Fall Unharvest

The idea of a "fall harvest" is a bit of a joke around here.  I harvested the only really useful stuff out of my garden a good three weeks ago...a late summer harvest, if you will.  We did get some great spaghetti-ish squash, some summer squash, some tomatoes, lots of herbs, peppers, pumpkins, etc. so the summer wasn't a total wash.  But we did have our bug issues and our watering issues, which I think I ranted about in an earlier post.

The good news is that I refuse to give up, and my fall planting has finally been done.  Most of the summer stuff has been ripped out, except for the basil, tomato and pepper plants.  I've also left the herbs in place since some of them do well through the cold or come back each year, like chives and rosemary.  (The sage, oregano, rosemary, and thyme will eventually be under the hoop, so I'm hoping I'll have them for much of the fall and early winter.)  There's also a tomato update:  I'm not sure if I'll get many, but since I picked the dead, bug eaten ones off the vines, and since the rain and heat of last week,  I do seem to have tons of green tomatoes.  I'd love to get a last minute windfall of usable tomatoes, but won't hold my breath.  The varieties I chose seem to be super cranky.  

Hoop Bed

Side bed. 

Before planting, I added some compost and peat to my beds.  I also installed the first part of the "mini hoop house" that will act as a season extender over one raised bed.  The plastic will go over the hoops as soon as it gets cold.  I'm hopeful that I can be eating my OWN greens through most of the winter, with some creativity and a bit of work.  I've never tried to garden past August, so this will certainly be an interesting experiment.  My fall seeds went in last Saturday, right before Irene hit.  So far, it looks like I'll be naming a chicken Irene, since the water and wind didn't seem to affect the planting at all.  In fact, my turnips are already coming up!  (What is it about seeing seedlings sprout up that makes me more giddy than a toddler in a candy store???!!!)

With the fall garden, I'm hoping that the bugs will be less of a problem, and as long as I can be better about watering, we'll be seeing green around here for a bit longer than usual.