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6 Vegetables to Plant for the Cool Season

Valerie Albarda

By Valerie Albarda
Updated May 15, 2024

The cooler temperatures of spring and fall are perfect for some vegetables. Here are a few you might want to try in your own vegetable garden, either to get an early start on enjoying fresh vegetables as temperatures get warmer or to keep enjoying a harvest into the winter.

A plate of carrots, radishes and chard on a wood table.

Cool-Weather Vegetable Gardening

Summer may rule when it comes to vegetable gardening in many areas of the country, but gardeners are discovering that spring vegetables and fall vegetables can be productive too. The cooler temperatures and more abundant moisture propel some hardy spring and fall vegetables into overdrive. Here are six cool-season vegetables worthy of space in your garden.

Tip

You can grow many of these vegetables either from seed or from pre-potted seedlings.

Carrots

Four orange carrots lined up on a wood table.

This hardy root vegetable takes a while to germinate, so it’s often seeded along with radishes. The radishes sprout quickly, so you can harvest them just in time for carrots to take over. Carrots grow well in spring because there’s time to sow them in batches for a successive harvest. For fall, choose a variety that matures in 60 days, rather than the more typical 75 days, and cover them with straw if frost is due in order to keep harvesting through the winter months. Carrots grow best in a rich, loose soil that allows for full root development.

Radishes

Five red radishes with green shoots placed on the ground.

Some varieties mature in as little as 30 days, so it’s not surprising that gardeners can harvest a crop (or three) of radishes after school starts. Just loosen up some soil enriched with compost, smooth with a garden rake, sprinkle the seeds, and lightly cover with soil. In 30 to 40 days, you’ll be adding these flavorful vegetables to your salads!

Tip

For a winter harvest, look for winter varieties and harvest them before the ground freezes.

Leaf Lettuce

Different types of leaf lettuce growing in a raised bed along a gravel path.

One look at the cost of bagged salad in the supermarket and you’ll be glad you sowed a crop of leaf lettuce. For best flavor, sow the seeds of several varieties (it also looks more attractive, as you can see in the picture). All take the same growing conditions: rich, loose soil, consistent moisture, and cooler temperatures. Although somewhat frost tolerant, it’s best to cover the crop if temperatures dip below freezing. Or grow your crop in a cold frame.

Kale

Green kale growing in a garden.

Once used to decorate salad bars, kale is now everyone’s favorite wonder vegetable. Packed with nutrients, it makes a nice companion to lettuce in salads. Young leaves taste the best, and the flavor improves after frost. You can sow seeds or plant container-grown kale, which matures in about 2 months. Kale is forgiving when it comes to soil as long as it’s well drained and has some nutrients for growth.

Swiss Chard

A close-up of green and red chard growing in a garden.

Get the kids to help you grow this plant. They’ll be so enamored with the bright red and gold stems that they’ll be clamoring to eat this nutritious vegetable. Most people eat the leaves of Swiss chard, but some also roast or pickle the stems. Sow seeds in spring for an early summer crop or in late summer for a fall crop. In warm areas of the country, sow in fall for a winter crop. Swiss chard thrives in a variety of soil types.

Spinach

An overhead close-up of green spinach leaves.

How much does spinach like cool weather? It’s sometimes found growing — or at least surviving — under snow cover. Sow seeds in early spring or late summer and enjoy this highly nutritious leafy green raw or cooked. It matures in just 40 or 50 days. You can grow two types: the type with crinkly leaves (shown) or a type with flat leaves, known as Malabar spinach. Grow either type in a light soil amended with plenty of compost and feed it regularly.

Tip

New to vegetable gardening? Our tips on planting a vegetable garden will get you started the right way.

Fall Vegetable Planting Tips

  • Keep a planting log. Record what you planted and when, as well as what succeeded or failed.
  • Experiment with planting times. It might be worth the risk to plant some crops later than recommended.
  • Plant fall and winter gardens in full sun (southern exposure is ideal) to make use of all that solar energy.
  • Rotate vegetable varieties. Don’t plant the same crops in the same location as you planted them last season or last year. This drains the soil of nutrients and attracts the same insects and diseases to that part of the garden.
  • Try successive plantings of quick-to-grow/quick-to-harvest items, like spinach, beets, radishes, bush beans, carrots and leaf lettuces.
  • Take advantage of walls and other structures that block wind from your garden. Wind-breaking structures can add 10 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit to your growing environment.
  • Use cover crops to fortify the soil with nitrogen during the idle winter months. They also provide great green organic matter to add to the spring compost mix.
  • A cold frame can work well for leaf lettuce, kale, chard, spinach and more. See our cold frame project and learn how to build your own.
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