Three weeks ago, we seeded the fall garden in our raised beds at Patel Ranch. This week I walked the rows and they're all up — carrots, beets, radishes, and Brussels sprouts pushing green in tight little lines.
I caught the check-in on a quick reel on October 12 — watch the fall garden update on Instagram for the seven-second version. Below is the full rundown, and what I'd plant first if I were starting a fall bed from scratch.
Radishes: the 25-day confidence builder
Radishes are the sprinter of the fall bed. Most varieties go from seed to crunch in about 25–30 days, which makes them the crop that keeps the whole garden interesting while everything else takes its time. Ours are up and leafy at three weeks — first pulling is right around the corner.
If you've never gardened, plant radishes first. Fast feedback is what gets you walking out to the bed every morning.
Carrots: slow, picky, worth it
Carrots are the opposite. Slow to germinate — sometimes two full weeks just to show a green fuzz — and they want loose, stone-free soil or they fork and twist. They're the most patience-demanding thing in this bed, but home-grown carrots are a different vegetable from the bagged ones: sweeter, crisper, and they actually taste like something.
Beets: the two-for-one crop
Beets are up strong too, and they're the best value in the bed. You get the root and the greens — and the greens are dinner long before the roots are. Plant them a few inches apart, thin the extras, and eat the thinnings.
Brussels sprouts: the long game
Brussels sprouts are the odd one out — a long-season crop sitting in a bed with fast movers. They'll take the full fall and winter to build stalks, and that's fine. They get better after a few cold nights; a light frost actually sweetens the sprouts. In De Luz, where winters stay mild, they just keep working slowly through the season.
Why fall gardening works here
De Luz's fall is the sweet spot: warm days, cool nights, rain arriving just in time. Cool-season crops germinate fast in the still-warm October soil, then sweeten up as the nights drop. Honest caveat: we seeded into warmth, not cold. Fall gardening here is really second-spring gardening — trying to germinate carrots in August heat is a different, harder game.
What's next
Next check is the radish harvest, then a real weigh-in on what's producing through the season. I'll keep posting updates as the bed goes — harvest numbers and all.
Keep reading
- Why We're Stumping 1,200 Avocado Trees to Bring Our Grove Back to Life
- From Our Grove to the Classroom: Fresh-Squeezed Valencia Orange Juice
Taste it yourself
When the harvest is in, we ship hand-picked Hass avocados from our De Luz grove straight to your door. See what's available in the shop.