Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: fall, harvest, planning, summer, tips, work
I realized that starting a vegetable garden blog during the lull between spring vegetables and the summer stuff probably wasn’t the best idea. It’s probably the least entertaining time since I spend more time doing other things than I do in the garden. But in my defense, I was busy gardening before and then busy putting in a flagstone patio from pieces I collected from here and there last summer.
I feel like the reason many people don’t plant a vegetable garden is that they think it’s too much work. I know as well as anyone it can be a lot of work getting it going, especially in a new spot. After that, I might water during dry spells and keep a look out for signs of pests, but it seems pretty easy otherwise. I mean, how hard is it to pull the most obvious weeds while harvesting vegetables? My biggest challenge these days is finding recipes to try and figuring out if something is ready to pick.
I also think it has gotten generally easier. Last year, most of the work went into building the raised bed in my back yard and learning lots of hard lessons about spacing and bugs. I didn’t realize I was spoiled by using prime organic vegetable soil.
This year, we worked on tilling and preparing two 10’ by 10’ plots at our community garden. We’re talking rocks, clay and virtually no nutrients. Hopefully, if I amend this fall and keep the same plots next year, I will have a better time of things.
But for now, succession plantings to ensure I don’t end up with an onslaught of a particular vegetable only takes a few minutes since I planned ahead of time for where they were going to go.
The cold weather plants you pull early to mid summer makes room for a second planting for fall. I don’t know, maybe it seems easy after all of the spring prep or maybe it’s easier to do once you start eating all of your favorite foods.
Speaking of fall crops, I just looked up what I can plant now that will be ready for a late harvest. I don’t have a lot of space, so I’m a little limited.
I’m going to do another round of beans, peas, spinach, lettuce, rutabaga, broccoli, carrots. Everything will go in the ground this week except for the lettuce and spinach which needs to wait until mid August.
I’ve also learned a bit about companion planting which is about growing certain plants together because they help each other. A traditional combination is squash or other vine plants, corn and climbing peas or pole beans. Since I didn’t do it this season, I’m thinking I’ll try growing some climbing peas on my existing corn. No loss if it doesn’t work out, right?
A tip I picked up for better germination of beans, squashes and peas is to soak them in water for a couple of hours before planting.
I have to confess I am so ready for “lettuce season” to be over.
Don’t get me wrong, I love lettuce. I really do.
Last year, I made the critical mistake of planting everything at once. I also didn’t know that you can harvest lettuce and spinach as it grows. We ended up with so much lettuce that we were able to give lettuce to nearly every attendee at a cousins’ graduation party.
The “pick as you go” knowledge has resulted in enough lettuce to keep the two of us eating pretty good sized salads nearly every day for the last couple of months. Enough I say. One can only come up with so many appealing and healthy combinations that travel well for lunch.
I can’t say I was sorry to pull the bolted (read: bitter) spinach out yesterday to make room for the green beans I planted right next door.
The lettuce is still going strong though and it probably will for at least another week even with the 80+ degree temperatures we’re expecting.
I am pretty sure in a few weeks I’ll be lamenting the loss of my tender lettuce and will be pining for the last days of summer when I can get another round in before winter.
For now though, bring on the summer vegetables!
