Fall Planting Gamble

First time in last 5 months, I went to sleep with sweater and socks on last Monday Sept 8th. It was rainy, cloudy and cold here yesterday, few thunderstorms made an appearance too. Well, according to weather reports low temperatures stood at 43 F.

This is time to pull summer vegetables from garden, weed and prune roses. Instead, what did I do in the garden? – I did sow some seeds. This itch to sow and grow, experiment never dies. I am playing a pure gamble and let’s all watch what happens to my late fall garden experiments.

so what did I sow yesterday?
1 – Fenugreek: This is my experiment, I want to assess if fenugreek will germinate and produce this late in summer. Since very few people grow fenugreek for greens, there’s hardly any data available on web. This is for my own knowledge, I am trying fenugreek this late. During summer fenugreek yields in 30 days, so I have some hope here before killer frost arrives.

2 – bunching onions: these will go under cloche if it gets too cold
3 – spinach
4 – bok choy
5 – icicle radishes
6 – beets
7 – turnips

To get faster germination, I helped seeds in warm water for 24 hours except spinach. Spinach seeds went into freezer for 12 hours, followed by 12 hours in tap water.

I’ll keep updating about this winter gardening over few months…

Fall Gardening Timeline

Most of the fall planting for year 2009 is almost done. For my future reference, here is the fall gardening timeline I used, I’ll report back on seedlings, growth and actual harvest dates as it happens.

July 3	Sown Brussels Sprouts seeds directly into ground
July 12	Sown Broccoli seeds directly into ground
July 10	Sown peas in ground 0.75 feet apart every 5 days from 7/10 thru 8/15
Thru
Aug 15	Radish – cherry belle in ground
Aug 15	Thin Broccoli and Brussels sprouts
Aug 1	Sow lettuce for early fall harvest
Aug 14	Seeds in warm water – carrots, bokchoy and beets
Aug 15	Seeds in ground – Beets and carrots
Aug 20	Sown Dill seeds in 2 containers
Sept 1	Already harvesting early snap peas !!!
Sept 4	Seeds in warm water – Fenugreek, Turnip, Icicle radishes, bokchoy
	Seeds in fridge for 8 hours followed by 12 hours on paper towel – Spinach
Sept 5	Seeds in ground – Fenugreek, Turnip, Icicle Radishes, Bok Choy, Spinach
Sept 6	Sown bunching onion seeds
Sept 10	Add compost to all veggie beds
	Thin carrots, bokchoy and beets
Sept 30	Sow Garlic sets into ground
October	Assess frost situation and cover beds if needed