08/07/2026
Hey there veggie gardeners!.
It's the time in our summer where you need to seed more veggies if you want veggies for fall and winter . . .
Direct seed into garden beds or large grow pots or seed into plug trays or pots in greenhouse= but you must be immaculate in your watering chores or this simply will not work.
Do not seed things then go on vacation and complain to me about this!
For real.
Here's a list of things to seed now, keep constantly moist soil, cover area with garden fabric or empty upside down flats to keep out the creatures, cover even if seeded into flats or plug trays. Mice and birds love this stuff at any stage= seeds, just germinating, small plants even, or particularly!
Seed all of these now!
Broccoli
Lettuces, heat loving varieties!
Swiss chard
Kale, quick growing varieties like Red Russian and Lacinato.
Beets, yes, even beets are great as transplants, I never direct seed beets into the garden.
Carrots= ***direct seed only, no transplanting, into garden bed, keep moist at all times! Cover with upside down , empty plant flats to keep out the creatures!
Seed around the third week of August until middle of September:
Asian greens like Mizuna, Pak Choi, etc.
Arugula
Spinach
Lettuces, look for colder hardy varieties by this point.
Edible peas, only for eating the young pea vines when 6" tall. You might as well use up your pea seeds, most won't be good next year anyway.
Does this sound like a lot of work?
Yes, it is.
But I know us veggie lovers prefer our food to be freshly harvested, sometimes minutes before eating particularly if eating things raw, like lettuces and other salad greens, so I think we can all handle the commitment, right?
Are you a super busy person, working, raising babies and kids?
Yeah, I remember those years.
Pick one thing to grow for eating , maybe grow in big pots or a raised bed.
We aren't trying for perfection with this endeavor, just do the best you can.
And ask for help.
Let's do this!
We are seeding our veggies today, in plant flats, covering them with empty tight weave plastic plant flats to keep the critters out and to aid in moisture retention and we will water them twice a day and transplant them in a few weeks.
And we will be glad we did the work even as we have so many other summer farm chores calling out to us.
A small note of interest to some veggie gardeners and other Vashon-Maury farmers:
How come we don't sell Fall-Veggie Plant Starts anymore at the Vashon Thriftway or to our off-island retail nursery accounts ???
Well, so many reasons!
(1)The white cabbage butterfly lays its eggs on everything during the summer and they decimate plant crops in a monoculture type situation , ie: retail plant racks and tables and the plants become unsellable quite rapidly.
If you don't spray BT twice a day. . .and we are not interested in spraying.
(2) the deer on Vashon love the Thriftway plant racks in August and they really love kale and broccoli type crops, so after many years of trying we gave up.
I encourage all Vashon farmers who have plant stands to give it a go with growing and selling fall veggie starts , but start slow and see how it goes.
Gardeners who also shop at farm stands, please buy fall veggie starts and show your support to your favorite farmers.
Farmers need to make money on their endeavors, or they stop bothering with slow sellers like fall veggie plants.
And finally, fall veggie starts are never a big seller because most people's veggie gardens are so full right now, they don't have space for more veggies to get planted!
So that's why most farmers don't sell fall veggie plant starts.
Wondering how to fit fall veggie starts into your garden in August and early September?
Plant them in the spots you had your spring peas, spring lettuces and potatoes!
Pull up and compost old, old yellowed dried up pea vines, lettuces that have gone to seed ( shake the seeds around!) and harvest your potatoes!
Rake out the soil , pull weeds and add more granular or powdered organic fertilizer .
Water!
Start planting veggies again. . .
