Zone 8 - What to Plant in October

Zone 8 - What to Plant in October

Zone 8 growers still have a couple months of growing season before their first frost arrives in late November. The earlier you start in October the better. Try direct sowing some kale, spinach, radish and other second season vegetables. Below is a list of items that can be planted in zone 8 in October.

The Merveille Four Seasons is a French Bibb lettuce type that produces rich deep reddish leaves with bright cranberry red tips. This 12-16 inches lettuce has a wonderful butter taste and will hold its flavor in hot weather. The rich red leaves surround a small, 8-12 inches pale green, tight heart. Enjoy the Merveille Four Seasons chopped up in a salad for fresh flavor and a pop of beautiful color.

The Blue Shelling Pea is a Dutch heirloom blue podded pea that has been highly regarded for hundreds of years. This very versatile variety can be picked young and eaten raw as a colorful snow pea pod or left to swell and harvested as a plump pea for cooking. This pea plant produces lovely purple flowers with a faint scent that are also edible and delicious! Traditionally used as a winter dish, Blue Shelling would be soaked overnight and then pan fried with onions and bacon - yum! Give this 6' plant some support.

The Purple Top White Globe Turnip is a beautifully purple and white colored turnip that is the best tasting turnip around! This turnip variety has a fine grained root that can grow as big as a baseball! The popular Purple Top White Globe is an excellent yielding turnip that is a great fall crop that gets even better with cold weather.

Sugar Ann is a 1984 All America Selections winner! This snap pea variety has an edible pod that offers earliness, productivity, and a compact growth habit. The crisp, sweet succulent 3 inch pods are ready to eat in just 10 to 14 days ahead of the original Sugar Snap, and remain in prime eating condition for days.

The Champion collard is a tasty improved Vates selection! These large, dark green, cabbage-like leaves retain eating quality for up to 2 weeks or longer. Champion is a compact collard plant that has an increased bolt resistance and enhanced winter hardiness, truly making it a champion!

California Early is an excellent planting garlic variety that produces bulbs great for culinary use and is an early season garlic harvest! This variety is likely the most commonly grown variety in the U.S., and for good reason. It is a medium, easy to grow softneck, with a nice mild flavor and excellent storage ability. Cal-Early is one of our "work-horse" varieties we depend on, year after year, for fresh market and garlic braiding. The skins are a nice off-white with a purple blush and it produces 10-16 cloves per head.

Gypsy is a hybrid broccoli that produces well in warmer growing zones. An excellent variety for greenhouse production. Gypsy has a strong root system and intermediate downy mildew resistance. Gypsy yields excellent, smooth, dome-shaped heads with medium-small beads.

Little SnapPea Crunch is perfect for smaller gardens or container growing! These pea plants are compact yet very productive. Little SnapPea Crunch produces crunchy, sweet, juicy, edible pod peas in about 58-60 days. These peas do well as the weather warms and pea shoots, mature in 13 days and displays very short internodes. Leaves are great as a garnish or as a stand-alone salad green.

Crunchy Red produces large tops and very uniform dark red, round roots. This variety is very slow to develop pith. It performs well under cool conditions. It’s usually a few days earlier than standard varieties. Crunchy Red is desirable where larger roots are required.

This cabbage is known for its solid head and excellent flavor. Early Flat Dutch is a big cabbage, it is a good keeper and the standard early season variety. Heads form up to 12 inches and weigh as much as 15 pounds. Early Flat Dutch has an excellent flavor.

The Spicy Salad Blend is the perfect balance of lettuce and mustard greens. This blend produces a great flavor profile that will spicy up any regular salad mixture.

The Halloween Mix contains a "spooky" mix of purple, yellow, black and white radishes. These radishes are mildly spicy and only 5 centimeters in diameter. Everyday can be a scary fun holiday if you succession plant this mixture every two weeks throughout the spring and fall! This radish mix will bring lots of colors to your dishes.

The Bouquet Dill is an early maturing dill variety with dark feathered green leaves that produces an intoxicating, tangy aroma. This early flowering favorite is now available in organic seeds! The Bouquet is easy to grow and is popular for its flavor and uniform foliage. It can be used to enhance salads, soups and more. Along with its amazing culinary properties, the Bouquet is also perfect for filling in bouquets and cut flowers.

The Persian Star is a hardneck purple stripe type garlic. The outer skin can grow pure white with inner wrappers that are streaked purple. The red-tipped cloves with marbled streaks on whitish or yellow-brown background. The Persian Star is a very pleasant flavor with a mild spicy zing that is a great addition to any dish!

Chesnok Red garlic is one of the best baking garlic's available! This variety is a fantastic garlic that holds its shape and flavor well when cooked. Its stores well. Chesnok Red is regarded by some as the best all around garlic variety as it has a very beautiful red color.

An early cabbage with a blue-green color. Produces beautiful globe-shaped heads that have a blueish color. Very good holding ability. 3-5 lb. heads produced on low, compact plants. First introduced by Harris Moran.

Just like its name, the Tom Thumb Pea is a tiny bush pea plant perfect for containers! If you are hurting for space but want to grow some delicious peas, try the Tom Thumb! This pea variety produces pea pods on a tiny pea plant.

Katarina cabbage has a perfect smaller head size (4”) and shape to be grown successfully in containers on patios, decks or in-ground beds, possibly as an ornamental/edible border.