What TKG Planted in Fall Gardens: The Grocery-Store Staples and the Garden-Only Goodness
Fall gardening in Middle Tennessee is all about abundance.
Don’t you remember that basket-style cornucopia tumbling with veg in your third grade drawings of the Pilgram’s Thanksgiving? That’s the food from a fall garden, people! We’ve got the summer tomatoes, okra, peppers, beans, squash and eggplants coming out our ears, and, as the heat dies down, we get a fresh round of greens that thrive in the cooler nights and shorter days. This week, the Tennessee Kitchen Gardens team has been filling your gardens, and our own, with a mix of familiar favorites (the kind you’d find in any grocery store) and funky, garden-only gems you’ll never see on a shelf.
Read on if you are still planning to put your fall crops in the ground.
The Familiar
These are the reliable staples—the ones you’d toss into your cart without thinking. They’re hearty, dependable, and perfect for filling fall soups, roasts, and salads.
Broccoli & Cauliflower
Cabbage (Green, Red, Chinese)
Brussels Sprouts
Kale (Dino, Curly, Red Russian)
Spinach, Swiss Chard, and Arugula
Lettuces (Buttercrunch, Romaine, Red Leaf, Winter Density, Salanova, Mesclun mix)
Carrots, Beets, and Radish
If you’re looking for crops that deliver like clockwork, this list has you covered. The brassicas are high in fiber, and there are so many studies about incorporating these greens to prevent color cancer and improve liver function.
The Funky
And then there are the oddballs of the fall gardens— the things that we pored over in the seed catalogs last winter, things that make the neighbors stop and ask, “What is THAT?”
Part of the magic of gardening is trying plants you’ll never find at the grocery store. Sometimes that’s because they don’t ship well (too tender, too delicate), sometimes it’s because they’re funky-looking and “unmarketable,” and sometimes it’s simply because big growers stick to the most common varieties. We plant our fair share of kale and green cabbage every year, but we just cannot resist trying greens that are strange colors and shapes, or just unheard of. Romanesco, anyone? Kohlrabi? Radicchio?
Here’s the list of “our of the ordinary” plants we offered this year:
Kalettes – A kale-Brussels hybrid that looks like frilly little rosettes.
Romanesco – A lime-green cauliflower cousin that grows in spirals so perfect they look computer-generated.
Pac Choi (Bok Choy) – Tender and crunchy, but too fragile to ever travel far.
Leeks – Elegant alliums that take their time but make soups unforgettable.
Fennel – Sweet, licorice-flavored bulbs with feathery fronds—beautiful and underappreciated.
Golden Beets – Bright orange, less earthy than red beets, but easily bruised, so you’ll rarely see them in stores.
Turnips – Both root and greens are edible. Grocery stores might stock the roots, but homegrown ones are tender, sweet, and the greens are a southern delicacy.
Mustard Greens – Bold and peppery, they bring heat and bite to a salad or sauté—flavors too strong for mainstream supermarket shelves, but beloved in southern kitchens.
Collards – I know that these are a Southern favorite, but these are kinda a relic of my grandmother, and I never cared to grow them much. Now, I’ve learned that they are packed full of nutrients, and the garden version is much more tender and sweet than the grocery store product.
Herbs & Flowers for Flavor and Beauty
Around the edges of the beds, we tucked in cool-weather herbs like cilantro, dill, and parsley, alongside the already growing chives, oregano, sage, thyme, and rosemary. These are potent herbs that are high in antioxidents, and we’re excited to have them back in the cool season garden. And of course, we added color: snapdragons, pansies, ranunculus, strawflower, and nasturtiums to keep pollinators busy and the garden beautiful.
Why Plant Now?
September and October give us the sweet spot for fall planting. Warm soil helps seedlings establish quickly, while cooler days keep pests at bay. Once the plants are rooted in, they’ll carry us well into winter with steady harvests of greens, roots, and herbs.
Final Thought
Fall gardening isn’t just about broccoli and kale. It’s about trying the funky crops that never make it into the grocery store, savoring flavors you can’t buy, and delighting in the surprises the garden has to offer. The familiar keeps us grounded, but the funky keeps us inspired.
