Last year I heard about fall gardens for the first time in my life. I never knew that you could plant seeds at the beginning of September and reap a cold weather harvest well into November.
Once Prince Charming and I finally had our own home and space for gardening, we were able to try a fall garden. And while it was still hot over Labor Day weekend, my husband took the spent remains out of our garden – cucumbers, peas, eggplant, cabbage and broccoli – cultivated the soil a little, and planted rows of seeds. We thought we’d try lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, and carrots just for fun.
What a surprise! While our carrots truly are baby carrots because they haven’t grown very much and our Swiss chard didn’t amount to much, we’ve had a modest amount of spinach. And oh, look at the lettuce!
To clarify, our lettuce is the two rows of big, leafy green leafs. (The small green leaves in the picture are weeds.)
It has been such a treat to put on a jacket at night and head to our garden to pick a fresh salad for dinner. While the plants started off very modestly, the lettuce is really taken off and seems to thrive with frosty nights. If I can keep harvesting lettuce in December, I’ll be thrilled!
From now on, we’ll definitely plant a fall garden each year.
Herbal essentials
While the majority of our plants have been killed by frost, some of our container garden herbs are still hanging on:
We’re down to curly parsley, Italian parsley, cilantro, rosemary … and the wide leaves are Swiss chard we had planted from seed late in the spring. It’s so wonderful to cook with fresh herbs in November, too!
Talk back
Have you ever attempted a fall garden? If so, what have you grown?
Today, I’m linking up with:
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I would love to have a garden. I am in an apartment. I would love to grow some things on my patio. Or encourage a community garden on a plot on the edge of our property. Maybe next year. Thanks for sharing yours.
BTW I came over from Titues Tuesday. Come by and see my post and enter my give a way.
Have a great Thursday,
Sherry
Sherry,
Depending on what your patio is like, could you start container gardening next year? I’ve kept my herbs in containers, and lettuce would grow well in pots, too. From experience, I know it’s trickier to garden in a small space, but be encouraged that it can be done! :)