Best Vegetables for fall planting

Hi everyone. I know it's only July, but I am already starting to plan for my fall plantings. I am in south-east Michigan. Since I am relatively new to this, I was hoping for suggestions on what to plant. This will be the first year that I am going to plant in the late summer/fall. Our first frost is usually early to mid-October. I was thinking bok choy and a 2-3 other things. Suggestions?

Check the date that the earliest frost is expected. Get these plants going before then, so they are established in the garden, though still young. These are OK in the milder fall weather, and can handle light frosts.
You can also set up a hoop garden: While the weather might be a bit too hot you can put some shade cloth over the young plants for a couple of weeks and get them going earlier. Then, when it gets colder use a clear plastic cover to extend the season. You can probably add as much as a month longer growing time, into the early winter.

Pretty much all the crucifers-
Broccoli, Cauliflower, Kale, Cabbage, Brussels Sprouts, Chinese Cabbages and Greens....

Most of the root crops-
Carrot, Turnip, Radish, Beet
Start small rows of seeds of each of these perhaps every 2 weeks. Note which rows were started when, and record that for next year- which crops failed because it got too cold? That is a reasonable guess as to when to stop planting things. This timing will vary with the weather, and if you use a hoop system to extend the season.

Most of the leaf crops-
Lettuce, Spinach and pretty much all the assorted greens.
You can do the same with these as I suggested with the root crops.

A few others such as Snow Peas.

The plants to avoid are the crops that need heat to ripen, which are mostly the crops that give us fruits that we call vegetables. Tomato, Peppers, Squash, Melon, Pumpkin, Cucumbers, Corn
And avoid crops that take too long to ripen such as most Onions and Garlic.

Nothing wrong with planting onions and garlic this fall for early crops next spring. That's the way both of those crops are done commercially in Eastern Wa. I regularly plant garlic in the fall because it grows bigger and better. Don't know how many zones this will work in. Try it you may find it works for you.

Garlic takes almost a full 8 months, so, if you plant it, make sure it's not in an area that you'll need for anything else, any time soon, LOL!

you are actually on the right track with doing your planning now.

Even in my zone 7A i am supposed to start some things in mid to late august, my turnips, carrots, kale, lettuce, and maybe beets.

my frost risk, DG says starts around Oct 16th or so. Ive heard many guides say to take the days to maturity listed for what you are growing and start at the frost risk date, and count backwards. And the plants listed in the cruicifers category, and carrots, as Diana noted, are something that can handle a frost, and in fact, will improve the flavor on those plants.

Here in zone 8a you can get a good crop planting in the gh and trans planting out in Feb or early march . Harvest in late july or mid Aug. Some varieties do much better than others I like early California when I don't plant in the fall. Sometimes I am just gardened out in the fall.

hoop house

Thanks everyone. So far I have settled on beets, bok choy (which I will not let bolt), and green cabbage. I would like to try to over-winter some of the beets as an experiment for my soil and area. Garlic and onions would be nice, since we use so much of them. I will need to do some research regarding overwintering them in michigan.

Emcars, I'm so glad you asked this - you've inspired me to try some carrots (and maybe beets) this year. Good luck with your book choy!

I will start broccoli indoor next week.

In some of these areas you might be able to grow "fall" veggies during the summer or at least most of it. It wasn't until I moved to TX, from SoCal, that I started planting things at different times. In CA we actually had lettuce and tomatoes at the same time. Lol Just a thought.

drthor Territorial has some seed from England for overwintering cauli ,cabbage ,and broccoli Here it harvest in late dec then feb ,mar, and April it is the sweetest B and C I have ever had. The heads do not reach whopper size but they are big enough for the two of us.

eweed thanks for the info.
I am not very fond of cabbages and even if I love cauliflowers, my harvests have been average and with a very long time to produce.
After 7-8 years now of vegetable garden I just plant what we really like to eat and also what it really grows well in my garden.
Broccoli are very rewarding, in fact after the large head has been harvested (normally end of October or November) the plants keep making small broccolini untill February ... then it will bolt.
In a few weeks I will start indoor all my favorite greens; Kale, Swiss chard and Choi. At the end of September I normally direct seed lettuce and radishes.
All of these crops go through the winter.