Blog Sponsors

Email me for current Media kit!

Join the Mailing List
Join the email list

Register here to receive email updates when new posts go up

Get the Books

Purchase from the author Purchase on Amazon

Purchase from the author / Purchase on Amazon

Purchase from the author Purchase on Amazon

Purchase from the author / Purchase on Amazon

First edition book owners, download the new index for free by clicking here.

Recommended Tools and Resources
Search the Site
Stay Connected

Receive email updates when new posts go up
Contact Kate

« How to puree a pumpkin | Main | Book tour: segment 13! »
Thursday
Oct062011

Garden journal: fall is here

I woke up today to find my first sprouts since I seeded during our hiccup of rain last week.

It never ceases to amaze me. You know, when nature works.

Those trusty carrots

Let there be radishes!

Arugula sprouts

What’s perhaps even more amazing is my pre-garden store plan of attack. I’m a sucker for the garden store and going to one fills me with hope at all the prospects for my plot and future vegetable-ful life. Well, as you might remember, money is extremely tight these days; I can’t afford to be too filled with hope.

As it was unwise to set myself loose amongst a throng of seedlings without doing some homework first, I sat down at the table, took inventory of my seeds, my Central Texas growing calendar, my finances. And voila, a to-buy list emerged.

$23 spent (an all-time low for new-season starts acquisition) which even includes a couple impulse buys (rhubarb and lavender).

Each year a get a little bit better at this. Even if my on-paper plan doesn’t explode onto my kitchen table more produce than we can ever consume (as hoped), I’m learning things, happy with the pursuit more than just the product.

What’s growing this fall at my house:

  • 3 kinds of carrots
  • lettuce mix
  • arugula
  • 2 varieties of mustard greens
  • 2 varieties of cabbage
  • dill
  • chioggia beets
  • 2 varieties of beans
  • broccoli
  • tatsoi
  • flowers (seeds planted): zinnias and bluebonnets, existing champions of drought: salvia and purslane/portulaca varieties
  • basil
  • parsley
  • cilantro
  • sage
  • mint
  • lavender

Reader Comments (3)

You've plannted an incredibly varied garden for the autumn season...which, in the boot-shaped peninsula where I live, seems like an extension of Summer! Our Winter garden is already headed for good harvesting:

anice root (finocchio)
escarole
beans(which are almost ready for picking)
Trevisano(radicchio rosso)
eggplant, zucchini, peppers and cukes are almost finished....
and the butternut squash crop this year was astounding(24)

good work! Good harvest!

October 7, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterPaula

ooh, chioggia beets - those are wonderful! It is so interesting how similar our fall gardens are even though I am in northern New England. I did fall down on the job with broccoli for the fall but I'm growing Brussels sprouts for the first time, which are in the same family. good luck and I wish you some light rain down there!

October 7, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterRachel

We have been container gardening for years and then we were able to buy a home and now also have a vegetable garden.

We haven't tried a fall garden but it's something I've seen people writing about so we are interested in giving it a try.

December 29, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterJames

PostPost a New Comment

Enter your information below to add a new comment.
Author Email (optional):
Author URL (optional):
Post:
 
Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>