Putting the Fall Garden In

It is hard to imagine as I looked at the thermometer on our car showing an outside temperature of 105 degrees in the church parking lot on Sunday, but it is indeed time to start getting the Fall garden planted.  This weekend I made a good start by weeding the areas that I want to plant and then sprinkling some organic fertilizer over the top.

Then, trying something new this year that I learned from Herrick Kimball's Deliberate Agrarian Blog, I'm planting on 30" rows this year.  I think they'll give the plants more room to grow than the 18" - 20" rows that I normally pull up.  As I look at the seed spacing recommendations, the wider rows will give me the ability to plant two furrows on top of each row, giving me a side by side spacing that makes better use of the space I have in the garden.

Using baling twine that I salvaged off of the round hay bales, I measured and marked off the 30" row width and shoveled out the dirt between the rows, allowing the width of the shovel for the walkway between rows.  I may widen the walkway in further years to the two shovel-row width that Mr. Kimball suggests, depending on how this works.  I used a hoe to lightly work the soil and then used a flat rock rake to smooth out and shape the row.  I was pleased with the way the new rows turned out.

One bed ready

It was hot and humid, though, and I completely soaked two shirts before noon just working up the two rows you see below.  I grabbed a stake that I used to stake up some pepper plants a few years ago.  Amazingly, it hasn't rotted yet.  It is the perfect tool to make small trenches in the top of the row measuring exactly 12" apart. Perfectly priced, too!  You can see those indentations in the row on the left below:

The Second Bed is ready with trenches for seed planting

The first plants that I need to get planted before it is too late include some of the cole crops:

• Broccoli
• Brussels Sprouts
• Cabbage
• Cauliflower

I plant several different types of each of the above.  For example, I like to plant 'regular' broccoli' and Romanesco broccoli, 'regular cauliflower,' green cauliflower and purple cauliflower.  For starters, I wanted to first plant some bok choy.  Bok Choy is a chinese cabbage that is delicious stir fried.

Chinese Cabbage (Bok Choy)

Because they are in the same family, you must be careful with your record-keeping and labeling your rows as all of the seeds look exactly the same:

Bok Choy Seeds

The seeding instructions are pretty much the same and require the seeds to be planted at a seed depth of 1/8 inch and 12 - 18 inches apart, but I plant them only 4 inches apart to ensure that germination is good.  Once the plants are thriving, I'll thin them out.  I can never bring myself to destroy a perfectly good plant, so I always dig the ones out that I need to thin and move to another location to grow.

I'll continue to plant other fall crops as the days go by, including beets, kale, Swiss chard, turnips, radishes, lettuces, mustard greens, sweet peas, parsley, cilantro, and spinach.  Last night we had a terrific storm that blew through, depositing 2 inches of rain on the garden.  That should have all the seeds swollen and sprouting soon. Unfortunately, it knocked out our power last night for a few hours and I wasn't able to post the blog post on Breaking Clarabelle until the next morning.  

Who knows?  With a local economy hurting due to oil & gas prices and a wildly fluctuating stock market, perhaps seeds and a garden full of fresh vegetables is the smartest investment in my portfolio!  We're optimistic about things.  Cooler weather, lower humidity, and a thriving Fall Garden (hopefully) are on the way...