The Fall Garden

After an exhausting and stressful summer of gardening, the last thing that we think about is the fall garden. I admit, this summer was stressful for me. In between the scorching heat waves and mounting pest pressure, I was done. Like many home gardeners around this time I just wanted to take a break.

Fall for me has always been a time to cozy up indoors with a good cup of coffee and a book. It’s sweater weather! Why in the world would I want to continue gardening?? I seriously had to ask myself this question because it had to be worth it for me to continue. But it’s the food. It’s always about the food. Despite all that was endured throughout the season, this garden kept my family fed. From potatoes, to tomatoes, to beans, peas and broccoli, this garden has been a provider. Has it been enough to feed my family at every meal? Nope.. I have a small backyard garden with 4 raised beds and tons of grow bags! But you’d be amazed at the amount of food I’ve been able to produce and preserve.

But a fall garden begins in the summer…how was I going to start a fall garden in September when my first frost was supposed to be the second week of October? Who really thinks about fall in the summer? Last year I was that person planning out the weeks and starting seeds indoors for the fall garden. I was determined to get a harvest of broccoli and cauliflower before the frost. But this year that was not happening. I was exhausted.

so with about 45 days left until frost, what was I really going to grow? My goal was to make this as simple as possible. If I got a harvest great, if not oh well…that was my state of mind. Again exhausted. So one day I went outside with a few seed packets and planted lettuce, spinach, cilantro and basil. That’s it.

Now surprise surprise the warm weather has lasted longer than I expected and my first frost will be this week. So far I have no lettuce to harvest, have no idea where the basil seedlings went, the spinach seems to be stunted in growth but the cilantro looks amazing. But that’s what happens sometimes. Especially when you don’t bother to water, fertilize or love on your plants! I am normally better than this..you should see me in the spring!

But remember that summer garden I was hating on??? It’s still providing food! Yesterday I harvested a red tomato from a plant that was suffering from blossom end rot that was perfectly ripe.

The garden works in mysterious ways!