After a recent move, I’m only now — finally — ready to get my edible garden growing. I’ll admit I’m a couple of months late to the planting party, but I still have high hopes of salvaging what’s left of the season to provide at least some fresh, homegrown food for the table.

With August now here, I’ve had to scratch many of my favorite tender or longer-season veggies off my list. (Sorry, potatoes and parsnips, you’re penciled in for next year.) Instead, I’ve jumped into action to find quick-to-grow and cold-hardy alternatives to get going now.

Whether you’re getting a late start like me, or simply looking to squeeze an extra harvest out of your garden space, there are still many veggies that can be planted and grown now for late-summer and fall eating. Not surprisingly, many of the same plants that grow well in the cooler temperatures of early spring are also suitable for planting now, able to tolerate cold, late-summer nights and even a frost or two, in some cases.

“Many edibles actually taste better after a frost,” said Andrea Bellamy, gardening author and founder of the blog Heavy Petal. “They produce a natural anti-freeze sugar that translates into a sweeter tasting vegetable. Just one more reason to stretch your growing season.”

Terri Enger of Eastside Gardens said, “It’s getting too late for squash and pretty late for tomatoes and peppers. But if you can find healthy plants with plenty of blooms you may still have time. At this point, it’s important to really get all plants going in a hurry with a liquid feed or granular fertilizer. I use fish fertilizer initially, then I use a 4-6-2 (nitrogen-phosphorous-potassium) granular fertilizer. The stronger the initial plant, the more you’re going to get off of it.”

While the flowering zucchini plant I purchased may be a bit ambitious this late in the game, “there’s still plenty of time to do carrots, lettuce, spinach, peas and beans. And then there’s beets, chard, kale and radishes,” Enger said. “Many of the plants we try to do in spring can be done again for fall. With any luck, we’ll have good weather through the end of September. But again, fertilizing and then also keeping that row cover on hand (are both necessary).”

Protecting plants from the cold with cold frames, plastic or another insulating row cover is essential for fast-growing fall plants to reach maturity. It also helps extend the growing season.

For hardier plants such as kale, chard and cold-loving cabbage varieties, protected plants can keep producing well into winter.

Sheltering from the cold may seem obvious, but an added challenge to gardening this time of year can be finding ways to protect plants from extreme heat waves as well, especially while shallow-rooted, young plants are becoming established. For those who use hoop houses or another framework to hold row cover, you can also use this support system to offer shade, by draping and pinning fabric to it or hanging commercial shade cloth.

“They need time to mature while the weather is still warm,” explained Modern Farmer Magazine, “but if planted too early, they may be stunted by the heat and many will bolt, meaning they will send up flower stalks and set seed prematurely.” If that happens, the edible part of the crop becomes tough and bitter. Radishes, for example, have a tendency to become woody and are not as sweet when grown in extreme heat. Spinach is another that can be quick to bolt.

Planting new, small crops close to the base of and between larger crops about ready for harvest helps protect the plants from the heat. Then the new crops can grow to use the space and nutrients vacated by the mature plant.

Time is short. So focus on starting the longest-to-grow or most tender plants first. For me, that means getting “cross-my-fingers” plants such as Brussels sprouts (100 days to maturity) and zucchini (52 days to maturity) in the ground immediately — and fertilizing well.

Next, I’ll plant Blue Lake pole beans and two varieties of peas: Little Marvel and Mammoth Melting pea. Attaching trellis netting strung away from the bed means they’ll have room to climb as they grow, which will also create a bit of dappled shade for the mesclun greens, Olympia and Big Ruffles spinach, arugula and heat-tolerant buttercrunch lettuce I’ll be planting next to them.

I’ll wait to plant cold-loving kale for now, saving it for when the temperatures dip and there are holes to fill where the more tender greens were growing. I’ll also be tracking down some tatsoi seeds to plant about then — a Chinese cabbage variety that I’ve never grown. With small, green, spoon-shaped leaves, tatsoi matures in just 45 days, but if cut, will come again, growing clear into winter, even after a dusting of snow or two.

Other cut-and-come-again crops such as Napa cabbage, pok choi and ruby red Swiss chard should go next to the lettuces. This now-and-later planting and harvesting strategy is recommended by Bellamy, author of “Sugar Snaps and Strawberries.”

“When harvesting looseleaf lettuces and other greens, rather than pulling out the entire plant, just remove a few of the outer leaves for your salad or meal; the plant will continue to produce new leaves, and you can repeat the process two or three times throughout the season,” according to Bellamy.

Carrots should go in immediately, too. For the best chance of success, I’ve selected three early-to-mature varieties. Short and Sweet and Danvers Half Long produce short, thick slicing carrots in about 60 days. While smaller, Little Finger carrots are a slimmer, baby variety for eating whole.

I’ll wait a couple of weeks to plant my Early Wonder beet and Hakurei turnip seeds, however. Because the entire plants are edible, beets and turnips can be twice as useful. Baby beets and turnips can be harvested in as soon as 30 days.

In early September, I’ll plant my final seeds of the season: Cherry Belle radishes, which will grow to maturity in just 22 days if seedlings don’t get zapped by an early, freak frost.

Yes, the window of opportunity for planting vegetables this time of year, (and any time in Central Oregon, for that matter) can open and close quickly. Timing can be tricky. That’s also part of what makes late-season gardening so exciting: the calculated risks, unanticipated results, suspense and that careful dance of last-minute harvests before the long act of winter begins.

— Reporter: laurakessinger@gmail.com