What would you plant in September? Here are 3 crops you can still plant in September.
#1.SPINACH
You can plant spinach up until around 2 weeks before your first frost. Plantings this late in the year will not provide a harvest this fall or winter. Instead you are planting for the spring. These late plantings will get up and growing before the cold weather sets in but expect them to only have a few small leaves.
You will need to offer them some type of protection over the winter (a Mini hoop house or cold frame would be best). Once the weather starts to warm up in February these plants will take off and give you your earliest spring harvest ever!
#2.KALE
Kale is one of the hardiest plants out there. I have found the crinkly leaf varieties like Vates or Winterbore to be particularly hardy. Kale planted in September will grow slowly and will still be small when winter sets in. But it will provide a good harvest of small leaves all winter. Then the plants will take off in the spring.Because kale is so hardy it will grow unprotected in your garden until early winter (think December). In all but the coldest areas the only winter protection they will need is a piece of heavy fabric row cover. And you will love the improved taste the cold weather imparts to your kale, it’s like a different veggie this time of year.
#3.LETTUCE
Here too you are planting mostly for the spring now. Lettuce plantings in September will grow slowly all winter. Those small lettuce plants are surprisingly cold hardy and just like spinach they will take off in the spring for a delicious early harvest. Choose mostly leaf lettuces for theses plantings. I have found those small leaf lettuce plants survive very well in a cold frame.
