Thanks to Granny I did plant a small fall garden. Pap and Granny like to plant turnips and mustard greens in the fall of the year. Before they got the mustard seeds planted they ran out of room somehow this year-so Granny wanted me to plant her pack of mustard seeds at my house. She kept reminding me she wanted me to plant them-you know like every 30 minutes-till I finally got them planted.
I decided I might as well plant any seeds I had on hand that would grow well in the fall while I was planting Granny’s mustard greens. With The Deer Hunter and Chitter’s help we got half a bag of onion buttons planted along with a pack of Ruby Red Chard, Upland Creasy Greens, Detroit Dark Beets, Sparkler Radishes, and Granny’s Mustard seeds all before it rained.
In addition to the Sow True Seed mentioned above, we planted a pack of Fava Beans from Sow True Seed too. Look how big that bean seed is-they’re as big as a nickle! The pack said you could plant Fava Beans in the fall for a spring harvest or in late summer for a fall harvest. So I’m hoping we’re covered one way or the other.
I’ve only ate Fava Beans one time. Miss Cindy cooked them for us-we ate them as a snack. The taste reminded me of boiled peanuts. The pack of Fava Beans was part of The Sow True Bean Project I told you about earlier in the summer. I’ll wrap up the details of the project for you in the coming weeks-unfortunately this rainy summer didn’t seem to be the one for beans around my house.
Over the weekend, The Deer Hunter got the big garden completely cleaned off. We’re usually so busy (or lazy) that we leave the leftover mess from the summer garden till the next spring-but this year’s big garden was such a total loss that The Deer Hunter wanted it gone from his sight. While we were all disappointed with the loss, we’re already excited about next year’s garden talking about what we want to do differently.
Tipper
Good luck to everyone with their fall gardens. July was cool here and I’m still getting lots of bell peppers, some okra, and a few tomatoes. but – with temperatures forecast to be in or near the 100s for the next two weeks and not a drop of rain is sight, I’m going to hold off a week or two with planting any fall veggies. Maybe not planting by the moon signs but by Mother Nature’s signs!
My mother used to talk about dry dog days and wet dog days. This summer has been an extreme example of the latter.
I am considering building a rice paddy for next summer.
Tipper,
I’ve never planted a Fall Garden.
It might just be laziness but I’m
still tired from this years
undertaking. Since I lost my bean
patch to the rain, I’m just glad I
got enough canned last year to do
this year too. Never saw this much
rain in my lifetime! But I’m
Thankful for what did do well…Ken
Momma used to have a mustard greens patch every fall. She fried hers when they were very young and I just loved them. After she was gone I never ate them again.
We were in the process of moving this year and only planted corn and tomatoes. That was the only things I needed to put away for winter. The corn did great but not the tomatoes. Tipper, I hope the Ox Heart tomatoes did better for you than ours did this year.
I had a great patch of Turnips and Mustard Greens going where I had pulled up my Blue Lake Beans when they finished bearing. I know the Turnips and Curley Mustard are great and I have several Groundhogs who have given them their seal of approval by cleaning out part of the patch every night. Anybody interested in a Fat Groundhog to roast for Thanksgiving?
It’s been a funny summer, hasn’t it, Tipper. Don’t recall a summer this wet before. I’m glad to say goodbye and move on to the next thing, like the fall crop. It’s no wonder the Deer Hunter wanted to clear out and move on.
Yes, the amount of rain has really had things either drown or grow so much, that they will probably be stunted next season. My plants were like a jungle this year. However, my purple and green bell peppers produced some tasty eats.