Are you like many gardeners who think the vegetable planting season is about over after the big spring push, and then wonder why your harvest ends all too soon?

If so, extend you garden harvest with some “season stretcher” varieties right now.

You’ll be picking tasty, fresh, nutritious vegetables right into winter with extras to store.

Bush snap beans are a favorite, but it’s often feast or famine: too many beans all at once and none later.

It’s easy to spread out the harvest. Plant a row now, and soon as it’s up and well-leafed out, sow another row. This way you’ll have a continuous supply of beans.

Two important points for success. First, check the number of days to maturity for the varieties you’re planting and count back from the average fall frost date in our area.

This will tell you how late you can plant to allow time for the beans to develop. Of course, you can gamble a little and many times it pays off.

Second, keep the ground evenly moist. Weather is often hot and dry, so water as necessary with a fine spray to keep the soil damp until the seedlings are up and growing well.

This often makes the difference between success and failure. Sprouting seeds are “thirsty” and can’t stand complete drying out, even for a short time.

Peas right from the garden to table are a spring taste-treat, but you can double the treat with a fall crop if you plant again soon. Pods develop well in cool autumn weather and plants take light frost, but not a heavy freeze.

Leaf lettuce, radishes and spinach delight in cool weather and grow so fast you can wait until August or even early September to plant them.

All can stand some frost in the garden, but if grown protected in a cold frame, they can be harvested well into winter. Spinach is just as delicious and nutritious cooked for “greens.”

Broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower perk up autumn menus. Sow the seed now in a specially-prepared seedbed or corner of the garden. As soon as the seedlings have a couple of pairs of leaves, transplant them to a permanent location.

Broccoli is even easier and quicker to raise. Broccoli can take moderate frost and side sprouts develop after central ones are picked, so there’s a fresh supply for table or freezer.

Brussels sprouts and kale really “take” cold weather so here are two vegetables to keep right on picking into winter.

Fall and winter cabbage, red, green and savoy types, are easy to grow from seed planted from mid-June through July. Succulent heads are ready to pick in fall for cooking, coleslaw, kraut or storage in a cool, frost-free place. They keep well and are fresh and tasty into late winter.

Don’t overlook beets, carrots, winter radishes and turnips to provide good eating all fall and well into winter. Sow them now and again in about a month.

The late plantings produce roots just right to store in a cool, dark, frost-free place such as a basement or shed.

Or store root crops right in your garden. Don’t take them up, just cover the rows in late fall with a thick layer of straw, cornstalks, marsh hay or evergreen boughs.

Whenever the weather permits, push aside the covering, and pull as many roots as you want.

Maybe you must prod yourself a little now to plant “season stretcher” vegetables, but what a thrill to harvest crisp carrots or succulent Brussels sprouts in mid-winter.

“Growing Green” is contributed by Diane Dorn, Lehigh County Extension Office Staff, and Master Gardeners. Information: Lehigh County Extension Office, 610-391-9840; Northampton County Extension Office, 610-813-6613.