Tomatoes hitting full stride?

Your tomatoes are hitting full stride. Seemingly endless branches of zucchini leaves sprawl across your garden.

But there are areas of empty soil, spaces vacated by your early summer vegetables. Or perhaps you're just now thinking about gardening as a way to help with the monthly budget.

What to do? Plant a fall crop for a whole new fresh harvest.

This is the final cusp of time to plant seeds in this region for an outdoor collection of food, and we checked with an expert to get tried-and-true suggestions.

Think green

You can't go wrong with either spinach and mustard greens, said Barbara Bates, a University of Illinois Extension service educator.

Both can be planted from seeds and will deliver nice, green crops in the fall. But time is of the essence. Any fall crops really need to be planted within the next week, and these fast-growing leafy vegetables are no exception.

Whether they're cooked as a side dish or used in salads, either one will deliver a nutritional punch.

Pass the radishes, peas

Though thought of as an early spring plant, peas work equally well in the fall, Bates said.

They take about 45 days from planting to harvest and, luckily, can withstand a little bit of frost. For a faster crop, radishes will deliver in 30 days.

Both might actually come in under those timelines because they're being planted in summer rather than spring, Bates explained.

"Because the soil is already warm they tend to germinate faster and take off faster rather than in the spring when the soil is cool," she said.

Getting to the roots

Beets and turnips normally are harvested in the heart of summer.

If they're planted at the end of summer, though, they'll turn in smaller bulbs, but sweeter ones, Bates explained.

"You can leave them in the ground after a frost," she said. "They store sugar better in the fall. You get much sweeter beets in fall than summer."

And for the really devoted gardeners, the ones who just don't want the season to end, there's always the house that never chills: a cold frame. Bates said a quick search online for cold frames will turn up many inexpensive plans using old window frames and either planks or bricks.

Cold frames can keep leafy crops like lettuce growing all winter long.