Monday, October 3, 2016

FALL GARDEN BEGINS

Great weekend.  

Got a lot done in the garden.  I started by clearing out the beds of the remains of Summer.  I didn't get pictures of all the beds before, but here are a few.


This was the tomato and jalapeño bed.  I pulled up the tomatoes and all that was left was the lone jalapeño.  What a bush, this one alone gave us dozens of jalapeños.  


Upon turning the soil in all the beds we planted in, we found nice, rich, dark soil.  Even a few worms (thinking of adding some worms next season).  I got all the beds cleaned up and soil turned.  Then it was time for planting.


In the tomato/pepper bed, I planted too more tomatoes, a beefmaster and a better boy.  The beefmaster has some yellowing leaves, it got pushed to the back of a group of plants I had and didn't get watered.  Oops!  I hope it bounces back.  Around them, I planted some buttercrunch bibb lettuce.  

There is more room for additional plants later in the season. 


In the old eggplant bed, I put in a yellow squash (bush type) and surrounded it by eight Chinese (Napa) cabbages.  


And this is where the okra plants were.  We decided to fill it with greens.  So we have kale, mustard greens, and collard greens.  

I also updated all the irrigation hoses and connections in each bed.  I'm finding the black portion of the hose is not lasting as long as I had hoped it would.  I'll just need to make sure we have some on hand.

Anyway, that's the garden update.  There is more space in another bed for more and there are some more vegetable that we can plant as it gets a bit cooler.

Lots of Fall veggies hopefully coming soon.


16 comments:

  1. didn't know if you knew but a person must rotate tomato plants; not plant tomatoes in the same place as previous.
    Just like farmers do when planting; they rotate their crops; maybe beans one year and corn the next.

    Rotating vegetable crops:
    https://bonnieplants.com/library/rotating-vegetable-crops-for-garden-success/

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    1. I did know about that, but I kinda didn't have another spot and I thought I'd give it a shot and see. I did turn the soil and add more compost, etc to it. Thanks for this link, I need to save this. Fingers crossed!!

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  2. Fantastic! Hope you have lots of goodies to get you through the fall and early winter. Let me know when the collard greens are ready for cutting. I am a seriously mean collard cooker!

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    1. Oh, I need some good collard recipes. I'll keep you posted!!! :-)

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  3. Good looking fall garden. It's so much fun to go out to the fall garden and pick your supper.
    One tip on homegrown lettuce: It can be a bit bitter when first picked, especially if we have had a spell of warm weather. I pick mine, wash it, and refrigerate it for about 36 hours before eating to remove the bitterness.

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    1. Thanks for this info, I will remember that. This is our first ever Fall garden so it's sort of an experiment.

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  4. The soaker hoses might last longer if you covered them with mulch. I think the sun makes them brittle and more likely to break. I’m very interested in your raised beds as I’m planning my own right now.

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    1. I wondered if that could be the issue. In a couple of beds they are covered up but I ran out of straw. I'll fix that that, thanks!!!

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  5. I see salads in your future! I know you are not quite ready to "live off the land," but are you putting up anything but pepper jelly? I've forgotten.

    Texas Rose, I did not know that refrigerating lettuces made them less bitter!
    Practical Parsimony

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    1. LOL, so true. We have jellies and jams so far. I'm working on some canned tomato sauce this weekend. I'm not sure if any of this soon to be, hopefully, can-able.

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  6. A gardeners work is never done. But is sooooo rewarding.

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    1. Amen to that, ha. It IS rewarding, in so many more ways than one.

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  7. wonderful! i'm not planting a fall garden this year. too busy cooking for the kids. i wish i had one though!

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    1. Hey ya! I can totally understand why you don't have time, you are too busy cooking such wonderful meals!!!

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  8. Very inspiring fall garden you've got there. I'm waiting on rain to plant ours. Your soil is lovely.

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  9. I've never tried planting (except bulbs) in Autumn, but I'm going to experiment this year. I'm in MA....wish me luck!

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