We had a mini-fall garden this year. The ground was perpetually wet from the extra rain. Mowing the weeds in that one spot was even impossible! First day mulching with papers was all that could be accomplished because the ground became saturated. Raised fantastic weeds.
But, in the late summer, almost too far from the predicted last date for I was able to get around one end of the garden, just in front and to the end of the Sweet potato rows. The rescued marigolds were set out with plenty of space to spread and bloom. None of the seed was new, but old packages that I wanted to get used up.
The last half of the onion sets purchased in the spring
Left over beets, turnips, spinach and lettuce in short rows
New box of beans…the only option left was Yellow Wax Pole Beans
When the fuel prices began to go sky high, people were encouraged to grow gardens to produce their own food and save money. This advice, like a great deal of bureaucratic direction, had some good points, but is way off base for the big reason that started it. A few seeds in a plot of unprepared ground is not going to really cut a food bill enough to make any economic difference and let a family now have ample gas money.
But, gardening is good for the back, good for the belly when the seeds do grow and produce, and good for the mind. So, I tried to keep quieter than usual about the silliness of the first recommendation.
The beans went in in hills. Each hill sprouted and grew. We saved so much money that we could now put two posts at the ends of the row and string some of that plastic string for the hay baler that didn’t work. DH put in four strands of the string for the beans to climb. They were a little reluctant to cooperate. Probably someone at the seed store told them we were supposed to have official poles in sets of three to make a teepee. The bean plants really preferred to grow along the string or make a tangle near the top. Oh well, at least they were up out of the mud. They grew well and bloomed well. Then, overnight, the beans GREW and I thought, “Oh crap, they are going to be too much like dried beans.” But, these yellow guys that we weren’t familiar with had BIG pods with lots of vegetable tissue that cooked up deliciously. We plan to look for some more of these strangers next year.
The beets did the same thing they did last year….nothing.
The turnips did not do the same thing they did in last year’s fall garden. Because of that memory, I planted them REALLY close together. And every one of them sprouted. In soil that was too shallow, they grew like crazy. I tried thinning them out, giving the culls to the chickens, but didn’t keep up with them. Then, they began making turnips almost on the top of the ground. DH swept leaves over them and we let them go until today. Up until this last cold spell, the leaves were sometimes frozen, but not completely. I dug them today, which wasn’t digging, but more like brushing the oak leaves aside to pick them up. They will be good for New Year’s Day!
All of the onions grew too. This year I took better care of the second half of the sets, putting them into a mesh bag and hanging them back on the basement wall.
The lettuce and spinach were disappointing. The few that did grow were delicious and some spinach is still out there battling the cold weather. I dragged leaves over the little plants to see what we find in the spring.
We had great green beans from fall garden in 2007; much better than the ones from spring, when the weather heated up too fast. I’m convinced that a fall garden is a good idea and will try to be more organized and ready for it this year. If those wax beans had been in the ground a couple weeks earlier, we would have had a bumper crop from one little bag of beans…Jack told me it would be like that.