Don’t Plant ANYTHING in October Until You Watch This

Do not plant one thing in your garden in October until you find out if you are a one or a two. My name is Nicole Burke and I've garden in three different climates. Chicago, Houston, and now Nashville. And I always plant something in my garden in October. In this video, I'm going to help you understand your own climate, whether you're a one or a two. So you know exactly what you should plant this month in October in your garden too, just to clear things up. This video is mostly for everyone who's gardening in the Northern Hemisphere where we are heading towards winter. Whether you're in a hot place or a cold place, you're heading toward your coldest part of the year. Now you're going to label yourself a 1. If you have already had frost or you know frost is coming in October, you're going to label yourself a 2. If your frost date is coming after October 31st or it never comes, you never get frost where you live. So if you're number one, you've already had frost or frost is on its way. That means we want to get things into the ground that don't mind cold weather, that can last through nights of cold and frost and even ice and snow. And that will give you quick harvest before you get too cold in the garden. So first we want to focus on the greens. So first we're going to start with the spray spring mix. Lettuce spring mix is easy to grow. It's going to come up really fast from seed, especially since your soil is a little bit cooler. And this lettuce absolutely loves cooler weather. Now if you have a heavy frost, if you're going to have snow or some ice, you do want to cover this with a pretty thick frost cloth. But you can have lettuce well into November and even December if you plant these seeds right now. Next is spinach. Spinach is a cold, hearty green, probably the best frost tolerant grain that I've ever grown in the garden. These seeds love it when the soil is cooler and they're going to germinate really well, especially if you've got really nice watered soil when the temps are cooler. Spinach, I don't know why, but it loves it when it's cold outside. So put your seeds in the ground right now, keep them watered every single day. You're going to get sprouts within about 10 to 12 days and then you're going to have greens that you can pick within 45 to 50 days of planting. Next up, we've got radishes, particularly French Breakfast radishes and the cherry radishes. Radishes, these are going to give you harvest in like 25 or 30 days. They don't mind frost, and they go from seed right into the soil. And they love cool soil. When the soil is like 45, 55 degrees, these seeds are going to pop up fast and give you a harvest before it gets too cold. I love to use radishes on salads and as like garnishes, but I especially love pickling radishes. And if you grow enough right now, you can pickle them and enjoy the taste of fresh, fresh garden harvest in the middle of the winter. Next up are carrots. These are slower to grow, but the good news is they love it when the weather's cold. In fact, cold weather actually sweetens the roots and makes them even more appealing to eat. Carrot seeds need to be spread out when you plant them. It's pretty hard to come back and thin them later, and you have to make sure these seeds do not dry out as they're growing. The trick is to keep them well watered until they start to grow. And, and if your temps are going to dip really low, cover these with a frost cloth overnight so they can bounce back, come back when the sun comes out the next day. You should have carrots before you reach the end of November. By the way, all the plants I've just told you about, they're inside of our Easy Garden Kit, which gives you all the directions on how to plant them, how to take care of them, plus directions on how to build your raised bed and put the soil mix together that I recommend. I'll put a link to the Easy Garden Kit right below this video. Now, beets are also a fantastic root crop to grow because they don't mind cold weather either. And, and they can actually stay and last through the garden, even in the middle of the winter when it gets really cold. They'll just kind of pause their growing and then pick it back up. When spring comes and the soil starts to warm up a little bit, you want to put these seeds about four fingers apart from one another. They need plenty of room to grow to get bigger. Also, keep these watered well, just as you should with carrots, and you're going to start to see small little beets forming within 50 to 60 days of planting. You might get some harvest before you hit the end of November. There's one more thing you've got to plant if you're a number one gardener, but actually the number two gardeners need to plant it too. So hang on, I'll tell you about that at the end of the video. My number two gardeners. There's no frost coming in October, and you may never get a frost this year, which is crazy for me to think about. You lucky gardener. You better make the most of this season. Okay, so here's the deal for you. The temps are going to be coming down. This is the coolest part of the year that's heading your way. So you need to take advantage of it. And you want to grow plants that take a little bit longer but like cooler temperatures. So one of my favorite greens to do that's so easy, I mentioned it earlier, is arugula. This is great if your temperatures are still warm. I remember when I was gardening in Houston, the temperatures were still sometimes in the 80s in October. Arugula can hang on and grow through those temps. I just put arugula in my mom and dad's garden in July, and the highs that day were in the 90s, you guys. And she's getting arugula harvest every single day. So this is your one short, quick return on harvest for my number two gardeners. Next up are these. These red mustards, purple mustards, y'. All, this is such a wonderful thing to grow in the garden that I see most people missing. These can go from seed directly in the garden. You're going to get these humongous leaves that will literally cover your face within about 50 to 60 days. And because your temps are going to kind of regulate and not be too cold too fast, you. You'll get harvested from these plants, from this one seed you could probably harvest four or five times. Another large green that you've got to grow if you're a number two gardener is Napa cabbage, Chinese cabbage. Oh, my goodness. This. It doesn't compare to what you can get from the grocery. That white, tasteless cardboard stuff at the grocery. This stuff is so delicious, so fresh, so crunchy. And if you're in a place that's got a longer, cool season, which you are as a number two gardener, you have to grow these greens. You can start these indoors. But actually, I've had so much success. The seed, putting it right in the soil and getting great harvest within 75, 80 days. Continuing along with these greens that will give you so many harvests is kale, any kind of kale you want to grow. I love this blue Scotch curled kale. We also love Toscano kale. These can go from seed right in the soil right now. Keep them watered. It's going to Be a little hard to keep them going in October, but if you do, these plants are going to have such a nice foundation. You could be harvesting from these all through the winter. When your frost comes in November, December or even January, these leaves will hang on. You'll have really nice established plants you can cut from each and every plant every single week. The other one is Swiss chard. This is same kind of idea. Take the seeds, put it right in the soil. You're going to have a well established plant by the middle of November and you're going to be pulling off leaves and harvesting from these plants all the way well into the new year. If you do have frost, if you're someone who gets frost in November, December, and it really does drop, cover these with frost cloth. These are going to need more frost cloth than the kale would. And you can keep your plants even through the winter if you've got some cold spells. Now, unlike my number one gardeners, I didn't tell them to grow any fruit because they've got a shorter growing season here. But you, you're the lucky ones, my number twos. And you can grow some fruit in your garden. We're not talking sweet fruit right now. We're talking sugar snap peas and fruit fava beans. These two can go from seed right in the soil right now. Keep them watered and then grow them up a trellis. They'll grow like 6, 7, 8ft tall. And you're going to get fruit starting around day 70, all the way into day 90, 100. So just imagine yourself, all these holiday celebrations in November, December, and you're springing these huge bowls of peas and fava beans and you're just like so gourmet and Martha Stewart and everyone's jealous of you. This is, this is what's going to happen if you plant some peas and fava beans. Peas, by the way, are also in the easy garden kit. Finally, you guys, you lucky guys. In the number twos, you also get to add some flowers. Calendula is a fantastic flower to put by seed in the soil right now. It's going to give you pest protection. Calendula is a great trap crop and it just grows so lovely next to all these other colors. Just imagine your garden with purple mustards, kale spring, Swiss chard, arugula, and all these peas and beans and then these beautiful calendula just overflowing on the side of every bed. That's what's in store for all the number two gardeners. All right, so I did say there is one thing everyone should plant, no matter their level, and that's this garlic. So garlic can go into the garden for pretty much everybody. This is your month to get your garlic cloves planted out. Give each one about, you know, what's this 1/9 of a square foot. You can plant rows, you can plant squares, but you've got to plant garden. Like this season, everybody should be growing this. And I have a whole video all about doing it right here. Thanks so much for listening to the Grow youw Self podcast. You can keep listening anywhere. You love getting your podcast delivered on Apple podcasts, on Spotify, iHeartRadio, you name it, we are there for you. And if you want to read the notes and get our free resources to help you grow more, you can go to gardenary.com podcast.