So you miss picking fresh spinach out of your garden now that the summer has put it to seed. You long for more of those tender green beans, already harvested. Maybe you just didn’t get around to planting anything this year. Good news! You have another chance.

“Fall can be a very good time for cool-season-type crops,” says Tom Fowler, University of Missouri Extension horticulturist. “Heat can sometimes be a challenge, but if you can get them through August, you’ll have some tasty stuff in the fall.”

What you can plant now may surprise you. Desiree Burkert, assistant manager at Earl May Garden Center, has a fall planting chart at the center that gives a long list of possibilities you can put in the ground now: beans, beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, collards, eggplant, herbs, kale, lettuce, okra, peas, spinach, squash, sweet corn, Swiss chard and turnips.

“You also can plant elephant garlic for next season’s harvest,” she says.

The last date to plant varies on what you are planting and what the weather does. Oct. 10 is the average day of the first fall frost in this area, so you should take that into account when selecting your seed, Mr. Fowler says. You then plant your crops early enough to let them reach their full maturity before the first killing frost.

Because of the Midwest weather’s unpredictably, Mr. Fowler says some gardeners will plant short season crop seeds, like lettuce, every seven to 10 days. That way you are bound to have some lettuce that will make it and not more than you can eat.

To give the seeds a better chance, Mike Miller, author of “Gardening Missouri,” suggests refrigerating the seeds of vegetables like lettuce, radishes and spinach for a week prior to planting. And if you water every day, they can endure even the hottest days.

“They won’t turn bitter that way,” says Diane Peek, with Poverty Ridge Farm. “Just don’t over-fertilize at this time of year.”

Brenda Barnes with Moffet Nursery and Garden Shop says she is going to try planting some seed potatoes and maybe carrots for this fall.

“Cut up a few potatoes from the spring harvest, and you can have some little new potatoes in the fall.”

And if you can get green beans planted this week, they also make a good fall crop, according to Lala Kumar, University Of Missouri Extension horticulturist. She recommends Blue Lake and Kentucky Wonder pole snap beans and Contender, Provide, Jade, Strike and Tema bush snap beans.

It’s best to plant cole crops, such as broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage, using plants instead of seeds, Mr. Fowler says. But you might have to do some searching to find the plants, since most garden centers don’t carry them this time of year.

Whether you use seeds or plants, Mr. Fowler urges gardeners to give fall crops a shot. Yes, we could have snow in October, but you never know.

“It can turn off and be nice through Thanksgiving,” he says.

Lifestyles reporter Sylvia Anderson may be reached at sylviaanderson@npgco.com