Your Ultimate Fall Vegetable Gardening Guide

Prepare for a bountiful harvest with these tips for growing beets, potatoes, Swiss chard and more.

Summer is coming to a close, but don’t put your gardening tools away just yet! Fall crops usually take little work, and they love the shortened days and cooler temperatures. These tips will help you grow and maintain a garden full of fresh, hearty vegetables ready to add to fall recipes.

The temperatures are turning cooler, and summer plants are beginning to wither. Now’s the perfect time to plant!

Turnips

• Planting and spacing: Plant seeds in full sun and loose soil, ¼ to ½ inch deep, 4 to 6 inches apart, in rows 24 to 30 inches apart. Turnips love regular feedings of water-soaked compost
• Harvesting: Harvest when the tops are approximately 3 inches in diameter

Beets

• Planting and spacing: Plant beet seeds in full sun, ½ to 1 inch deep, in rows 8 to 12 inches apart. Sow in light, well-drained soil, and water regularly to avoid tough produce
• Harvesting: Pull beetroots when they reach approximately 2 to 3 inches in diameter, and don’t toss the leaves! Beets make a delicious addition to salads

Tip: Did you know you can easily wash your gardening tools using Dawn Ultra Dish Soap? Just add a teaspoon of Dawn to a gallon of hot water. Scrub grime and dirt from the tools with a dishrag or sponge, and then rinse them under running water and dry them right away. Get the full tutorial here.

Swiss Chard

• Planting and spacing: Swiss chard loves full sun, but can tolerate partial shade. Plant seeds about ½ inch deep, 1 to 3 inches apart, in rows 1 to 2 feet apart
• Harvesting: Harvest leaves as soon as they’re big enough to eat. (You can eat the stalks, too!) In mild climates, regularly plucked leaves will continue to grow throughout the winter

Potatoes

• Planting and spacing: Plant small tubers whole, and cut large tubers into sections with two to three eyes (small indentations where roots sprout) on each piece. (For best results, after cutting the large tubers into pieces, leave them in a cool, moist room with good ventilation for a couple of days before planting.) Sow pieces 3 to 4 inches deep, 10 to 12 inches apart, in rows 2 to 3 inches apart in deep, fertile soil with good drainage. When they reach 1 foot tall, mound hills of soil (6 to 8 inches) around the plant at the soil line. Water evenly to avoid rough, deformed potatoes
• Harvesting: Dig potatoes when they reach an acceptable size, approximately three to five weeks after flowering.

Tip: If you haven’t done so already, make sure to prep your patio and garden for the winter. A Mr. Clean Magic Eraser Extra Durable comes in handy for several winter-prep tasks: cleaning your grill before putting it away for the season, scrubbing a summer’s worth of grime from patio furniture, and removing dirt and debris from containers of plants that need to live indoors during the winter months.

Radishes

• Planting and spacing: Plant seeds in full sun, 1 inch apart, ½ inch deep, in rows 1 foot apart. When seedlings form, thin plants to 3 inches apart. Water regularly and evenly, and sow every five to seven days to keep a constant supply on hand
• Harvesting: Radishes mature quickly and abundantly, sometimes just a couple of weeks after planting. Pull them as soon as they look big enough (bigger than grapes). Kept in the ground too long, they can develop a pungent flavor