Fall Vegetable Garden Project for 2023

Planning a fall vegetable garden project for 2023 is more challenging than usual. This is the first year I’ve had the raised beds for the summer vegetable garden. Since some of the summer plants (like tomatoes) may extend into the fall season, I need to plan the fall garden carefully. In other words, I need to plan crops based on available space in the raised beds — and available space depends on when the summer vegetables stop producing!

My fall vegetable garden always includes a few staples: cabbage, broccoli, collards, and carrots. Specifically, Caraflex cabbage seems to perform the best in my previous experiences with fall gardens. This year, I’ll experiment (again) with rutabagas and beets. With rutabagas, I seem to wait too late to plant them in recent years. Similarly, beets always seem to grow on top of the ground whenever I plant them. However, I plan to try beets again this year to keep learning about what works best in the garden.

Requirements

Features

The fall vegetable garden shall be contained within 3 short raised beds and 1 tall raised bed.

The fall vegetable garden shall include cabbage.

The fall vegetable garden shall include broccoli.

The fall vegetable garden shall include collards.

The fall vegetable garden shall include carrots.

The fall vegetable garden shall include beets.

The fall vegetable garden shall include rutabagas.

The fall vegetable garden shall include turnips.

The fall vegetable garden shall include radishes.

The fall vegetable garden shall include mustard.

The fall vegetable garden shall include garlic for spring harvest.

Qualities

(none for this project)

Constraints

Each short raised bed is 6’11” long and 3’7″ wide.

Each tall raised bed is 8’6″ long and 22″ wide.

The fall vegetable garden must include plants that are suitable for 6+ hours of direct sunlight.

The fall vegetable garden plants must be planted at least 8 weeks before the average first freeze date (October 24).

The fall vegetable garden must use the Caraflex cabbage variety.

The fall vegetable garden must use softneck garlic.

Design

High-level Design Wireframe

The current raised bed garden layout includes 2 tall raised beds and 3 short raised beds. More specifically, these raised beds are Birdies Metal Raised Beds. Though the layout looks a bit unusual, I’m still working on adding more raised beds over time (each raised bed is expensive!) However, for fall 2023, one of the tall raised beds contains strawberries and cannot be used for the fall garden. In other words, I have 3 short raised beds and 1 tall raised bed available to use for the fall vegetable garden.

Fall Garden project for 2023 - High-level Design — High-level design for the Fall Garden Project for 2023. The narrow beds are 30″ tall. The wider beds are 15″ tall.

Low-level Design Details: Chooing Varieties

For the vegetable garden plants, I knew I wanted to include the Caraflex cabbage variety. However, I still needed to research varieties of other plants/seeds to use. After flipping through catalogs and browsing seed retailers online, I settled on the following varieties for fall 2023:

Caraflex Cabbage

A reliable variety for me in the past. Seed purchased from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. (Image courtesy of Johnny’s Selected Seeds)

Monty Broccoli

A variety I have never tried before. This variety is supposed to tolerate heat well, which is important since we have seen temperatures around 100 degrees in October before! Seed purchased from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. (Image courtesy of Johnny’s Selected Seeds)

Top Chop Collards

A variety I have never tried before. Seed purchased from Burpee. (Image courtesy of Burpee)

Bolero Carrots

Storage carrot that I have never tried before. Seed purchased from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. (Image courtesy of Johnny’s Selected Seeds)

Mokum Carrots

Slender, early variety. I’ve never tried this variety before. Seed purchased from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. (Image courtesy of Johnny’s Selected Seeds)

Red Ace Beets

I’ve tried this variety a few times, but I can never seem to successfully grow beets. I’m trying again this season, but I’m starting them from seed indoors this year instead of directly in the garden. Seed purchased from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. (Image courtesy of Johnny’s Selected Seeds)

Helenor Rutabaga

I’ve tried this variety a few times, and it does well — except I’ve had poor germination rates in past years. I’m hoping the new raised beds help with germination rates this year. Seed purchased from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. (Image courtesy of Johnny’s Selected Seeds)

Purple Top White Globe Turnips

I’ve tried this variety many, many times, and it always does well for both greens and turnip roots. This year, I need to thin the seedlings more than I have in the past. Seed purchased from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. (Image courtesy of Johnny’s Selected Seeds)

Rover Radish

I’ve never tried this specific variety, but I’ve had great luck with radishes in the past. Seed purchased from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. (Image courtesy of Johnny’s Selected Seeds)

Green Wave Mustard

I’ve never tried this specific variety, but mustard has performed well in the past. Seed purchased from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. (Image courtesy of Johnny’s Selected Seeds)

Texas Rose Garlic

A variety I have not tried before. Seed garlic purchased from Burpee. (Image courtesy of Burpee)

Low-Level Design

Now that I know the specific varieties (and anticipated mature sizes) of each plant variety, I need to plan specific locations in the raised beds. The lower-growing plants like carrots, beets, and radishes will likely go in the tall raised bed. Since planting area is limited in the raised beds, I decided that I will plant the garlic cloves in an elevated planter on the patio later in October.

Itemizing Resources Needed

In addition to the seeds, I also need to add fertilizer to refresh the garden for the fall growing season. Each of the short raised beds is about 25 square feet in area. Each tall raised bed is about 16 square feet in area. The instructions on an 8-lb bag of Espoma Garden Tone fertilizer indicate adding 3 lbs of fetilizer per 50 square feet. Since I have a total of 91 square feet of garden area to prepare for the fall vegetable garden, I need about 5.5 lbs of fertilizer total. One 8-lb bag of Espoma should be plenty.

I usually start cabbage, broccoli, and collards indoors from seed in mid-July. This year, I also want to experiment with starting beets indoors from seed for transplant in late August. I already have a 72-cell Jiffy seed starting kit in the garage, so I will use that for starting the fall plants.
Carrots, turnips, radishes, mustard, and rutabagas all do well when directly seeded in the garden (and sprayed with water each day until they germinate).

Itemized list of materials needed for the Fall 2023 garden project

Verifying Requirements

Next, I double-checked that I had addressed all of the requirements I outlined in the beginning. Thankfully, this design addresses all of the features, qualities, and constraints outlined in my project requirements.

Implementation

For the implementation phase, the fall vegetable garden project will involve procurement and site preparation activities. Site preparation tasks will take place from mid-July through early September.

Procurement

I purchased garden seeds from both Johnny’s Selected Seeds and Burpee in June 2023. Before July 30, I will need to purchase the Espoma Garden Tone fertilizer. No other materials need to be purchased or obtained for this project. Instead, I will use all of my existing tools — including the existing raised beds and the previously-purchased seed-starting kit I already had in the garage.

Site Preparation Timeline

A timeline of the site preparation tasks appears below:

July 2023

July 18: Start cabbage, broccoli, collard, and beet seeds indoors

July 30: Remove spent summer garden plants, fertilize raised bed, and direct-sow rutabaga seeds in the garden.

August 2023

August 5: Remove spent summer garden plants and fertilize remaining raised beds.

August 12: Direct-sow carrot seeds in the garden

August 12: Transfer cabbage, broccoli, collard, and beet plants outdoors for hardening-off

August 26: Transplant cabbage, broccoli, collards, and beet plants into the garden

September 2023

September 9: Direct-sow turnip, mustard, and radish seeds in the garden

October 2023

October 24: Average first freeze date

Validation & Verification

Validation & verification tasks will take place after each plant has been planted (July 30, August 12, August 26, and September 9).

I will verify that all of my requirements had been met.

No regression testing tasks are required since this is a new project (not a continuation of an existing project)

Acceptance testing will be easy since there are no external customers involved.

Security testing suggests some tasks for maintenance — routine fertilization and insecticide treatments will be necessary.

Maintenance

Fall vegetable gardens are usually easier to maintain (in my experience so far) than summer gardens. For the remainder of the growing season, the fall vegetable garden project requires multiple maintenance activities:

watering — a few times each week, I will water the garden through the drip irrigation system installed in each raised bed. Later in the season (October), fewer waterings may be needed as long as daytime temperatures are cooler

fertilizing — I will fertilize the garden plants once per week during the growing season using a water-soluble vegetable fertilizer

Pest and disease control — Thankfully, there are no squash bugs, no stink bugs, and no squash vine borers to deal with! Instead, the primary fall vegetable garden pests seem to be aphids and cabbage worms, but both are easily treated. A regular spray routine helps prevent cabbage worms from defoliating plants. As a result, I plan to spray Bt (bacillus thuringiensis) and soapy water every week throughout the season. Fall vegetable gardens can also become susceptible to diseases like root rot, especially if there are any heavy rains or tropical systems that drench the yard for days. Therefore, I plan to apply a weekly fungicide treatment throughout the season.