Fall Garden Update

We had a fairly successful spring/summer garden for our first season at the new house–everything in our raised beds did pretty well. Our main failure was what we planted in the ground–the soil just was not prepped well enough for anything to grow very well even with tilling and some soil amendments added to break up the clay. We will just have to try some other techniques over the winter and early spring to break up the clay and amend it to make a healthier soil.

Earlier this fall we were still getting the last of our tomatoes, peppers, and okra. In October I pulled the last of the surviving tomatoes and okra out of the beds, leaving the peppers as they were still producing.

We planted various types of fall greens, radishes, and beets back in August but with all of the rain we have had I’m afraid the seeds may have been washed out (they never germinated). My other suspicion is that our seed is just too old. I tend to reuse extra seed for 2 or 3 years except for tomatoes and peppers. We recently just replanted collards, kale, onions, and parsnips so we will hope the greens will germinate and grow this time around!

Another garden failure this year were our pumpkins that we planted in July or early August. It seems that the squash borers got to them first and pretty much every vine eventually withered and died, leaving only a single fruit that actually made it despite dozens of seeds planted. It grew well, but could not seem to survive. Our winter squash, of which we only planted a few, also succumbed to the pesky little insects.

Our fall garlic has been planted and is thriving! It will be ready for harvesting in the late spring. We did not have the time to get garlic planted last year with just having moved in so I have really missed it this year!

Next on the fall planting list are turnips which down here in North Carolina are a crop that can grow during the winter. Another winter crop that loves the cold are rutabagas, but I’ve yet to try growing those. They also say collards love the cold weather down here and will survive and grow through a mild winter.

That’s about it for our modest fall garden. Eventually I’d like to try some fall peas and maybe a few other veggies but this is enough for now 🙂