This Imperfect Plot

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September 19th, 2011

Planting a fall crop and seeing the seeds sprout is like experiencing a mini-spring. The onslaught of autumn can be overwhelming if you let it. Fall is beautiful, what with the crisp air and colorful leaves and all, but let’s face it: the implication of autumn is nothing more than winter. Cold. Dark. Winter.

Ah, but the planting of a few seeds in late summer gives your garden a new lease on life. Or at least a seasonal sublet.

With this in mind, let me introduce you to the vernal soldiers of the fall: my kale seedlings.

Tags: fall, fall planting, kale

September 7th, 2011

Funny how a long weekend can seem so short. All it takes is rain. And more rain. And more rain.

I’ve been meaning to plant my fall crops  for a few weeks now, but you know how that goes…earthquakes, hurricanes, rain, more rain, birthday parties, work, more work, and so on…..it just gets away from you.

But Saturday morning, I found some time and some clear weather to prepare some beds and plant some seeds. Here’s what I intended to plant:

In the end I only planted eight out of eleven: beans, spinach, turnips, carrots, mache, and 3 types of kale. I felt it was too late to plant the peas, and I wasn’t really into planting chard this year.

Here’s a 4×6 bed of carrots, with a Black Icicle tomato plant in the corner:

Carrot Bed

I’m excited about the mache. I’ve never grown it before. I’ve never eaten it before. But from what I’ve read, we might be eating it well into winter.

Mache Bed

I am also very excited about my turnips. I planted turnips last fall, they overwintered and went to seed late this spring. This is my first real venture into saving seeds. (See my earlier blog posts about turnips).

Turnip Bed

I will refrain from posting pictures of  the beans, spinach and kale—after all, how many pictures of dirt do you need to see? I think three is plenty.

I’ll keep you posted on the progress. I hope all this rain hasn’t washed my seeds out.

Tags: fall planting, rain, saving seeds, turnips