This is my first fall garden and I can tell you right now, I'm bout to f**k around and find out. I started snow and snap peas, sprouting broccoli, Napa cabbage, bok choy, kale and romaine lettuce. I already learned I didn't give a few of them enough space, and 2 of my Napa's have turned into an all you can eat buffet for something. I'm in zone 6, winter is coming lol. What's going on on your end?
by GetItM0m
11 Comments
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Yesterday zone 8b. Had to pick green tomatoes cuz it’s a race between me and the damn deer/rabbits. Yeah…winter is coming…lol
Brassicas should go under insect netting until it gets colder. Cabbage White Butterflies are still happily flitting about in this 75+F weather that we’ve got in most of the US right now, and slugs are coming back with increased fall rain.
I’ve got a lot of sprouting broccoli, lacinato kale, bok choy, and tatsoi that are doing well under insect netting + shade cloth. Lettuce and peas are floundering due to the heat, so I may need to do another round of those in a week or two. My fava bean cover crop will go into all remaining space once the peppers have a little more time to finish ripening.
Zone 6 also.
I am a centipede in the photos. I am racing against the cold. squash still going, radishes, mesclun, beets. My first set of peas were just harvested (I wanted pea pods, but got mostly finished peas.) The second set may not produce before frost.
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This is my first fall garden this year too. Something that feels pretty liberating is this quasi-chaos gardening approach that happens as you plant fall crops in between summer crops, and filling in spaces as they become available. Like, planting shelling peas at the bottom of my pepper plants, which already have a stake in place and it’s going to be too cold for the peppers soon.
I also put out yellow chard, purple kale, carrots, spinach, pak choy, Gai lan, tatsoi. Some of it I’ve never grown before. It’s a bit experimental, and ***anything*** that comes of it feels like a bonus because I’ve never tried growing this late before. I’m in southern New England, and can put up a frost cover if needed.
I have seed garlic coming soon too…but not sure quite where to plant them. I’ve read that it isn’t great to put them in raised beds and I had planned on putting them in between the current tomato plants. I have space where I could clear out a ground bed, but it would only be a few feet away from the house. Not thrilled with that idea for an underground crop.
Have planted (direct seeded) a variety of brassicas and greens, most of them Asian. Tatsoi, Bokchoi, Chijimisai, Gailan, and Komatsuna. Plus two kinds of Swiss Chard. Have them under fine-mesh netting, in large fabric grow bags, NE Texas, 8a. Unless we have a earlier-and-colder-than-usual winter, these should keep going well into December.
My fall garden was planted out in August because by early November we’re below 10 hours of daylight and nothing grows anymore. I do have some lettuce waiting to go into the ground/greenstalk and will direct sow spinach but more to overwinter and harvest in the spring.
My veg bed I was planning to grow things in has been completely overshadowed by my neighbours bush and nothing is growing very well at all in it. My other veg bed accidentally got taken over by a very productive pumpkin vine, so I guess I’ll be eating pumpkin all winter at this point.
But, I do have an indoor greenhouse with grow lights, and I’ve got a lot of leafy greens in there, as well as my capsicum peppers, which I’m hoping are actually going to ripen at some point.
Planted peas and greens but a herd of deer got em . So now I’m going to plant some more and get so venison.
I’m in zone 9a, so fall is our second spring. Summer acts like a harsh winter on any plants that aren’t desert natives here. Starting by about the middle of September, I should be able to start planting seeds for cool season vegetables. I planted seeds for wildflowers and domestic flowers last month as it takes longer for a lot of them to get going than it does vegetables. I just started getting California poppy seedlings popping up this week.
In my shady, well irrigated places in my vegetable garden, I’ve got a huge bean vine growing and it is just starting to set flowers. Hopefully, some of the flowers will wait until it cools off a bit more in the afternoon so they don’t roast on the stem. 🙂
I also have a few onions and other alliums that are starting to grow back. I grow them like herbaceous perennials here as they have beautiful flowers and can handle our mild winters.
My cooking sage has been growing like mad all summer in the shady spots. I have two shade cloths, one horizontal above the bed and one vertical on the West side of the bed, to give the vegetable and one of the flower beds shade in the summer.
Those are looking good. Planted mine today. My loofa is producing like mad. I’ll have a lifetime supply of sponges. [loofa trellised](https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0WShxsTpxBXiXd3UXbddhM1hGWhm5HUY43T2mgdMMPARUhDCBPWq6qMYNhXnvFGSpl&id=100090289717788)
The pest game is completely different. Instead of having to watch out for grasshoppers and earwigs eating all my tender veg, NOW I have to worry about the neighborhood cats looking for a warm cozy place to nap and crushing all my turnip seedlings.