Monday, September 5, 2011

Fall Garden

It's that time of the year to clear out the spent summer crops and get ready for a fall garden.  Since I missed early spring with all the garden renovations, I am excited to get a second chance with the cool season crops.  One crop that I have always had problems with is peas.  I never get them in the ground early enough in the spring and they quickly wilt and die in the SC sun.  I'm hoping that I can have some pea success in the fall.  I may have gone overboard by planting four different varieties and at least 30 seeds of each. Stay tuned to find out if I get buried under a pile of peas!

Next up in the fall garden are the root crops.  I'm excited about the colorful carrots and beets- never had a purple carrot before!  I'm also not sure about the difference between turnips and rutabagas- they look a lot alike.  Maybe I don't need to plant both, but I guess I will find out how similar they taste.  I've never grown or even eaten kohlrabi.  It's my fall garden adventure crop!


I also planted several varieties of lettuce, kale, swiss chard, broccoli, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts.  Radishes and garlic will be on the planting to do list in couple of weeks.  I find the hardest part about growing a fall garden is keeping the seeds from drying out.  I use vermiculite to help hold in the moisture, which also seems to help the carrot seeds to germinate.  Luckily the forecast for the week has lots of rain, although tonight the rain has been coming down for awhile.  Hoping seeds don't float away!






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