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What to plant in fall is cool-season crops that mature in cooling weather and often sweeten after frost — kale, spinach, lettuce, radishes, carrots, beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts and Swiss chard — plus garlic planted for next summer. Most are sown in mid to late summer so they finish before hard frost, with timing set by counting back from your first fall frost. This guide gives the count-back method, zone-by-zone windows, soil temperatures in °F, and days to maturity for a productive autumn garden.
We do not test or physically handle the plants and products we cover; our guidance draws on horticultural extension research and the aggregated experience in thousands of owner reviews, as explained in how we rank.
The count-back method for fall timing
Fall timing runs in reverse of spring: instead of counting forward from the last frost, you count backward from your first fall frost. Because days shorten and growth slows in autumn, add a buffer.
- Find your average first fall frost date.
- Take the crop's days to maturity from the seed packet.
- Add about 14 days as a "fall factor" for slowing growth.
- Count back from the frost date for your latest safe sowing date.
A 60-day broccoli with a first frost of October 15 should be started by about August 1. Hardy crops can be pushed later because they keep growing slowly and survive past frost. The same logic underpins the whole vegetable planting calendar.
The reason for the two-week "fall factor" is worth understanding, because it catches out gardeners who plant strictly by the packet. In spring, a crop grows into lengthening days and warming soil, so it often beats its listed maturity. In fall it grows into shortening days and cooling soil, so the same variety slows down measurably in its final weeks and can take considerably longer than the catalog claims. Once daylight drops below about ten hours a day, growth nearly stalls for many crops — a threshold sometimes called the "Persephone period." Anything you want at full size must reach it before that slowdown, which is why the fall garden really has to be planned and sown while it still feels like summer. Getting seed in the ground even a week late in fall can be the difference between a full head of cabbage and a loose, undersized one.
Frost-hardy crops that sweeten in the cold
These are the stars of fall gardening — cold improves them as plants convert starches to sugar.
| Crop | Days to maturity | Cold hardiness |
|---|---|---|
| Kale | 50 to 65 | Hard frost, into low 20s°F |
| Spinach | 40 to 50 | Hard frost; overwinters with cover |
| Carrots | 60 to 80 | Hard frost; sweeten dramatically |
| Brussels sprouts | 90 to 110 | Hard frost; best after frost |
| Collards, leeks | 55 to 120 | Hard frost |
Semi-hardy crops for early fall
These take a light frost but not a hard freeze, so they suit early-fall harvests and warmer zones.
- Lettuce (leaf types especially) — fast and forgiving.
- Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower — often better in fall than spring.
- Beets, Swiss chard, turnips — reliable cool-season producers.
- Arugula and Asian greens — fast and ideal for succession sowing.
Fast crops for a late sowing
If summer got away from you, these mature quickly enough to sow in late summer or early fall.
| Crop | Ready in | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Radishes | 25 to 30 days | The fastest fall crop |
| Arugula | 30 to 40 days | Cut-and-come-again |
| Leaf lettuce | 30 to 45 days | Harvest outer leaves |
| Spinach | 40 to 50 days | Overwinters with protection |
| Baby turnips | 35 to 50 days | Roots and greens both usable |
Garlic and overwintering crops
Some fall plantings are not for fall harvest at all — they overwinter for the following season. Garlic is the classic: plant cloves from September to November, after the first light frosts but before the ground freezes, for harvest the next summer. It needs a cold period to form good bulbs. Onions and shallots overwinter in mild zones, and cover crops like crimson clover or winter rye sown in fall protect and enrich beds through winter. Mulch the garlic bed after planting to steady the soil temperature through freeze-thaw cycles.
Cover crops deserve more attention than they usually get from home gardeners. Any bed you do not intend to plant with a fall vegetable is better sown with a cover crop than left bare over winter — bare soil erodes, compacts and loses nutrients to leaching, while a stand of winter rye, crimson clover, field peas or hairy vetch holds the soil, suppresses weeds, and adds organic matter when turned under in spring. Legume covers like clover and vetch also fix nitrogen, effectively fertilizing the next crop for free. In cold zones, choose a winter-killed cover such as oats or field peas that dies back on its own and leaves an easy-to-plant residue; in milder zones, a hardy rye or vetch overwinters and is cut down before it seeds.
Fall planting windows by zone
| USDA zone | Fall sowing window | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 3 to 4 | July | Short window; fast, hardy crops |
| 5 to 6 | July to August | Full range of cool-season crops |
| 7 | August to September | Long fall; overwinter many crops |
| 8 | September to October | Fall is the main growing season |
| 9 to 10 | October to November | Cool season is prime for most crops |
Extending the fall harvest with covers
Simple covers push the fall harvest weeks or months later. Floating row cover adds a few degrees of frost protection and keeps late pests off; low tunnels and cold frames carry hardy greens through winter in zones 5 and up. A thick straw mulch over root crops lets you harvest carrots, beets and parsnips from the ground long after the tops die back. Vent covers on mild, sunny days so trapped heat does not cook the crop, and remember that plants under cover still need light and occasional water. In the mildest zones, most cool-season crops grow unprotected all winter.
Fall planting tips
- Count back from first frost and add a two-week buffer for slowing growth.
- Water late-summer sowings daily until they establish in warm, dry soil.
- Leave hardy roots in the ground under mulch to sweeten and store.
- Rotate away from brassicas — don't follow one cabbage-family crop with another.
- Have row cover ready before your first-frost season begins.
Related: fall garden vegetables, what to plant in winter, the vegetable planting calendar, and how we rank.