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gardeningwithnoskill

What's an easy-to-grow vegetable to plant in October?

I've got a relatively new (not very successful) garden and I'd like to plant some more vegetables now that the Fall planting season is here. I have the gardening books that show WHAT you can plant, but I'd like to plant something that's easy to grow for a change. There's no use in me planting something if it take someone with mad-skills to be successful. I need a vegetable to boost my confidence - LOL.

I'm not having much luck with our vegetable garden at all and just want one thing to actually grow. I started it in July, so I'm hoping I have a bit better luck in the cooler weather.

Anyone up for recommending something I can plant this time of year that doesn't take a lot of skill to be successful?

THANKS!

Comments (15)

  • brute
    15 years ago

    How about Zucchini? Of everything I've ever grown, it seems to need the least attention. Yellow squash is pretty hardy too.
    Green beans are pretty hardy. If they have a pole to climb on, they practically grow themselves.

  • junkyardgirl
    15 years ago

    Bush beans are so easy it's not funny.

  • tomncath
    15 years ago

    Pole beans, but do it soon...the growth will slow down as we get cooler.

  • tomncath
    15 years ago

    BTW, you started at the WORST time of year, it's no wonder you're a little discouraged. Typical Florida plantings are Sept-Oct and Jan-Feb, we get two crops here, fall and spring, and there are only a handful of things you can grow in the dead of summer.... Hang in there and read the postings here and you'll do fairly well with six to twelve months experience.

    Tom

  • minibim
    15 years ago

    My pick would be peppers, green, red, orange, sweet, hot - they're all easy. They're also a veggie that will go straight through summer if you get them established.

    I don't know where your troubles lie, but one thing that helps is whatever the veggie; try and pick varieties that have disease resistant qualities.

  • karen_florida
    15 years ago

    Greens like spinach or chard or the various lettuces are pretty easy, I think: you can just direct-seed a lot of them with no fussing with seedlings and potting/repotting, and some of them are ready to eat a month after the seeds go in, so not a long wait. Carrots are easy and the little frondy tops are pretty in the garden. Just make sure you mix the seeds in with dry sand or coffee or cornmeal or something to cut down the number of seeds in each area as you sow them: the seeds are teeny-weeny and you'll be thinning out carrots 24/7.

  • an_ill-mannered_ache
    15 years ago

    collards.

  • scents_from_heaven
    15 years ago

    Any Southern green such as collards, mustard, turnips, rape, kale are all sowable at the current time and easy to gron. You can also plant rutabaga. These are all garden staples in a true Southern garden and very easy to grow. My favorite way to eat mustard is to pick leaves when they are about 5-6 long and wilt them in a little EVO or bacon drippings. Lightly salt and pepper and eat with corn hoecakes aka: lace bread. You can also still grow radish, lettuce and other salad greens.

  • SaintPFLA
    15 years ago

    I also recommend Bush Blue Lake Beans. They shrub - so, no need for anything for them to climb on. The main downside is the slugs love them, but, that's easy to control.

    I too tried veggie growing in the late spring/summer. Absolute failure doesn't even begin to describe it.

    My second attempt was recent and seems to be much more successful.

    Hang in there...don't give up. Gardening teaches us impatient people the lesson of patience and optimism.

  • scents_from_heaven
    15 years ago

    Just broadcast the green seeds on the ground, lightly cover and watch the explosion of growth

  • the_musicman
    15 years ago

    "Gardening teaches us impatient people the lesson of patience and optimism."

    Can I quote you on that? Oh wait, I just did...

    Such a perfect philosophy!

  • gardeningwithnoskill
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Gardening teaches us impatient people the lesson of patience and optimism

    Holy crap! I love that quote!!!!!

    I need that.

    Thanks to all for the advice. I will not give up on this gardening thing. We've been at it 4 months now and have nothing to show for it, but I will keep at it until I conquer it. Off to buy some seeds now per your advice. If I could just figure out why all my plants keep dying on me, I'd be a happy gardener. GAH!

    Thank you!!!!

  • happy_fl_gardener; 9a, near DeLand
    15 years ago

    gardeningwithnoskill---There is another killer not talked about much and that is fungus. Fungus can kill a plant just as dead as an insect.

  • tclynx
    15 years ago

    For the cool weather comming, the greens, lettuce, and kale are easy! Turnips, radish, beet, and carrot. Carrot being the most difficult to be sure it comes up. you can also get onion sets this time of year and simply push the root end of them into the soil a little way and if there is a little bit of moisture in the soil, they will sprout up for you. We often surround our garden beds with onions. Just don't plant peas or beans with onions. Snow peas are good cool weather crop but if we get a hard freeze, it could kill the blooms and set back the harvest so some will recommend planting snow peas for the cool spring season. I'll be planting a bunch of snow peas here soon though since they like warm soil for germination.

    When we get to spring planting time, get some sweet potatoes started, they will make you think you are a master summer gardener!!! They like the hot and wet and produce a wonderful ground cover over your hole garden to help keep weeds at bay over summer. I've got a lovely bed that has Okra growing tall and sweet potatoes covering the ground and that bed did very well over the heat of summer and will probably continue to do well until it gets cold.
    Okra, sweet potatoes, southern peas (crowder peas, cow peas, black eye peas), beans, and hot peppers are good hot weather crops to think about for next summer. Get them started in mid spring though so you can get a nice long season of them.

    Here is a link that might be useful: TCLynx

  • ebackman
    13 years ago

    I have always had luck with bush beans-lettuce is doing very well this time of year too- snow peas are doing pretty good- they are delicious- just wish I could get more at one time- need to plant more I guess- only have 8 plants-banana peppers, jalepeno are easy! I think zucchini & yellow squash are difficult- have never been able to get much before the mold gets them-
    July was just too hot- this whole summer was-