9 Vegetables for a Goth Fall Garden

This morning, I finally rolled up my sleeves and admitted what my garden has been trying to tell me for the last couple of weeks: summer is winding down.

There were plants out there that had given me everything they had. Vines that were more brown than green, vegetables that had slowed to a crawl, and a few things I had been keeping around mostly because I wasn’t quite ready to call the season finished yet.

But eventually, there comes a point when leaving something in the garden isn’t optimism anymore. It’s clutter.

So I started pulling. I cleared away the things that were past their prime, cleaned up the beds, gathered what was still worth harvesting and started making room for what comes next.

Because while August may feel like the garden is giving up, this is actually one of my favorite little secrets of growing food: the garden isn’t finished. It’s simply changing costumes. And apparently, mine is changing into black.

Because somewhere between pulling tired summer plants and deciding what I wanted to grow this fall, I went tumbling down a very delightful rabbit hole and discovered that there are enough dark, purple, burgundy and nearly-black vegetables to plant an entire goth garden for fall.

Naturally, I am obsessed.

Fall gardening already has a completely different personality from spring and summer. Spring is tender little seedlings and possibility. Summer is absolute botanical chaos, with tomatoes flinging themselves over cages and squash trying to annex neighboring territories.

Fall feels moodier. The light gets softer. The mornings cool down. The garden becomes quieter. And while everybody else is filling their porches with orange mums, I am now deeply entertained by the possibility of filling my vegetable beds with things that look like they belong in Morticia Addams’ kitchen garden.

Fortunately, vegetables are every bit as dramatic as flowers if you know which varieties to look for.

I’m starting with Black Magic Kale, because obviously anything called Black Magic was getting into this garden.

It has deeply colored blue-green leaves that can become so dark they look almost black, with that gorgeous crinkled texture kale does so well. Kale is also one of those crops that seems made for autumn because cooler temperatures suit it beautifully, and a touch of frost can even improve its flavor.

So while the summer vegetables are packing their bags, this one is just getting comfortable. (Find seeds here.)

Firebird Swiss Chard brings a little fire into all that darkness with vivid red stems running through deep green leaves.

Swiss chard is one of my favorite kinds of edible landscaping because it doesn’t particularly care whether you planted it to be useful or beautiful. It intends to be both.

Tucked among dark lettuces and purple brassicas, those red stems should look absolutely ridiculous in the best possible way. (Find seeds here.)

Pak choy gives the garden something I always appreciate: quick gratification.

Unlike some vegetables that require months of patience before they finally decide to hand over dinner, pak choy can move relatively quickly in cool weather. The darker-leaved varieties also bring those beautiful green-black tones that fit right into a fall goth garden without sacrificing usefulness.

And because I actually want to eat what I’m growing, that’s rather important.
(Find seeds here.)

These may be the vegetable I am most excited about.

Black Spanish radishes have rough, charcoal-black skin hiding crisp white flesh inside, and they look almost suspiciously dramatic for something you’re supposed to slice into a salad.

They’re also an old variety with a stronger, spicier flavor than the little red radishes most of us grew up eating, which feels appropriate. If you’re going to grow the goth radish, naturally it should have a little attitude. And they’re perfect for pickling - if you need a spicy little potion to fill your cupboards. (find seeds here)

Regular broccoli is perfectly lovely, but apparently we have been accepting green broccoli when purple broccoli exists, and I have questions.

Purple Magic Broccoli brings those incredible violet tones into the fall garden while still giving you the familiar broccoli heads you can roast, steam, toss into soups or eat straight from the garden if that’s your thing.

I’m particularly interested to see how the color looks against all the dark leafy greens once the garden gets going. (find seeds here)

A fall garden needs lettuce anyway, so why not choose one that looks like it has been reading Victorian ghost stories?

Dark-leaf lettuces bring shades ranging from burgundy to deep red and purple, and they’re an easy way to make an edible garden feel intentionally designed instead of simply planted.

That’s something I’m thinking about more lately. There is absolutely no reason a vegetable garden can’t be beautiful.

If I’m going to spend this much time wandering through it, I might as well make the whole thing a little theatrical. (find seeds here)

If there were ever a cauliflower destined for a goth garden, Purple Moon would be it. The name alone sounds like something that should be growing under wrought iron beside a black cat and a slightly suspicious garden statue.

Its deep violet heads bring plenty of drama to the vegetable bed, especially tucked among dark kale, burgundy chard and black radishes. It still gives you everything you want from a cool-weather cauliflower, but with considerably more personality.

And really, if we’re planting a fall garden devoted to the darker side, Purple Moon feels less like a vegetable choice and more like a requirement. (find seeds here)

Omero cabbage brings another deep purple-red shade into the garden, along with something I always appreciate in a fall vegetable: substance.

There is something wonderfully old-fashioned about having cabbages growing outside when the weather begins to cool. They belong to soups and roasted dinners and big pots simmering on the stove while the windows fog up.

The fact that this one also happens to be dark and gorgeous is simply a bonus.
(find seeds here)

And then there are Black Nebula Carrots, which may be the most magical name of the bunch.

These carrots grow in such a deep purple that they can look almost black, and they bring exactly the sort of gothic drama I was hoping for in a fall garden. They’re beautiful in the bed, beautiful when harvested, and if you’ve never sliced open a dark carrot before, it feels delightfully theatrical in the kitchen too.

I also love that carrots bring a little practicality to all this moodiness. They aren’t just pretty. They’re useful. Which, now that I think about it, is probably the whole point of my kind of gardening. (find seeds here.)

So while the summer garden may be looking a little worse for wear, I’m not ready to call it quits just yet. I’m simply trading tomatoes and cucumbers for black carrots, purple cauliflower, and enough moody little vegetables to make Morticia Addams proud.

Frankly, I think fall may be when the goth garden gets to shine.