Colorful vegetables add beauty and variety to a fall vegetable garden. Here are some colorful vegetables that you can grow in a fall garden, plus tips on how to prepare and eat them.
When you make a purchase using a link on this page, we may receive a commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. For more information, please see About Us.
Fall will soon be here, and that means that it is time for three things: back to school, pumpkin spice, and fall vegetable gardening.
Fall is a good time to grow vegetables that love to grow in cooler weather. This includes root vegetables like beets, carrots, parsnips, radish, and turnips; cruciferous vegetables like bok choy, cabbage, cauliflower, and kale; and leafy greens like arugula, collards, mizuna, mustard, spinach, and Swiss chard.
Fall is also a great time to grow the most colorful vegetables to eat. You may have heard that colorful vegetables are rich in antioxidants like anthocyanin, lutein, and zeaxanthin.
Fall is a great time to grow antioxidant-rich vegetables in your garden. The cooler weather helps some vegetables to express their colors more brilliantly, and many gardeners believe that colder weather also helps to sweeten the taste of some vegetables.
Not only can you harvest delicious and colorful vegetables, they look good in the garden and brighten up the gray days of fall. Plus, gardening can be relaxing, it’s a good excuse to spend more time outdoors.
Here is a list of some of the most colorful vegetables to grow in a fall garden.
In This Section | Colorful Vegetables to Grow in Fall
- Beets
- Bok Choy
- Broccoli
- Brussels Sprouts
- Cabbage
- Carrots
- Cauliflower
- Celery
- Garlic
- Kale
- Kohlrabi
- Lettuce
- Mizuna
- Mustard
- Radish
- Swiss Chard
- Turnips
Beets
Beetroot comes in red, yellow, and white colors. The part of the beet that we most commonly eat is the root, and that part grows mostly below ground.
But sometimes beet leaves will show a tinge of color that matches the root. So “Ruby Queen” beets can produce green leaves with red veins, for example.
Sometimes beets will produce leaves that are red or have a reddish-tinge. For example, “Bull’s Blood” beets produce both a red root and fully red leaves on the plant.
Great red beet varieties for the home vegetable garden include “Crosby’s Egyptian” beet, “Detroit Dark Red” beet, and the “Chioggia” beet, which has a root that develops red and white stripes.
Yellow beets include “Burpee’s Golden” beet, “Touchstone Gold” beet, and the “Golden Boy” hybrid beet.
White beets include the “Avalanche” beet and the sugar beet.
A variety known as the “Three Root Grex” beet produces beets in a variety of shapes and colors, that may include yellow, orange, red, and purple.
Beetroot tastes delicious when roasted. Young beetroots can be shaved and added to salads to make a colorful addition. Young beet leaves are delicious when sautéed with olive oil and garlic or mixed with other young salad greens.
If you harvest beet leaves when young, be sure to leave at least two-thirds of the leaves on the plant, so that the plant can continue to grow.
Bok Choy
Bok choy is a wonderful vegetable to grow in the fall garden. It is quick growing, satisfying, and great for making stir fry and other recipes.
“Purple Lady” bok choy produces a crown of purple leaves atop bright green stems. Bok Choy is delicious grilled, sautéed, or sliced and added to stir fries.
Broccoli
“Purple Sprouting” broccoli is an English heirloom variety that produces purple florets that are delicious and wonderful to look at in the garden. “Purple Peacock” is another vibrant purple broccoli variety. Here are some tips on how to grow broccoli.
Brussels Sprouts
We mostly think of Brussels sprouts as a green mystery vegetable on the plate, but this fun vegetable comes in shades of red and purple, too.
Brussels sprouts taste best when roasted or sautéed in a pan with chopped bacon and olive oil.
Cabbage
“Red Express” cabbage is a great red cabbage to grow. It matures in about 60 to 65 days after being transplanted, and is perfect for making braised cabbage, wraps, or coleslaw. Here are some tips on how to grow cabbage in a garden.
Carrots
Carrots are one of the best known colorful vegetables. Carrots come in a variety of colors, including red, orange, yellow, purple, black, and white.
Red carrots include the “Atomic Red” carrot, while yellow carrots include “Amarillo”, “Uzbek Golden”, and “Yellowstone” carrots.
Black carrots include the “Black Nebula” carrot, which is reported to be one of the most antioxidant-rich carrots, “Black from Spain”, and “Puta Asita”, a carrot variety developed in India.
White carrots include the “Lunar White” carrot and the “Kuttiger” carrot, an heirloom variety from Switzerland.
Famous purple carrots include “Cosmic Purple” carrots and “Purple Dragon” carrots. These are popular with children and can be a good way to get them to eat their vegetables.
The “Longue Rouge Sang” carrot has beautiful ombré coloring, in shades of purple, red, and orange. The carrots are hardy and sweet, and they look gorgeous when sliced and arranged on a plate.
Delicious orange carrot varieties include “Danvers 126”, “Little Finger”, “New Kuroda”, “Scarlet Nantes”, and “St. Valery” carrots.
Here are some tips on growing carrots in a garden.
Cauliflower
Most of us are used to seeing white cauliflower in the grocery store. But cauliflower also grows in other colors, like bright green, purple, or yellow, depending on the variety.
Two of the brightest color cauliflower varieties are “Green Macerata” cauliflower, with a head that matures to a light green color, and “Purple of Sicily” cauliflower, which has a head that turns purple on the top.
Both varieties taste like white cauliflower and are great for munching on raw, steaming, roasting, or using in other cauliflower recipes.
Celery
Some types of celery produce plants with colorful stalks. These colors include pink, white, and red.
“Chinese Pink” celery produces pink stems that look adorable in a garden. This variety can be fun to grow with children.
The cold hardy celery variety known as “Brydon’s Prize Red” produces a large, thick celery plants with red-tinged stalks.
Garlic
Purple garlic varieties are fun to grow in a fall garden. Purple garlic varieties can be hard to find in grocery stores, so growing your own garlic may be the best way to get your hands on some.
Garlic has multiple uses in the kitchen, but it mainly used to flavor other foods. Purple garlic has a distinct flavor that differs from the white garlic varieties commonly found in grocery stores.
Purple or purple-stripe garlic varieties include hard neck garlic varieties like “Belarus”, “Bogatyr”, “Metechi”, “Persian Star”, “Purple Glazer”, and “Russian Red”.
Garlic is planted in the fall and harvested the following spring. Here are some tips on how to grow garlic.
Kale
Kale is one of the best known members of the cruciferous vegetables, which also includes Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and kohlrabi. It is also an easy plant to grow.
This hard-working vegetable can often be found in bags or salad mixes sold in the produce section of the supermarket. Green kale is frequently used to make salads, kale chips, and the mighty green smoothie.
When you grow kale at home, you can explore the world beyond green kale and learn about it’s blue, purple, and frilly cousins.
Red kales: “Scarlet” kale is perhaps the best known red kale. It’s leaves can turn so dark that they almost look purple. The leaves are so beautiful and frilly that Scarlet kale could also be placed in the Show-Offs category for kale.
“Russian Red” (“Ragged Jack”) kale produces green leaves with red veins. This is a tasty variety that is hardy and easy to grow. “Red Ursa” kale is another beautiful red kale that was developed from a cross between a Siberian kale and a Red Russian kale.
Blue kales: “Dazzling Blue” kale is a newly introduced variety that produces blue and purple leaves. It’s hardy and tasty, and perfect for salads. “Jagallo Nero” kale is a beautiful, blue-green kale with jagged leaves.
It is best to eat colorful kale varieties raw to maintain their spectacular color. Baby kale leaves make a great addition to salads.
However, these colorful kale varieties can be prepared in ways that are similar to green kale—sautéed with garlic in olive oil, braised with other leafy greens, roasted to make kale chips, or added to smoothies. Kale can also be added to soups, pastas, and casseroles.
Kohlrabi
Kohlrabi is a cruciferous vegetable that looks like a space ship growing above ground. These cold-hardy, cabbage-flavored bulbs can be sliced and roasted or shredded and eaten as slaw.
“Early Purple Vienna” kohlrabi is the purple version of this vegetable; kohlrabi also comes in white and green varieties.
Lettuce
Red leaf lettuces, like “Lola Rossa” lettuce, “Linux” lettuce, and “Merlot” lettuce, produce leaves that range from deep purple to bright red, and these look amazing in the garden.
Winter lettuce varieties, like “Merveille des Quatre Saisons” (Marvel of Four Seasons) lettuce, “Rouge d’Hiver” (Red of Winter) lettuce, and Yugoslavian Red lettuce produce red or red-tinged leaves that look brilliant and inviting on a cold winter’s day when most everything else has ended for the season.
Here are some tips on growing lettuce.
Mizuna
Mizuna is a fast growing, delicious vegetable that tastes great in salads, sautéed, or added to stir fry.
Colorful mizuna varieties include the purple-stemmed “Beni Houshi” mizuna and “Japanese Pink” mizuna. To keep the colorful stems looking vibrant, it is best to eat the tender, young leaves of these vegetables raw in salads.
Mustard
“Japanese Giant Red” mustard is perhaps the best known colorful mustard variety. The leaves of this plant are a deep purplish-red color in the fall.
The spicy red leaves of this mustard plant are great added to salad when young, sautéed with garlic and other leafy greens, or added to stir fries.
Radish
Eating radish is one of the best ways to get a colorful vegetable on the plate. Radishes come in a variety of colors, including purple, pink, red, yellow, black, and green.
Purple radishes are sweet and tasty and add wonderful color to salads, crudités platters, and charcuterie boards. Great purple radish varieties include “Purple Plum” and “Malaga” radishes.
Pink radishes include the classic reddish-pink “French Breakfast” radish, which is good to eat when sliced and layered over buttered bread. The “Pink Beauty” radish is a deep pink radish that is sweet, mild, and good to eat fresh for crudités and in salads.
Wonderful red radishes include the “Red Beauty” radish, a sweet Chinese winter radish; the “Hida Beni” red radish, from Japan; and the classic “Early Scarlet Globe” radish, which is great to add to salads or an easy crudités tray.
“Zlata” is a spicy, yellow-gold radish that is popular in Europe.
Spanish black radishes are famous for their color and winter hardiness. One of the most famous varieties is the “Black Spanish Round” fall radish.
Green radishes include the famous Chinese green radishes, such as “Green Luobo”, a radish with green flesh and a white tip. Heat-sensitive green radishes do best when planted in the fall.
White radish varieties to look for are “White Hailstone”, and the famous Japanese daikon radishes, which are often pickled, or used to make kimchi, and sometimes added to soups. “Minowase” daikon radish seeds can be found at online seed shops. A third variety, the “White Icicle (Lady Finger)”, is a mild and sweet heat tolerant radish.
Some radishes grow in multiple colors, and look like a tie-dye t-shirt in vegetable form. These include the “Chinese Red Meat” radish, with it’s bright pink, green, and white colors, and the “Starburst” hybrid radish, a green and white radish with reddish-pink flesh.
One of the easiest ways to grow a variety of radishes is to grow an “Easter Egg” or “Easter Basket” radish mix seed packets. These include a mixture of radish varieties, making it fun to try to identify the types of radishes and giving you a chance to taste different kinds of radishes. This is a great fall vegetable seed packet to use when gardening with kids.
Winter radish is a hardy vegetable, and does well in many fall vegetable gardens when planted in late summer or early fall.
Swiss Chard
Swiss chard is one of the easiest and most fun colorful vegetables to grow in a fall garden.
Different varieties (and colors) of Swiss chard include “Five Color Silverbeet” (red, pink, orange, yellow, and white stems), “Oriole Orange” (orange stems), and “Pink Lipstick” (pink stems). The “Rhubarb”, “Ruby Red”, and “Vulcan” varieties produce Swiss chard with red stems.
Turnips
Several varieties of turnips produce roots with beautiful purple and white coloring. These include the classic “Purple Top White Globe” turnip, “ and “Viola di Milano” turnip. The beautiful “Hida Beni Red” turnip is a unique red turnip from Japan.
Turnips are great for frying or roasting, and they can also be added to soups, stews, and casseroles.
This post was all about what to grow in a fall garden.
— —
Credits
- Photos by Eva Elijas / Pexels, Gabriele Gurrola / Unsplash, Stephanie Moody / Unsplash, and Greta Hoffman / Pexels
- Photos are for illustrative purposes only.