Under Covers

I started my fall brassicas at the end of July. Well really earlier since I put them in as transplants. They have grown extremely well and I've already started to harvest them. I don't think the brussels sprouts were planted even close to early enough this year. I have to start them at the beginning of June and I started them at the beginning of July instead. Ditto for the storing cabbage. I just did it too late. They are in there. I can cross my fingers, but I doubt anything will really happen. I do have some early cabbage in there too. That ought to have time to mature. And the Chinese cabbage have already headed up. I've harvested one head and the other two will need to be picked soon.

At the end of August I direct seeded the next set of fall brassicas - mostly Asian greens, but I have Japanese turnips and radishes in there too. The empty half of the bed was seeded today. I'm trying to figure out how late I can plant them and have them still produce. In another week or two I'll seed more in the spots that I've removed the Asian greens from in the first bed. I'm not sure this area gets enough sun that late in the fall to do anything, but you never know until you try. So this year is the fall experiment. I was going to put in a bed in the rock wall garden too, which I know gets enough sun in the fall and early winter. But I really don't want to have to pull out my zinnias. They will keep blooming for the next month and I want to enjoy them. Maybe I'll change my mind later They do give me Asian greens all through December and into January even with the frozen ground.

While I was putting them in, the bed next to it had those beautiful white butterflies dancing on my mustard flowers (the mustard reseeded itself). I used to hate them before I started to use row covers. Oh how I hated picking off all those caterpillars. Now I can just enjoy them.

This bed has plants that were planted in early spring. The broccoli is Fiesta. It gave me great heads and huge side shoots. Then it started to turn black. I chopped all the old leaves off and chopped the main stalks back quite a bit. I let a couple of the side shoots on to grow on for the fall. I was hoping it could recover from whatever that black mildew is. It seems to have worked pretty well. I'm not getting the quantity I got before, but the plants are slowly putting side shoots out. The chard is chard. It just keep growing. It needs another haircut.

The fall carrots were planted at the end of July. It is hard to tell how they are doing from the top.

But from the bottom you can tell they need more time. There isn't much sun here anymore. I've got them covered this year because of the carrot flies that hurt last year's fall harvest. Hopefully they will have time to bulk up. I really want the quantity of carrots that I had last year. I loved being able to eat carrots twice a week all winter and into the spring.

The plants under the row covers tend to get over looked. I do peek in occasionally, but I don't keep close track of things. I have to remind myself to keep up with the weeding and the thinning of them. I weeded a bit in the carrots and the first of the fall brassica beds today.

While I was putting in seed today I noticed that I still had some old mache seed. I had two packets, one from Michelle and one from Emily. I'd tried to grow them in the past but failed. I figured what the heck. I ripped up a little bit of cover crop where the melons were and tossed both packets in. I'm not sure they will germinate as the seed is so old. But I hate to throw away old seed. Better to see if it will grow. If it doesn't grow, well I can always buy new seed and try again another year.