Late Summer....Time to Focus on Fall Gardening

Welcome to what I call the busiest time of my gardening adventures.....late summer!! The time of the year where I'm clearing out some plants because their time is up, I'm making  a lot  more compost tea for  the plants, and still collecting a harvest on other veggies in the garden.

It's also that time where I'm trying to decide what other plants to grow for the coming fall season. I already know that I'll be growing garlic....that's a no brainer for me. I've grown garlic for six years straight, and I always find some space in my garden to grow garlic, not only because I love cooking with it, but it's also easy to grow--can't beat that!!

See, the pic below, these are some of the seeds that I have put into the garden and a few that I  plan on putting into the garden. 

Let's see, I have arugula seeds and lettuce seeds(four season variety, they don't mind a little heat),oh yeah beets, Swiss chard, pumpkin seeds, and some carrot seeds from last year. I wished I could remember the name of the carrot seeds off of the top of my head, but I can't...I'm sure I have the name written down in my supposedly garden journal(I need to do better), but I'm sure I'll find the info because these baby carrots were, sooooo sweet  last year, I've got to find out the name, so I can share their name with you.

The arugula and the lettuce seeds are the only seeds that I haven't planted in the garden yet, but I'm going to real soon---I promise.

Three weeks ago, I decided to try my hand at growing a couple of pumpkins, so I bought some seeds at a local grocery store--I know I'm cutting it close, buying and planting pumpkin seeds in July, but sometimes I like to live on the wild side, lol!!! Don't worry, I figured out the dates and everything and a pumpkin or a few pumpkins, if I'm lucky, should be sitting pretty in my backyard in October.

Hey, let's take a look at one of my pumpkin plants.

Well, there she is in all of her glory, not bad looking at all. Guys please send me positive vibes for this one....like I said, I've never grown a pumpkin before and I just need the positive energy.

I just keep telling myself,  "If I can grow melons, then I can grow pumpkins."

I'll keep doing that, however, it would be nice if the people who read this blog would do the same, thanks.

Okay, now that I've shown you one of my pumpkin plants, let's take a look at the beets.

Yeah, they look pretty good, don't they? I plan on putting some more seeds out real soon.

And lastly here are a few carrots that recently sprouted. I plan on putting some more carrot seeds out as well.  This spot needs to be weeded out a lot better, well another thing to add to my to do list.

 

Well, that's a little bit of what's growing in my garden for the fall season. Sorry I didn't have any pictures of the Swiss Chard. The kids and I cut a lot of the leaves off to use as a topping for pizza last week, so for that reason I didn't have any pictures to share, but I can tell you that it was a delicious addition to the pizza....this I know for sure!

 

Thanks for stopping by, and remember..... Keep Growing!!!

 

P.S. What will you be growing in your fall garden?

 

Quote of The Week

Marta Weekly Pop Up Produce Market

Kudos to everyone that made this possible!!! I must say, this city has done it again with bringing fresh produce to the people. Yes, we have some great farmer's markets all around the city and awesome CSA(community supported agriculture)groups, but I must say, having a pop up produce market at the train station is fantastic!  Great job Atlanta!!



http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2015/07/10/marta-to-open-weekly-pop-up-produce-market-at-west.html

Tam Jalapeno Plant

Finally Harvested Some Tomatoes

Finally was able to harvest some cucumbers from the garden.As you can see, I have a lot of green yellow pear tomatoes that I brought in from the garden because they were taking to long to change colors. So, in order to feel like I've accomplished something  with my tomato plants this year, and to also help my plants along with production (tomatoes  haven't done very well, this year),I decided to pick my maters and let them bask in the sunlight on my windowsill.

This hasn't been a very productive tomato season for me.  Usually, I begin getting tomatoes in mid June,but this year we had an unusually cooler and wet spring, and  the potential move to Miami we were facing (became busy researching homes,schools,making a budget for a new city) I believe all of this played a hand in the lack of  production this year.

I'm seriously grateful for the harvest that I got, but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that I'll get a harvest out of the other tomato plants in the garden.

Hmmm....let me send some good vibes to my Gypsy tomato plants and those delectable Cherokee Purple plants to grow and produce some amazing tomatoes for us.

Are you growing tomatoes and are you harvesting  anything yet?

Happy Birthday America!!!

The Cook's Garden Holiday Special

Honestly, this isn't a site that I buy from very often, but when there's a promotion going on....I don't mind spreading the word, and it doesn't hurt that, their heirloom Four Seasons Lettuce is the Bomb!!!

Many times I want to order seeds online, but I become hesitant because of the shipping and handling cost, especially if I don't have a big order. So, I always end up canceling my order and taking my chances with my local hardware store or Lowe's to have whatever seeds I'm looking for. But as a gardener we love getting a jump start on the season, and I'm ready for fall.

So, I'll be heading right over to The Cook's Garden......Happy Gardening Everyone!!!