens up more space where I can get in more leafy greens or peppers or something like that.”

Like other ideal fall garden plants, butternut squash grows quickly, in around 50-55 days, and mature, well-established plants are resistant to light frosts, according to Turner.

Read the seed packets. Keep germinating seeds damp. And, avoid intimidation by heeding O’Brien’s advice:

“Dig a hole in your yard, fill it with good soil and find your favorite couple of things you like to grow.”

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