Now
27°C · Clear
Today
27° / 16°
Soil 6 cm
21°C
First frost
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Gardening in Asheville
AI field guide · refreshed weeklyAsheville Gardening: Early Fall Planting & Harvest (Sept 8–14)
You're in zone 7b with 50 days until your average first frost (Oct 28). Soil at 21°C (70°F) is ideal for cool-season seed germination. This is peak planting week for fall crops—everything you sow now will mature before hard freeze. Spring frost came Apr 23, so you're 138 days into the growing season.
Sow outdoors now
Spinach & arugula
Direct-sow 'Space' spinach or 'Eruca' arugula now; both germinate fast at 21°C and mature in 40–50 days, well before frost.
Radishes
Sow 'Cherry Belle' or 'Watermelon' radishes; they're ready in 25–30 days and love cool soil.
Lettuce & Asian greens
Plant 'Buttercrunch' lettuce, 'Mizuna', or 'Bok Choy'; succession-sow every 10 days through mid-September for continuous harvest.
Peas
Sow 'Sugar Snap' or 'Oregon Sugar Pod' now for October–November harvest; they'll climb trellises and tolerate light frost.
Turnips & rutabagas
Direct-sow 'Purple Top' turnips or 'Laurentian' rutabagas; both store well and mature in 60–80 days.
Start indoors now
Brassicas for transplant
Start 'Broccoli Raab', 'Lacinato' kale, or 'Red Acre' cabbage indoors now; transplant in 3–4 weeks for October–November harvest.
Onions from seed
Sow long-day varieties like 'Walla Walla' or 'Ailsa Craig' indoors; they'll be ready to harden off and transplant in late October for spring bulbing.
Garlic prep
Order or source cloves now; you'll plant them outdoors in late October when soil cools to 13°C (55°F).
Harvest now
Summer tomatoes & peppers
Pick ripe fruit daily; as nights cool, ripening slows—harvest any green tomatoes before the first frost and ripen indoors.
Beans & okra
These are winding down; harvest every 2–3 days to encourage final flushes before frost.
Herbs
Cut basil, cilantro, and parsley hard now; freeze or dry before frost kills them.
Summer squash & cucumbers
Pick small and often; plants will produce until frost, usually late October in Asheville.
Tasks this week
- Clear spent summer crops (tomatoes, basil, beans) and add disease-free material to compost; remove diseased foliage.
- Amend beds with 5 cm (2 in) of finished compost or aged manure before planting fall crops.
- Mulch newly sown seeds lightly with straw to retain moisture; soil is still warm enough to germinate quickly.
- Set up trellises for peas and any climbing greens before planting; install row covers if temps dip below 10°C at night.
- Water deeply after planting; rain is minimal this week (0 mm until Sept 12), so hand-water or drip-irrigate every 2–3 days.
Watch out for
- Flea beetles on young brassicas and radishes—use floating row covers immediately after sowing to exclude them.
- Powdery mildew on squash and cucumbers in humid mornings; thin foliage for airflow and avoid wetting leaves.
- Slugs and snails thrive in fall moisture; hand-pick at dusk or use beer traps in mulched areas.
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