Planting a Fall Vegetable Garden – Sponsored by Park Seed

I change over the summer vegetable garden, clean and prepare the raised bed, and plant a nice selection of fall vegetable seeds include lettuces, carrots, turnips and radishes.

This video is sponsored by Park Seed which is one of America’s oldest and largest mail-order seed and plant companies. They have a huge selection of high quality plant and vegetable seeds and also everything you’ll need for your garden.

Visit the Park Seed website for all of your seed and gardening needs: http://parkseed.com/

Here’s a description of what we planted with the product # provided by Park Seed as well as some additional photos of the garden:

5184 Lettuce Master Chef Blend

1. Our hand-selected blend of complementary flavors, textures, and colors from the spectrum of delicious lettuces available today! We deliberately chose varieties that would be ready within 65 days, but if you want to extend your lettuce season, try successive plantings of these terrific types! You get 4 loose-leaves, 1 butterhead (Boston), and 1 Romaine of the following types:
2. Brunia — 50 days. The sweetest loose-leaf, with striking red-and-green leaves.
3. Simpson Elite — 48 days. A delicately flavored loose-leaf, very crinkled and curled, with great holding ability.
4. Green Ice — 45 days. Extra-crisp, savoyed loose-leaf that harvests well into summer.
5. Buttercrunch — 65 days. The classic butterhead (Boston), with thick, juicy, crunchy leaves.
6. Sierra — 55 days. A terrific Romaine (Cos) with thick, crisp green leaves with reddish-bronze edges. Great heat resistance.
7. Red Sails — 45 days. This AAS winner is the tastiest red-leaf loose-leaf we have ever grown.
8. Pkt is 1/32 oz, at least 600 seeds.

5182 Lettuce Green Towers

60 days from sowing.  Green Towers is the gardener’s favorite, and no wonder — you can’t beat these mildly-flavored, slightly savoyed leaves for dense growth and good adaptability to anything Nature throws their way. And the flavor is superb, not to mention the big yields! Reaching 8 to 12 inches high and wide, these dark gray-green heads are crisp and flavorful, suitable for both spring and fall crops. This Romaine has been the classic name for many years, and it earns its reputation with every delicious leaf!

5464 Turnip White Lady

35 days. A uniform, vigorous, and quick-maturing white turnip, this extra-fancy type is excellent for its tender greens as well as its smooth white globes. The flesh is crisp and sweet, even when allowed to grow large. Harvest at 2½ inches in diameter for best freshness. This hybrid adapts very well, bringing in big crops where others have not performed satisfactorily. It resists heat and bolting, and can even be grown all summer in cool and mild climates; the fruit will be smaller but just as delicious!  Turnips are easy to grow in spring or fall. Harvest the greens at about 2 to 3 inches as the roots grow; they will regrow several times as long as the crown isn’t damaged. Pkt is 1/16 oz. (at least 600 seeds), which sows about 25 feet of row.

52557 Radish Roxanne

27 days from direct-sowing.  To quote the song, Roxanne has really “put on the red dress” when it comes to this award-winning radish! Perfectly round, crisp globes up to 1½ inches in diameter grow in just about any climate and finish in under a month. And even if they don’t get harvested promptly or receive a bit too much heat and sun, they refuse to sacrifice their flavor, texture, or color!

Roxanne won a 2015 All-America Selection for its garden performance, so you know that gardeners across the country, in a wide range of climates and conditions, have grown it successfully. The AAS judges noted that this radish stayed firm and solid even when it grew oversized, and that it had no “bleeding” (loss of bright red outer color), streaking (red streaks in the white flesh), or pithiness (mealy texture) even when held for a long time past its harvest. This means less waste and worry for you!

This spicy, flavorful radish has pure white flesh, a crispy crunchy bite, and a diameter of between 1 and 1½ inches on plants with about 8 to 10 inches of aboveground growth. In the garden, the plants should be spaced about 6 inches apart. But Roxanne is also compact enough to grow in any container with a depth of about 4 inches or greater! Fun kitchen windowsill project!

Radishes are a cool-season crop, thriving in spring, fall, and in mild climates, even winter. They are the quickest to finish of all the garden veggies, making them a good choice for children’s gardens.

52627 Carrot Rainbow Blend

50 to 60 days from direct sowing.

A delightful blend of five different colored carrots all suitable for growth as gourmet baby veggies or full-sized mature roots, our Rainbow Carrot Blend is a treat for every garden! Plant a nice big patch of these beauties and have fun at harvest time discovering the colors you have grown!

For this mix we selected five classic names in carrots. All of these varieties except one (Bambino) are traditionally full-sized carrots, but are suited for early harvest as baby vegetables. Their flavor and texture matures early, so you get the full “carrot” bite in delicious miniature form!

Here are the varieties you will grow in this blend:

Atomic Red – Ideal for cooking, this root emerges a dull shade of pink from the earth. But with cooking it turns brilliant scarlet, and its flavor sharpens as well! If growing to full size, expect it to reach 8 to 11 inches long in 75 days.

Cosmic Purple – A carrot in a Halloween costume! The skin of these Nantes-type roots is deep violet, but the interior is orange. A gourmet variety, it offers a sweet bite with an aftertaste of spiciness that is most pleasing. If growing to full size, harvest the tapered 7-inch roots in about 70 days.

Solar Yellow – Until recently this ancient carrot was found primarily in Middle Eastern specialty markets! It keeps its bright yellow color with cooking, and has a lovely moist, sweet, crunchy bite that it is a bit more sugary than traditional orange varieties. If you allow it to reach full size, it will stretch 6 to 7 inches long in 65 to 70 days, with broad shoulders topping a thick root that abruptly tapers to a fine point.

Lunar White – A true gourmet variety, grown in the Middle Ages but hard to find these days. The roots have a very small core, a mild bite, and a lovely texture that is pleasing either raw or cooked. When grown to full size, they reach 8 inches long in about 75 days.

Bambino – A true baby carrot, arrow-shaped and absolutely delicious! The skin is dark orange and very smooth, the flesh sweet and crisp. Very small core. Harvest it at 4 inches or let it reach 6; it matures in about 60 days, but can be harvested even sooner.

As you know, home-grown carrots are higher in vitamins A and B than their store-bought counterparts, not to mention calcium and phosphorus. Their green tops are nutritious as well — try chopping them and sprinkling them in the tops of soups and stews, or work them into cooked dishes just before serving to retain their delicate flavor and texture (while maximizing their nutritional impact).

Carrots are a cool-weather crop, best sown direct as soon as the soil is workable in spring, and sown successively every few weeks until midsummer. Heavy soils are one of the few serious problems for carrots, so prepare the soil thoroughly before planting or, if you are in a clay soil area, consider growing in raised beds or containers. Carrots also need moisture to keep their roots from splitting. With these needs met, they are virtually trouble free!

If you are growing this blend for baby carrots, sow the seeds about 2 inches apart, pushing them just ¼- to ½-inch into the soil. If you are going to let them reach full-size, either sow the seeds an inch apart and then thin them when the seedlings emerge, or space them 4 to 6 inches apart. Onions make excellent companions in the vegetable garden. You’ll love this colorful mix of quick-to-finish, tender-sweet carrots! Packet is 200 seeds.