Feedback on Fall Planting!

Hello All! I'm new to the forums, but not new to gardening. I am, however, trying my hand at fall planting which I don't usually do.
I used the Permaculture Plant Data (https://permacultureplantdata.com/) website to find compatible plant pairs, and a local Plant Schedule for my zone (9b)
but would love some feedback on placement. Each row is going to be a 4' wide hugelkultur mounds topped with compost, with 3' walkways between.


My biggest issue in this area is poor soil (hardpan clay) so the hugelbeds will help with moisture retention, and hopefully also fix the problem of water collecting in low spots every year where my beds are going.  Thanks for your feedback!

It looks great to me!

Your zone doesn't tell us everything about your climate (rainfall and hours of sunlight, etc) but I'm guessing you have mild winters and ask those plants should do nicely over the winter.

Other things that are good for fall planting with mild winters are all the things you'd plant in spring, so you might be able to get a new crop of peas, radishes, and carrots. I love kale in my fall/winter garden. Garlic is great too.

What do you have growing in the one horizonal bed?

Brit, welcome to the forum and the wonderful world of fall gardening and hugelkulture, too!

As Jenny suggests kale is a wonderful fall plant.

Thanks! We're actually pretty blessed with great weather. This past winter was very wet but usually get an average of 3-4inches of rainfall during the winter months... always very dry during the summer.

Jenny Wright wrote: What do you have growing in the one horizonal bed?

Thanks for your reply! Nothing there yet, but was planning on using that for squash and other vining plants in the spring. I'll def. see if I can fit some Kale in the bed this year too!

I can't pretend to offer advice as I've not made one before, but this podcast by Paul might be of some use, as he discusses Samantha's hugelkulture design and gives her some advice. https://richsoil.com/permaculture/81927-podcast-640-samanthas-consultation-part-2

Welcome Brit.  Good luck with your fall garden.  I'm in zone 9b in N. Ca. I think my fall garden is my favorite.  It's so much more enjoyable to be out when it's not 100+.  Also we love the fall veggie.  Peas, peas, and more peas.  Even if you don't like them, maybe throw some bush type around other veggies, because they are great nitrogen fixers.  Lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, cilantro, carrots, radishes, onion, garlic, bok choy, brussel sprouts, potatoes, spinach, sorrel.  My swiss chard and purple tree kale grow and produce year round, but taste so much better in the cooler months.

I hope you have better luck with your hugelkulture than I have.  I was so excited when I learned about hugelkulture.  Imagine not having to water very often.  Unfortunately for me it's a dream that is to good to be true.  For some reason I have to water my hugel just as often as my other gardens.  If you have water issues like I do give olla a try. I didn't use them this year, and it was a huge mistake.  They helped a lot in the past.  

Good luck, enjoy your fall garden

You've already gotten great suggestions as to what to plant, so I won't address that. Just wanted to throw out that you might check out Goldifarms on youtube. Her climate sounds similar to yours (also a 9 with winter rain) and she goes into her start with hugelkulture and what changes she made moving forward. I've found it inspiring as we also have hot dry summers though my zone is 7b, not 9b.

Good luck with your fall planting!

Jen Fulkerson wrote:Lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, cilantro, carrots, radishes, onion, garlic, bok choy, brussel sprouts, potatoes, spinach, sorrel.

Jen,

When do you plant these vegetables? Do you have freezes in winter?

I don't have a certain date. I just keep an eye on the temperature. I've read lettuce is less likely to be bitter if planted in temps under 80, so I try to plant when the temps are around 80. Probably in mid to late September.
I plant garlic in October.  Onions about the same time.  I've heard potato onions in December.  
I haven't tried potatoes in the fall. I've wanted to buy could never find seed potatoes in the fall.  This year I'm going to buy organic potatoes and just give them a try.  That's the plan.
I'm always messing up peas.  I'm always torn between pulling out beans to plant peas.  They are pretty forgiving. Once I had peas about 12" tall and tall weather go cold, and they just kind of stayed that size. When it warmed up they finished growing and produced great.

We get a handful of freezers a year. Between 28 and 32.  Usually last freeze is the end of January. This year we had a freeze in March, so you just never know.

In Wisconsin zone 4b, we really can't plant annuals in the fall, although we have 'volunteers' that come near the compost pile. Even a potato plant came up!  If I were to plant in some annuals in the fall, I would have to overplant, so more seeds to make up for those that make a false start and get killed by a late frost. I would also mulch the dickens out of them like I do for strawberries and then remove the mulch after danger of frost, sometimes in May, so I would not really gain much time.
Brit is in zone 9b, so he really doesn't have what I call a "winter".
I want to encourage my fellow permies to plant trees in the fall, however: trees need that welcome period of rest at the end of a growing season and they have all winter to get used to the place. You will also get good "special offers" in the fall, as nurseries get short on storage space and want to clear the area. Often, selling in the fall also means that they don't have to repot trees that have outgrown their containers.
*** A word of caution, though: These trees will be holdovers that didn't sell for an entire season, so yes, they may well be pot-bound.
If you see a tall tree in a tiny pot, it is like these little shoes they used to put on Chinese little girls so their feet would stay small. I'm sure it was horribly painful [Fashion, I tell you!]
Anyway, if you make that mistake and buy one of those, two things:
1/Wash and separate the roots and straighten them as best you can in the hole.
2/ trim the top severely as you can't ask small roots to feed a big tree.
3/ if the fall rains are meager, make sure they go into winter in well hydrated soil! That, I think, is the true trick to planting trees in the Fall of the year.
I try to pick short trees/ bushes in as big a container as I can afford.
Spring is a really busy season here. Fall is busy too, with all the harvest and canning, but it also gives us the "Indian summer", that special period of time after a killing frost when the ground is still workable but before the ground freezes. That's when I like to plant my trees.