Who here is in Zone 5b?

[Bonobo]

I'm in Western Mass and really expanded my garden this year, but I am new at it and have some questions.

I would love to know who else here is gardening in the NE in zone 5.

Thanks in advance.

[Kolesar]

1. That would be me!

...ask me anything...

[Bonobo]

2. OK, dumb question first:

What can we here do for "Fall Planting"?

What is on the gardener's checklist that we can do? Anything?

P.S. Where are you at?

[Kolesar]

3. Look on the seed packages for "short season" crops

Lettuce, radishes, and a few more. We have only done lettuce and spinach for late season plantings. I am not an extremely experienced gardener. I just have been having great results since we started "raised bed" gardening.

I would think that you could plant lettuce on about August 7. The really mean heat of the summer is over by then. At least where I live it is.

I would like to try to start a second crop of broccoli right now. I have an empty space where we pulled out garlic. Broccoli does not grow well in hot weather, so I am thinking to start some seeds in planting trays and then put them in the garden in August and see what happens. I dream of cutting broccoli in October and then cutting side shoots for another three months. Our first frost is mid-October. I live near Cleveland about 10 miles from the lake so the weather is slightly tempered by the lake.

You can extend your season by "throwing" a "translucent row cover" over your crops when it starts to get cold. Definitely when frost is expected! Just leave them on there.

We put jugs of water and piled leaves a foot high on our broccoli beds and had broccoli shoots up until January 2 of 2007 after the 2006 season.