Image by Mirko Fabian from Pixabay

Did you know that some vegetables thrive in cool weather and really won’t do well in the summer heat? You can extend the vegetable garden season by planting cool-season vegetables now. The cool season is an ideal time for growing vegetables. With little effort, within a few short weeks, you will have a basket or two of some of the healthiest leaves, root crops, and vegetables that Mother Nature can provide.

Cool season veggies prefer to grow in temperatures that are at least 15 degrees below those preferred by warm season crops. Most cool season vegetables do best when the temperatures are in the 70s (20 to 26° Celsius). Cold weather vegetables can be planted in late summer for a nice fall harvest, Our latest cool season vegetables are here now for your cool weather gardening. Choose from broccoli, arugula, collards, kale, kohlrabi, radish beets, leeks, bunching onions, turnips, lettuce (buttercrunch, green leaf, red-leaf, romaine). Most of these can even endure short periods of frost. With a cool-weather vegetable like kale, frost on the leaves can make them even sweeter. These cool-weather plants grow well in the ground, in raised beds, or even in containers. If container gardening is your thing, choose a container with holes in the bottom and pour in a potting mix with plenty of nutrients and efficient drainage, like Miracle-Gro Organic Outdoor Potting Mix.