In this instructional video, Nicole Johnsey Burke explains how gardeners can keep their beds productive throughout August and into the fall, regardless of climate. She first teaches viewers to determine their frost‑zone grouping (1 = first frost in December or none, 2 = first frost in October/November, 3 = first frost in August/September) using a tool on gardenary.com. For each zone she lists a curated set of vegetables, greens, and flowers that can be sown or transplanted in August, noting expected harvest windows, planting methods (direct‑seed, trellis, indoor start), and benefits (cold‑tolerance, pest control, continuous harvest). Zone 1 (late‑frost) gets warm‑season crops like mizuna, cucumbers, zucchini, pole beans, borage, and zinnias, plus a suggestion to start cool‑season transplants indoors. Zone 2 (mid‑frost) receives quick‑growing arugula, kale, Swiss chard, beets, bush beans, sugar snap peas, and nasturtiums. Zone 3 (early‑frost) focuses on cold‑tolerant greens (spinach, spring mix), root crops (carrots, radishes), calendula for pest control, and larger brassicas (cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage) as transplants. Throughout she promotes Gardenary’s free seed set, discount coupons, and ready‑made garden kits (raised beds, trellises) with links in the description. The video’s purpose is to empower gardeners to continuously harvest by planting a “replacement” crop for every harvest, tailored to their local frost timing.
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If you thought gardening was over in August, you better think again, because every time you harvest something from your garden this month, you should put a new seed in its place. In this video, I'm going to teach you exactly what you should plant in your garden this month, no matter where you live. But don't plant a thing until you find out if you're a 1, a 2, or a 3. You're a 1 if your first frost date doesn't happen until December, or you don't even have a frost date. You're a 2 if your first frost date happens in October or November, and you're a 3 if your first frost date happens in August or September. If you don't know your frost date yet, you can go check it out. We have a whole tool you can use at gardenary.com. I'll link that tool right below this video. Once you find out what number you are, go ahead and tell us in the comments so we can find out who we're growing with this month. Now let's talk about what to plant if you're a 1. My number 1s, hang in there. I know it is really hot where you live, but trust me, better days are coming, and things are going to start to cool down just slightly in September, so you want to have your garden ready for it. The fall for you is more like the summer for for most northern gardeners, so you want to be sure you make the most of it. And I've got a list of things you can plant right now in August to give you loads of harvest in September and October. The first is to bring back some salad greens. You've been missing these because it has been way too hot for salad greens, but mizuna is a great green. You can plant it by seed, put it under your tall plants that are growing in the garden right now. It's a little spicy and peppery, but you put a little balsamic vinaigrette on it, maybe a little honey, some feta cheese, it's really delicious, and it'll get you through until you're in cooler part where you can grow your sweet lettuces again. Cucumbers are a quick win for you. The soil is plenty warm right now. Plant your seeds underneath a tall trellis. You'll get cucumbers to harvest in 55 to 65 days. You're starting to cool down a little bit, so these are going to be easier to keep watered and keep growing. Zucchini, same plant family. You could also do squash. These are also going to give you a harvest in 55 to 60 days, so putting them in the ground right now, put them in a place where you can either grow them vertically on obelisk or grow them over the side of the bed. You'll have zucchini and squash by the end of September. Next up are pole beans. These are going to grow up over your trellises, be really beautiful in the fall. I think it's a stunning fall plant, and it's one of those few that looks like fall even though it's a summer plant, so it's perfect for you and your region. And then I wanted to bring in some flowers. Yes, we need flowers to get us through these warmer months. Borage is great for pest protection. It's a beautiful blue flower. You can plant it by seed right now. And of course zinnias are quick win. You're going to get blooms by 60 days. You can do some from our free seed set, which are some brighter colors, or it might be fun to grow some zinnias that have more of a fall hue so that you feel like you're in fall, even though in September and October you're still sweating. And then a bonus: if you want to be preparing for the colder parts that will eventually come your way, it's a great time to start your cool season things indoors. Cauliflower would be one of those, so you can start these seeds indoors, not at all outside, but this is prepping you for September, October. And of course, be sure to come back to the channel to learn about planting these out in the garden in the later months. My number 2s are probably like, "What? Plant more things? My garden is packed!" And I can relate. So in this month, as you pick something, you want to put something in its place. Definitely still enjoy your summer crops. They're going to be growing well into September, but these are some things you can tuck in in the open spaces so that you can be sure your garden doesn't stop producing. The first, the easiest, is arugula. I'm literally sitting on a bed planted with this arugula seed. My mom planted this a month ago, and she's 's got arugula that she can cut every day. So right now is a great time to do it again so that you can get harvest in September and October. No-brainer to plant. If you've got any open space, stick that in there. Next up, if you want some greens that are going to follow you all the way into the winter, kale and Swiss chard. These both can be started by seed directly in the garden, or you could start them indoors or buy a plant, but these are greens that will carry you through your frost, even a first snow. You're going to have greens for a very long time if you get these started and growing right now in your garden. Next up are beets. This is a wonderful root crop that will carry you far into the fall season. Plant these by seed in your little open spaces. They take quite a while to get going, so now's a great time to get them started so you can have them in October and November. Imagine coming to Thanksgiving feast with your own beet frittata that you made from your garden. That's going to be you. Now we've got two fruit choices. First is a quick producer, a bush bean. These are going to grow small and compact and give you beans in 55 to 60 days. And then on the trellis, you can grow a sugar snap pea. These are going to take a little bit longer. They produce slower, but they'll give you that trellis coverage, which is beautiful in the fall. And of course, we need a little bit of flowers, so nasturtiums are the perfect flower to get you deep into the fall season. Look at these nasturtiums in my mom's garden. They are gorgeous. They need to be started now when there's no chance of frost so that you get blooms before the colder weather comes. You might be watching this and thinking, A, I wish I had a garden set up so I could actually plant something, or B, I wish my garden looked this one? Well, I've got good news on both fronts. We carry the kits for everything you see here in my mom's garden, like this raised bed, the arch trellis, the panel trellises. Every single thing you see in here, we have it in a kit that you can order right to your doorstep. And because you are one of our favorite YouTube watchers, you actually get a coupon just for being a friend here on YouTube. So I'm going to put that coupon link right below this video. You can head to the Gardenary shop, snoop around, see what you can find, and before long, your garden's going to look as good as this one too. And now Now let's get into number 3. Group number 3, this is your month to ensure that your garden is not bare and empty when that first frost hits in August, September, or early October. When I was in Chicago, I learned this the hard way the first season. I still had all my tomatoes, all my summer things just all over the garden when that first snow hit, and man, was I shocked and surprised and then left with a pretty empty garden. So that will not be you. So first up is spinach. Great green to start from seed right now in August. You're going to have a harvest by October, and these greens, they love cold weather. They love it when that first frost hits. In fact, the greens get sweeter and softer, so great green to get going right now. They do take about 2 weeks to start to germinate. These are in our free seed set, so I'll link that below if you want to check that out. It's just $10 shipping and handling for 10 sets of seeds. Next up is our spring mix. This is a must. Plant this even before you plant the spinach. You know those plastic boxes you buy like the store with all the colorful lettuces in it that like loses its flavor in a day. This is not that. This is what that tasted like when it was harvested right at that moment. You're never going to go back to grocery store lettuce. This is so easy to plant. You just literally scatter the seeds. This you'll have in like 45 days, so we're talking before the middle of September, you're going to have your own salad bar. Carrots are a fantastic root crop to push you through into the colder season. Carrots love cold. They love frost. They get sweeter with the frost. You might be pulling up a carrot on Christmas Day if you plan this right, okay? Plant your carrot seeds right now, and you'll get to start to harvest these probably by the end of September into early October. They are frost tolerant, so a great thing to fill in the blanks. And while you're waiting on the carrots, grow some radishes. These are going to give you a quick, quick harvest before anything else. In like 35 to 40 days, you'll have these beautiful radishes. These are also in our free sets of seeds, so I'll link that below. And to give you a little color, a little flower to push you into loving fall instead of dreading the first frost is calendula. This is a great pest control plant, is a trap crop. It will pull all the aphids that want to eat all your lettuces and spinach, and it'll pull it to them. But they're also beautiful, and you can use the calendula for tea and all kinds of tinctures, things like that. So this can go by seed directly in the garden. And then if you want to go for some bigger things, this is going to take longer. Cauliflower, broccoli, cabbages— these need 90 to 100 days. These have to go in August in your region. They've got to go into the garden by a plant, not a seed. So I have a seed here, but the plant has to go into your garden, okay? So go to a local garden center if you didn't grow your own, buy some natural, organically grown cauliflower, broccoli, or cabbage and stick them in the middle of your garden. You will thank me when you're harvesting these huge heads of cabbages in October. It's very exciting. Every time I give out a planting list like this, people are like, "Nicole, but how do I fit these new plants into my existing garden?" Well, I did an entire switchover in one of our client Ellie Holcomb's gardens, moving the summer garden to the fall garden, and you can watch the entire process so you can do it too right here.
