Fall Planting

Here in east Texas there doesn't seem to be much of a fall because it is just as hot now as it has been for the last four months.  I know carrots will grow because I tried them last year and even though they didn't get huge they did produce.  If it was slightly cooler I would try a bunch of salad greens, but I think I have to wait a little while.

Today I got carrots, radish, turnips, and green beans in the ground.  Tomorrow I hope to get some cucumbers planted I think I can get some to grow before it gets to cold. Somehow we didn't get enough jars of pickles put up to last the girls until next summer so this is a big priority. I am pretty sure I might be able to get some Zucchini as well. With Garden in disrepair not nearly enough veggies are going from yard to table.  It surprises me how much I miss being able to just wander out and pick something to fix for dinner.  The availability helps with my cooking decisions as well.  Instead of having to decide what sounds good or what the family might want I just have to go see what we got.

I could see how if you were producing your own food for a long time how hard it would be stop and just go to buying all your food at the store. I know I really didn't think that there would be much difference in what I could grow and what I could buy.  I thought that modern agri-business with all it's years of experience and science would be able to get better produce to the store than a guy who had never planted anything before.

Raining at last, of course

We have been waiting for rain for months. Everything here is dry and crunchy, but now finally, the rain has started to fall. This is what I would have expected because the rain started the day after I started my fall planting. I am not sure what will work so I just started with some of what the feed store had in right now. I planted carrots, peas, more beans, lettuce, spinach and brussel sprouts which I am hoping will taste better if I grow them myself. I started up the tiller and took out the dead corn to make room for the carrots and brussel sprouts, the peas went under the fence that we trellised our pickling cucumbers on. Really the soil probably needs more compost, but were doing this on the cheap so I mixed a bag of compost with the remnants of our worm growing colony that Luci had in the old turtle sand box that the girls had out grown. Into this I chucked a little shake and feed fertilizer and a little bit of chicken stuff. If we are going to be serious gardeners we will have to start our own compost pile.


The ground is still warm so if the sun comes out in a few days hopefully most of it will sprout.
The squash and zucchini are really just now starting to produce a significant amount and I am hoping they will keep going until we start to get some of our new planting.