OUR FALL GARDEN PLANTING SCHEDULE

Fall is our favorite time of year to garden! The temperatures are cooling and there's such a wide variety of vegetables that we can grow in fall here in zone 8b. Fall gardens offer an even wide variety of crops to grow than spring or summer gardens.

We are fortunate to be able to grow food practically year round here in south Georgia, so fall is a busy time for planting. The disadvantage to our southern climate is that we have be patient getting seeds or fall transplants in the ground. If we plant too soon, many of those cool-season vegetables won't care for the heat.

And while we don't get many freezing nights throughout the winter months, we do get a few. As a result, we need to make sure we get seeds and transplants in the ground soon enough so that they're able to establish before any freezing temperatures arrive.

Our average first frost date is listed as the end of November, but that can vary greatly by 20 days some years. So we have to be quite flexible with our fall planting schedule. Some years we'll see summer temps persist through early October, which pushes the fall planting back a few weeks. Other years we'll see fall temps arrive early and we need to be prepared to get seeds and transplants in the ground as soon as possible.

Below is our tentative fall planting schedule which is always subject to change based on yearly weather patterns: