Monday, September 8, 2008

First Fall veggie planting



I recently learned about organic farmer Tim Miller’s Fall planting schedule, which follows moon cycles, from fellow Austin garden blogger, Vertie. Sounded good to me, so I bought seeds for Butterhead (Buttercrunch) lettuce, Romaine (Parris Island Cos) lettuce, Mesclun lettuce (baby greens), “dinosaur” kale (Italian Nero Toscana), carrots (Danvers 126), and beets (Detroit Dark Red).

Yesterday, husband Kurt did all the hardest physical work, moving and mixing dirts and composts,


transforming the old Fall bed


into this new version that really maximizes the space


I sowed all the lettuce seeds, marking spaces for the beets and carrots, which won’t be seeded until September 20-21. I also transplanted a leadwort plumbago for good measure.



In the current waning tomato bed, I sowed a short row of kale seeds.



Here's the view of both beds from my back kitchen window


I just realized that I totally forgot broccoli! Hmmm---must manage to buy those seeds today and get them in the ground before dark.

5 comments:

Rock rose said...

You have been hard at work on preparation for the fall and I hope you have success. You might want to try baby bok choi as well. I have had great success with that in the winter.

Iris said...

Thanks for the suggestion! Last Fall/winter was the first time we tried our hand at growing any vegetables ever. We started with little lettuce, broccoli, and cauliflower plants and apparently had beginners' luck.

This time, I'm starting from seeds--scary! But I figure if the seeds fail, I 'll still have time to buy some plants like I did last year.

Annie in Austin said...

Wow - that's a serious vegetable garden, Iris! I guess if we're going to plant some lettuce or snap peas we're already behind schedule.

Fresh beets sound wonderful! Good luck.

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

Flapjacks said...

i like those beds. awesome.

Iris said...

Thanks, y'all!

I still need to figure out some kind of chicken wire thing so the dog doesn't stomp all over the beet and kale beds.