Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Do You Plant Fall Crops?

At 45°, this morning was definitely sweater weather.

Sweater weather around here means it's high time (or perhaps a little past time) to plant fall crops.

Kale, lettuce, peas, overwintered onions, cabbage, garlic, cilantro, and cabbage are the plants picked precisely for this purpose.

I don't know about you, but the boundless enthusiasm for gardening that comes each Spring after the long cold dreary winter is utterly lacking for me this time of year. As I try to scheme up more uses for zucchini, clear a little more shelf space for canned tomatoes, and free up some freezer space for the bumper crop of green beans, the thought of hoeing, weeding, mulching, planting, and watering another round of crops isn't quite as appealing.

And yet, a fresh salad would be pretty great about now.


Image from Covered Bridge Produce
 
Do you ever plant late season crops or have an overwintered garden? Do you use cold frames, hoop houses, greenhouses, row covers, or mulching to extend the seasons?

4 comments:

Thenotsoperfecthousewife said...

Here in Central Florida we get to do fall gardening.. like a spring garden twice.
I'm still learning about gardening in Florida so I haven't reaped a TON of great stuff, but I'm hoping this year will be different.

Jenna St. Hilaire said...

I've enthusiastically planted spinach and Egyptian walking onions. And some neighborhood cat from the Pit of Doom dug in my little spinach bed. Multiple times. As far as I can tell, I have only three plants coming up.

Hopefully the onions fare better. I've got to come up with a good way to protect soft seed beds...

Farmer's City Wife said...

Oh that must be awesome! We do have mild winters, here, but certainly not Floridian ones ;).

Farmer's City Wife said...

DEATH to neighbor cats from the Pit of Doom!! hehe The neighbor cat sabotaged my green beans last year when using my beautiful raised beds as a private kitty litter box. Grrrr.

Spinach!! Gah!! I forgot to plant spinach! (though I've been craving it for weeks) I wonder if it's too late? I suppose I'll never know unless I plant anyway (it's all of 20 cents for seeds this time of year).

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