Choose Your Seeds Now!

Fall is here!

The beauty berry bushes have been showing their beautiful purple berries (check out my YouTube video with some info about the Beauty Berry here and making Beauty Berry Jelly here!), the muscadine grapes seem to have ripened a bit early, but I'm not looking forward to the love bugs when the goldenrod start blooming 😝; they haven't started blooming yet, but I expect them to soon.

My Beauty Berry Jelly

What that means to me is that I need to get out my seeds and catalogs and start planning for my fall plantings.

That’s right, now is the time to consider which seeds you want to sow for the cool season!

September is the time for those of us who live in the lower zone 7 (click here for a zone map) and south to start looking for seeds that are conducive in the cooler weather. The crops we are looking for can thrive in temperatures down to freezing and in some cases into the 20’s. Once the temperatures are in the low 20’s and upper teens there can be damage to flowers (calendula, etc.) or foliage (parsley, etc.).

For many of you who have been anxiously waiting for the time to start sewing your lettuce and greens (like me), remember when the nights start to consistently go below 70⁰F, it’s the time to start sowing your greens. I'm not there yet where I live, but hopefully it will start cooling off soon.

I don’t think I can say this too much, the next couple of months are the best time to sow most of your herbs.

My experience has shown me that no matter how much I say this, I find people still want to start sowing seeds in the spring. Although there are some that should be sown in the Spring, such as basil or culantro, MOST of the common herbs we use should be sown now. Below are some (not all) of the common herbs I have grown that survive frost and most of these down to 20⁰F and below.

Cilantro/coriander, Dill, Fennel, Sorrel,

Calendula, Thyme, Sweet marjoram,

Salad Burnet, Lavender, Soap Wort, St. Johns Wort,

Italian/Greek Oregano, Parsley, Yarrow, Clary Sage

This is not an exhaustive list, but these are some of the most popular ones I’ve grown.

Some vegetables to consider are lettuces, cabbages, kale, Swiss chard, spinach, beets and carrots. Of course, this is not an exhaustive list either, they just tend to be my favorites! :)

Remember most of the seed catalogs and plant companies are up North, so when considering what you want to plant, make sure you are buying for the appropriate zone - look on the back of the seed packet.

Let us know what you have going into the soil and where you live! We would love to hear from you and keep up with your progress!

Remember to check out our YouTube channel! It's still a baby and can use some TLC with subscribers and views, so check it out! And let us know if there's something in particular you would like Lei Lani to demonstrate or educate you about!