Some gardeners might start feeling the urge to start winding down the garden and scaling back, but not Patti Nagai.

Nagai, a University of Wisconsin Extension horticulture educator for Racine County, said she likes to keep her garden going with late summer plantings to take advantage of cooler air temperatures as fall approaches.

“There are still so many different vegetables that you can plant now and still be able to harvest in the fall,” she said.

That even goes for Wisconsinites gardening in the northern regions. Container gardening and raised beds are especially well-suited for the later crops, she said.

The key to successful, late-sown crops are to pay close attention to what the maturity dates are for the seeds to be sown. Seeds in the 40-to-45-day range are about as long as most gardeners should risk. Those dates can be found on the seed packet or label and in a catalog.

“Count carefully to make sure that you at least have a chance to get it harvested before the frost,” Nagai cautioned.

Another factor in successful fall harvests is to choose plants that are particularly cold-hardy, according to Nagai.

“The entire brassica family, which contains cabbage, kale, collards, radishes and turnips ... all of those are very frost tolerant,” she said. “Some of them are even freeze tolerant.”

Not only can some of those vegetables survive a frost, in some cases, their flavor is improved.

“A lot of the vegetables will taste better when they’re harvested in the fall, after the temperatures have really dropped,” Nagai said.

In fact, gardeners are benefiting from the plants’ natural protection mechanisms. She explained that to make themselves less likely to freeze, the plants produce more sugar. So, their flavors are sweeter and more concentrated.

Carrots harvested after a frost or two are much sweeter, Nagai said, “and Brussels sprouts are always better when they’re harvested late, late in the season after the temperatures have dropped.”

Some vegetables that are often thought of as early spring crops are good to plant for fall as well. Nagai said that leaf lettuce is a good choice since it grows quickly.

“You can get a nice crop out of it,” she said.

Asian greens like bok choy are also a good choice, as are kale, turnips, and some of the shorter carrot varieties.

Short season bush beans are possible, but not a guaranteed producer for a fall harvest, Nagai warned. Even though the math of the maturity date might seem to work, she said that for crops that really thrive in warm weather, the temperatures might be too cool.

“It really depends on Mother Nature,” she said. “They really don’t like cold temperatures.”