The fall vegetable garden is coming along! It never fails to fill me with excitement when those freshly planted seeds grow into seedlings. Especially when the seedlings were planted naturally through self-sowing as is the case with my cilantro. Cilantro is one of those expensive to buy but easy to grow plants. It likes it when the weather is cooler and always germinates easily in the fall. The trick to getting it to self-sow is to give it room to grow then let it go to seed! (Pretty easy right?) Cilantro gets big when in bloom so it needs the space and so might the gardener!
The other little seedling to sprout this week was the ‘Baby green Fortune’ pak choi. It was very tasty and very heat tolerant back in the spring, now it’s time to have some in the fall. A couple plants lasted into late June. The pak choi seedlings germinated in less than 5 days in a pot on my back porch. If you don’t want a big fall garden consider planting in pots near the door to the house. The residual heat from the house will help the vegetables and it’s pretty convenient too when the temperatures are colder than you would like them to be!
I have to clean up the vegetable garden more before I plant other fall crops but so far here’s what is in the fall vegetable garden: Lettuce (a red Romaine called ‘Rouge D’Hiver’ and ‘Tom Thumb’), Spinach ‘Teton Hybrid’, and Radishes ‘German Giant’.
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Great post, I'm planting cilantro ASAP now. I planted a mesclun mix, but the darn squinnies and/or birds already wiped out the seedlings!
Thanks Patty! I've learned that a little bit of screening is a good deterrent for those birds!
Nice post, Dave!
I have also been busy working up fall gardens:
The old garlic bed holds: beets (red, gold & striped), carrots, salsify, radish & buckwheat. Sprinkled Coffee grounds over the carrot area, per a local gardener who says that's how he prevents carrot fly damage!
Another bed has greens: inc winter spinach, lettuce, chard, bordered with cilantro, parsley, nasturtiums & calendula in another.
I just read Gaia's Garden, & used sheet compost for beginning a new bed, seeded with red onion, more greens, bush beans & calendula 🙂
Kale is volunteering among my tomatoes & squash/cucumber/tomato bed.
I have a few more to work up, & plan on some cover crops as well.
Happy gardening 🙂
That 'greens garden' also includes arugula, wrinkled crinkled cress & mache broadcast over it all! Just poking up
I planted lettuce in two pots for my patio over the weekend and the seeds in one have already germinated! I'll keep these near my back door for easy access and protection from the hungry bunnies.