There is still time to start vegetables, especially cold-weather crops

Question: We moved into a new house in May, and my husband built me two raised-bed planters for the backyard a few weeks ago. We filled them with a mixture of topsoil and compost. I know it's too late to plant tomatoes and peppers, but are there any vegetables I can still plant this year? Maybe something that I can harvest in the fall?

Answer: There are plenty of veggies that can be planted this time of year. In fact, those of us who practice succession planting are busy sowing the seeds of many fall crops right now.

In my garden, after I harvest my peas, onions, lettuce and other spring-planted crops, I pull the plants out and replace them with crops that will still have plenty of time to mature before summer's end. Though I think it's a bit too late in the season to plant bush beans and cucumbers, there are plenty of other options available. Good candidates for late-July plantings include beets, carrots, Swiss chard, turnips, tat soi and kale.

I also plant cold-hardy crops in the late summer — ones I'll be harvesting almost all winter long. I always sow a few rows of spinach, lettuce, mustard greens, radish and mache in my garden anytime from late July to late August. They'll mature during fall's cooler weather, and with a layer of floating row cover as protection, I'll be able to harvest them for many months. In fact, last fall I planted a row of mache seeds in September and we were able to have fresh, homegrown salads through March.

And, don't forget — come fall, you also can plant a few cloves of garlic in your raised beds. Garlic is typically planted in early October. Purchase a head of planting garlic from a local nursery, a specialty garlic farm or your local farmers market. Do not plant grocery store garlic because it's been treated with a chemical to prevent it from sprouting and it may not be a variety that grows well in our climate. Crack the head apart and separate the cloves. Plant the largest cloves 4 inches deep and 6 inches apart. Fall-planted garlic is harvested the following July.

One final thing worth noting: If you really want to, you can still grow tomatoes and peppers, but you'll have to start with very large plants that have already started to produce flowers and fruits. Look around at local nurseries for big, container-grown plants that you can either transplant into your raised beds or just continue to grow in their containers. Patio-type tomatoes do best in containers and for late-season plantings.

Horticulturist Jessica Walliser co-hosts “The Organic Gardeners” at 7 a.m. Sundays on KDKA Radio with Doug Oster. She is the author of several gardening books, including “Good Bug, Bad Bug.” Her website is jessicawalliser.com.

Send your gardening or landscaping questions to tribliving@tribweb.com.