Thursday, September 16, 2010

Fall Garden

I started the fall garden a few of weeks ago. I started with radishes, turnips, and kale and followed a week later with lettuce and some Asian greens. So far things are going well in the fall garden. Well almost.

I had a nice stand of radishes going there. When I went out yesterday I saw the whole right hand part of the row (in front of the turnips and behind the lettuce) were missing. And a solitary leaf sitting on the ground near the lettuce. The dang squirrels decided to start eating them. It is my own fault in a way. I put netting over my cucumbers to keep them out. They didn't like that and started foraging elsewhere. Sigh. So I put a little bit of netting over these too. I hope they don't get eaten again. I love radishes.

The lettuce in the front is growing slowly.

But the Asian greens are growing like crazy. At least the ones in the front. I had a solitary Fun Jen seed germinate in the front (their row is in the back most row) and it is about four times as big as the ones in the back row along the fence. The front gets a lot more sun. These are shaded by the Amish Paste tomato (which I expected would be pulled already, but isn't) and the fence. They really could use more sun. The ones in the front are bok choy and are growing like crazy. I need to harvest some of them or transplant. Either way would work.

Yesterday I did a lot of work in the garden. I ripped out all the squash plants except the one zucchini that was still producing a little. And I planted spinach seed for overwintering. A lot of people were asking where I plant the beans and how much space I give them. Well the pole beans, Ottawa Cranberry and Trail of Tears, can be seen in this photo in the back of where I planted spinach. They take up three sections of fence which are 8' wide each. They are planted 6" apart in two rows that are 6" apart. So each one has about half or 12 sqft each. I'll do a round up of the beans and productivity in the fall after everything is harvested.

5 comments:

  1. OK so now that begs the question - the fence is 6' high, right? Do you allow the pole beans to fall back down to the ground, or send them sidways into each other?

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  2. Stupid squirrels....I hate 'em! Everything is looking really good, though.

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  3. There's always a lot of uncertainly this time of year. Unlike spring, you one get one bit at the apple when planting a fall garden.

    Are as surprised as I am by how quickly things are cooling down in our area? It's awful!

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  4. My hat's off to you and all my friends who plant their Winter gardens. I just don't have the same enthusiasm.

    As for me, a few more late pickins and I've dealt with my last squirrel for the season. A short break and we're back at it preparing the soil for next season.

    Even with the squirrel trouble, your gardens look great.

    Thanks.

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  5. Sorry to hear about the squirrels. They have been totally attacking our garden too!
    http://nycgardening.blogspot.com/2010/09/carnage-continues.html

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