Fall / Winter 2026–27
Built around the Sept 12 nursery haul (Asian greens, two heirloom peas, nodding onion, Salvia 'Furman's Red') plus what's worth starting from seed. Tomatoes, peppers, okra and basil stay until frost; only the beans come out — so the fall crops go into the two bean areas now and take over the rest of the beds after frost. Decatur is Zone 8a: greens, roots, alliums and peas run straight through winter under row cover.
Key dates
Soil still in the 80s — transplant in the evening, shade cloth for 3–5 days, wait on spinach seed. Beans out; tomatoes, peppers, okra and basil stay.
Carrots, beets, broccoli transplants and the fall pea sowing need to be in by here.
Halloween is the Atlanta rule of thumb. Soil ~60°F.
Range Oct 30 – Nov 25. Peppers and okra end here; greens keep going.
Short-day transplants only. Backup window Jan 15 – Feb 15.
Pac choi and lettuce need cover; mustards, kale, spinach, carrots, garlic and onions don't care.
Resow peas Feb 1–15; potatoes Feb 15 – Mar 10; tomatoes indoors ≈ Feb 20.
Summer crops go back into the beds mid-April.
What you bought on Sept 12 — and where it goes
Full-size pac choi, ~50 days — done by early Nov, right before the onions need that space. 10" apart.
Purple pac choi, ~45 days. Color deepens with cold.
Dwarf — 6–8" apart, 30–40 days. Harvest these first.
Cut-and-come-again all winter; freeze-hardy to the low 20s.
Mild, frilly, maroon. Baby leaves in 3 weeks; produces until it bolts in April.
Big savoyed red leaves; sweeter after frost.
Classic curly Southern mustard; the freeze-proof one.
Tomatoes hold Bed A's trellis until frost, so the fall sowing uses Bed B's short trellis; February on the 8-ft trellis is the real crop.
Yellow-pod snow pea with purple flowers. Same two sowings.
Native perennial; don't put it where the bed gets turned.
Hummingbird anchor. Mound the soil; never a wet spot. Don't cut back until spring.
Inchelium Red from Southern Exposure, ships this fall. A pound is ~16 heads / 200+ cloves — plant Oct 25–Nov 15, biggest cloves for heads, small ones 3" apart for green garlic, and cook what's left.
Plant bulbils 1–2" deep, 6" apart as soon as they arrive (Sept–Nov). Never turn that soil again — it walks itself into a patch. Greens all winter, top-sets next summer.
Plant the day they arrive, same depth as the pot, morning sun. Don't harvest for 4 weeks. Bed-corner clumps stay when the bed turns over; divide all four in March 2028.
Yard perennials (horsetail, wild ginger, mistflower, Miss Huff lantana, penstemon, lovegrass, shield fern, yellow yarrow) are covered under and on their plant pages.