Too late to plant veggies in VA?

[rocko918]

Hi, I just finished putting together my 6x6's to frame out our garden. I would like to plant some stuff but was wondering it if it was too late for tomatos, cukes, zucc, and other veggies. We live in Northern Virginia.
Also do you think I could do cantaloupes?

thanks

[Roger]

Hi there Rocko ! You can certainly try anything, so long as you are prepared to not get a heavy crop [or in fact, possibly not gain a crop at all.] The biggest factor is when is your earliest possible frost date. If it is less than three to four months away, then there is a good chance certain plants will not make it to maturity before being killed by an early frost. You can still try to grow whatever you want, and see how it does.
If you pick specific plants and varieties, you still have plenty of time for a nice fall garden. Like I said, a lot depends on when the first frost happens in your area.

I doubt melons or cucumbers will do well planted this late. For some suggestions on late summer/fall gardens, see this site :

[url]https://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/pages/publicationD.jsp?publicationId=483[/url]

[Grey]

You can probably get some squash in this amount of time, and eggplant, and if you buy the tomatoes already started (like a foot tall) you'll likely get some of them before the first frost too.

[rocko918]

thanks guys, I will do a small crop this year and be ready for next year.

Thanks for the link as well!

[LMcNair27]

I also live in Northern VA and planted a modest container garden on my apt. balcony in late February/March. The tomatoes have just started to come in (although I think different varieties mature faster). I started getting cucumbers maybe a month ago, so if you plant some of those now, you'll probably get a few before the frost hits. I highly recommend mesclun (sp?). It's a lettuce-like field greens type of plant that actually likes cooler temperatures. It was also the first thing I was able to eat out of my garden, after about one month, and is still producing some good leaves, although a large chunk of mine got eaten by about 3 dozen catarpillars. I'm thinking about planting a second batch for a fall crop. At least I'll have lots of butterflies in a month or two.