Are you doing a fall garden?

17 years ago

What are you growing, and when did you, or when will you, plant it?

I have summer squash, with the first female flower opening today so I should have squash soon. (It went in the spot where I pulled out the brandywine tomatoes. Delicious but I won't do them again; too short a season and too prone to virus.)

I will plant edible-pod peas if I can find seed, or if the old seed I had around will sprout.. doing a germination test now.

I planted my cool weather cover crop this week. It is a mixture of several things; a rye, a clover, some others.

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Comments (4)

Maryl (Okla. Zone 7a)
17 years ago
My DH will be planting garlic soon and for some reason the squash vine borer didn't get our crook neck squash this year so we have the original plant and the new one we started about 2 weeks ago to keep us supplied with summer squash for awhile.

I've always wondered about Brandywine Tomatoes. You hear how divine tasting they are, but then I heard that they are not, repeat NOT a good variety for the south. Still I've always wanted to compare their taste to a non-heirloom variety like Jet Star (which is the one we like the best).
barton
Original Author
17 years ago
Well the Brandywines were gorgeous, but the Burpee Buck's County Hybrid is a tomato that I will definitely do again. They slowed down during the heat, but never really quit. I still am getting a few, at least enough that I haven't cut them down. They even bounced back from a major hornworm attack. I just watched those green monsters munch away, influenced no doubt by Susan and her caterpillar garden :) (Gotta admit they were interesting.) The Buck's Countys even outlasted the cherry tomatoes. Maybe someone ought to start a thread on good tomato varieties for Oklahoma? Maybe tomorrow.

I am still getting tomatillos and more tomatillos. I had never done them before and didn't know what to expect so I planted six plants maybe 18 inches apart. The vines sprawled to a mat about 5 feet wide, hard as heck to harvest. I've given away lots of salsa verde. I even mailed a box of fresh tomatillos to a cook I know.
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Yes the seasons do overlap but my summer vegetables get pretty tired during the summer heat. I don't try to carry over tomatoes unless they are cherries. I just replant in July. I do keep the peppers and eggplants but the squash are replanted. Cucumbers can be hit by cucumber beetles and I replant them too. It also helps not to plant the whole garden so I keep a few areas open. You can also plant lettuce and radishes and beans under the larger plants. This works really well in wide rows but might not do so well in square foot gardening. That's one of the reasons I still do row cropping. Now if you've planted potatoes and corn, they should have been harvested and open up room. Same with the onions. I think the real problem is that most people in Texas only plant a few different types of vegetables that are perennial in their native tropical setting. Since we rarely have a real spring and fall, we don't "feel" the proper time to plant veggies that like cooler weather. That's my 2 cents worth and I had the same problem but after missing fall veggies for a few years, I forced myself to cull and replant and have been satisfied ever since. Good luck
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Playing along with the theme of more traditional fall accents and how best to feature them for maximum impact,several thoughts come to mind. First, fall foliage color shows best against darker greens of evergreen or coniferous trees, or buildings. Fall foliage will tend to last longest if trees are sited to protect them from strong winds. This is particularly useful to remember with Gingko trees here in northern California. Drifts of shrubs with fall foliage color have greater impact than single accents, and more pleasing still is to combine variations on a color theme. We can often get very good fall foliage color here in coastal California with the right choices, and summer drought stress can even give early fall color on trees as early as August. Fall flowers can just as easily be vivid saturated tones here in a Mediterranean climate such as California's. Some of my favorites include vivid satiny fluorescent pinks of Nerine bowdenii and. Schizostylis coccinea or softer pinks of towering 20 foot tall Dahlia imperialism or chrysanthemum -like Tree Daisies such as Montanoa grandiflora which also smell like freshly baked sugar cookies in fall bloom. As well, there are almost too many fall flowering Cloudforest Salvias species for prominent end of the year bloom here, in jewel tones of deep blues, burgundy, rose pink, lavenders, and yellows. Salvias such as S. wagneriana, involucrata, splendens 'vanhoutei' to name just a few. I personally find it more fun to plan/design for massive fall blooms mixed with more traditional fall foliage than a big spring bling. In fact, the start of the fall rainy season here locally really is our equivalent of new growth and the native flora waking up again after 6 months of no rain. So really, October is our true spring as it heralds the hillsides turning green again, and the first flowers of natives such as Ribes sanguineum come as early as November.
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Bok choy and snow peas and bok choy. Did I mention bok choy? All are from seed sown through August, here at 2,000 feet near the 49th parallel. There was also some radish seed that went in and cilantro for the final rush of tomatoes and salsa. We have already harvested quite a lot of the first sowing of bok choy. We have also had morning temperatures in the low 40's Fahrenheit. I've picked snow peas covered with frost in October before. Steve
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Hi Everyone! Do you have your fall garden started yet?
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Carol, I'm going to try some greens this fall, but I don't have enough sun for much else. I had a community garden bed, but I guess I wasn't working on cleaning and planting fast enough for them, and they kept bugging me about it, so I just gave it up. I don't have time for control freaks in my life jstropic Well, we're getting the rain now, at least here in Gainesville. Like every year, when the rain comes, I'm both happy and aggravated. We Florida gardeners are a strange lot. We pray for rain, then curse it. In the summer, we can't wait for fall and in winter, we can't wait for spring. But through it all, we get to garden year-around, so not so bad.
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Maryl (Okla. Zone 7a)
17 years ago
Yes, start a thread on Tomatoes. Good time to do it so we can look over the catalogs and know what's what. I'll get my DH to take a look. I personally don't care that much for tomatoes except in a few things (like BLT's), but DH loves them.
barton
Original Author
17 years ago
I started a tomato thread so will get back on track.

I planted edible pod peas today. The old seed (1993!) had 80% germination so I used it.

Earlier in the week I planted my cool weather cover crop, but I'm getting lots of wheat sprouting from the straw that I had used for mulch earlier in the year. Looks like my cool weather crop may be winter wheat!

I also put up the electric fence for the deer; won't help with the bunnies though.

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Are you doing a fall garden?

Comments (4)

Maryl (Okla. Zone 7a)

barton
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Are you doing a fall garden?

Comments (4)

Maryl (Okla. Zone 7a)

bartonOriginal Author

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Maryl (Okla. Zone 7a)

bartonOriginal Author

COMPANY

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barton
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barton
Original Author