Vegetables to Sow in August – 7 Easy Crops to Plant Now for a Fall Harvest

Midsummer is a time when rich bounties are coming from the vegetable garden. August is also a perfect time to sow vegetables that will provide glorious harvests through fall and potentially into winter. Here we look at some fantastic vegetables to sow in August.

Crops like lettuce, carrots, turnips, arugula, kohlrabi, and oriental leaves germinate and grow quickly in the late-summer sunshine. They can easily fill empty spaces left by crops you have already picked and keep your plot productive late into the year.

When planting a second crop in vegetable garden beds or raised beds, it is important to supplement the soil with additional nutrients. Add some compost, balanced fertilizer, or chicken manure pellets (like these on Amazon) to ensure your new crops have the nutrients they need to thrive. Add some of our vegetables to sow in August to be enjoying homegrown harvests within weeks.

Carrots

August is the last window to plant carrots for a homegrown crop of succulent roots. Sowing carrots in August can give you a fall crop from October.

When growing carrots outside, pick smaller, fast-growing varieties, such as ‘Early Nantes’, ‘Short n Sweet’, or ‘Parisian’. These speedier carrots produce shorter or round roots, but they go from sowing to harvesting in 12-18 weeks.

Weed, prepare, and rake the soil to a fine tilth beforehand. Sow carrot seeds thinly in shallow drills. I water the drills before sowing the seeds to help get them off to a strong start. Keep the soil consistently moist after sowing, as carrot seeds won’t germinate if the soil dries out fully.

Be careful thinning seedlings to avoid carrot fly (you can cover the crop with insect netting to stop the pests, such as this mesh netting at Walmart). Come late fall, you can cover the crop with fleece or straw to protect them against the early frosts.

Get ‘Short n Sweet’ carrot seeds at Burpee

Get ‘Parisian’ carrot seeds at True Leaf Market

Turnips

Turnips are never seen as the most glamorous root crops, but they have always been a staple in my plots. They are fast-growing vegetables ready in 6-10 weeks from sowing and a great choice for filling gaps in the kitchen garden. Or, you can get a quick crop of baby turnips between other slower-growing vegetables.

You can get yellow, white, or purple-topped varieties of turnips. I always tend to pick the white-skinned varieties, such as these silky sweet turnip seeds at Burpee, at home, but grew lots of purple-topped turnips (usually these purple top white globe seeds at True Leaf Market) for chefs during my time as a specialist kitchen gardener.

Always directly sow seeds outdoors when growing turnips. They don’t like root disturbance, so won’t react well to being started indoors and transplanted. Sow the seeds thinly into a half-inch deep drill, cover them, and keep moist. Thin the seedlings to six inches apart.

Kohlrabi

This unique vegetable may look like a spaceship from a sci-fi movie, but it is a delicious, versatile crop becoming increasingly popular in modern vegetable gardens. Kohlrabi is a brassica that comes in purple or white forms and produces a swollen base. It can be eaten raw or roasted, steamed, or sautéed.

Sow kohlrabi seeds into half-inch deep drills and keep the ground moist. The seeds tend to germinate quickly and need to be thinned to six inches apart. It is recommended to cover the crop with netting to protect against pests such as cabbage white butterflies, caterpillars, and loppers.

Kohlrabi takes 50-70 days to develop and is ready when the swollen stems are 3-4 inches in diameter. The best size for texture and flavor is to harvest kohlrabi when the crop is larger than a golf ball but not as big as a tennis ball. When kohlrabi gets too large, it turns woody and loses the sweet flavor.

Get White Vienna kohlrabi seeds at Amazon

Get Purple Vienna kohlrabi seeds at Burpee

Lettuce

A wide variety of lettuce seeds can be sown in August to provide you with harvests into fall and early winter.

After the summer peak begins to wind down, cool-weather crops can thrive, especially when you plant lettuce in a shady spot or cover it with shade cloth (you can get 55% shade cloth at Walmart) to protect it during hot periods.

Sow seeds a few inches apart in half-inch drills, keep them moist, and then thin the seedlings to 6-12 inches apart. Any exact distance will depend on the variety, so refer to the seed packets for guidance.

Slugs and snails are notorious for nibbling on lettuce seedlings as they germinate, so cover plants with cloches or place rough surfaces or beer traps (get beer traps for snails and slugs at Amazon) around your crops.

You can start harvesting cut-and-come-again lettuces once the leaves are large enough to use. And they will continue to provide pickings well into fall.

This lettuce seed collection at Amazon features 10 different varieties of lettuce, many of which can be planted in August for fall harvests.

Swiss Chard

Swiss chard is a hardy thoroughbred for the vegetable garden. A sowing in August first provides you with harvests of tasty baby leaves in fall. Plus the vegetable can overwinter outdoors with ease. It means you can enjoy harvests of Swiss chard leaves throughout winter and into spring.

I really enjoy growing Swiss chard. I always love the ‘Bright Lights’ variety as it adds a rainbow of colorful leaves to the vegetable garden. And this year I am also growing ‘Fordhook Giant’ and am impressed by the size of the leaves (I know, the giant in the name should’ve given it away).

Get Bright Light Swiss chard seeds at Burpee

Get Fordhook Giant Swiss chard seeds at Burpee

Plant Swiss chard seeds thinly (at least four inches apart) in drills that are an inch deep. Keep them consistently moist, and thin seedlings to 18 inches apart so the plants have room to reach full size and don’t suffer from fungal issues caused by poor air circulation.

Oriental Greens

Oriental greens are great vegetables to sow in August as they can provide flavorful harvests to perk up plates in fall.

Whether it is mizuna or mustard greens for peppery leaves or bok choy (get baby choi bok choy seeds at Botanical Interests) and tatsoi for sweet, earthy tones, these crops can be eaten raw or cooked in a wide variety of dishes.

I have always found mizuna a reliable performer, and these Mizuna Red Streaks seeds at True Leaf Market can go from sowing to cropping in 45 days. And I’ve always enjoyed the darker, textured leaves of some mustards, which stand out in the garden. A good example is these Red Giant mustard seeds at Burpee.

Not only are they easy-growing and attractive, but you can pick these two above as cut-and-come-again vegetables.

Oriental greens are cool-weather crops suited to sowing in late summer or early fall. They can successfully grow in raised beds or containers, making them perfect for fall harvests in smaller spaces.

Fill any pot, planter, or windowbox with a well-draining potting mix, like this organic potting mix at Walmart, and sow the seeds directly into the soil.

Radish

August is a great time for growing radishes, primarily as there are three different types you can sow this month.

Many gardeners often stick to planting salad radishes. But August is an opportunity to broaden your horizons, as it is also time for both oriental varieties, known as daikon or mooli, and winter radishes.

The classic salad radishes, such as ‘Cherry Belle’, ‘Early Scarlet Globe’ and ‘French Breakfast ’ (get French Breakfast seeds at Burpee), can be sown and will be ready to harvest in less than a month. Sow them into drills and thin the seedlings to 4-6 inches apart.

Asian radishes are also fast-growing and take 7-8 weeks from sowing to harvesting. Sow the seeds thinly and thin the seedlings to 6-8 inches apart. You can get Daikon radish seeds at Amazon.

Finally, winter radishes are larger than the salad types and take longer to grow. Sow them into drills in August and thin them to 6-8 inches apart. These types will be ready to harvest in late fall or winter.

This collection of radish seeds at Amazon has five varieties of summer radishes, plus Black Spanish round winter radish.

It is also not too late to plant flowers this month to add color and interest to the garden later in the fall. Our guide to flowers to sow in August includes fast-growing blooms, such as calendula, sweet alyssum, and viola, that will give you beautiful flowers this year.

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