Planning the Fall Garden

Summer has already been brutal here in the Midwest. For the past week or so, we have experienced extreme temperatures, ranging from 101 to 105 most days. We haven't seen any rain for weeks and the forecast as of now is to expect more of the same.

We're not quite there yet, but it's getting Grapes of Wrath-ier.

I checked out some books from our public library to help me to be the best hobby gardener I could be. So far, the best I've read is The Essential Urban Farmer. This book gives a lot of detail, and goes into much greater ventures than I ever plan to undertake, but it's quite helpful and a good resource for anyone who wants to start giving themselves a healthier alternative to store bought foods. As I've said repeatedly, the cleanest foods are those you grow yourself, organically, without the need of pesticides, growth agents, and other chemicals.

One thing that stood out for me with this book, and others, is the thought of a garden being a year-round project. I grew up with a garden in the backyard. My family ate a bounty of zucchini, cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, and green beans every year. Still, I never once thought that gardening was a project that could continue through the fall and even winter months. It's hard to think about fall crops when temps are topping out at 106, but according to the resources I've consulted, it's time to start those seeds.

Yesterday, the 6-year-old and I dug out our seed album. A tip from Pinterest suggested that we store our seeds in a photo album, which has turned out to be a great way to sort and organize the seeds we want to plant at various times of the year. Right now, our album is filled with fall seeds. Supposedly, we will need to plant our seeds for the fall garden in mid-July for a fall harvest. However, the extreme heat, I feel, may be too much for the plants to grow well. Instead, we are going to wait until August and see what happens. If nothing grows, we chock it up to experience.

The Essential Urban Farmer suggests that we focus on crops that are fast-maturing, easy-to-grow, high-yielding, and are relatively expensive in stores. This will help the most with food bills and will make the biggest impact on daily meals. Because of this, according to the book, we should focus our efforts on broccoli, potatoes, spinach, lettuce, and carrots. So, we're going to do that. Sort of.

Gus and I started our broccoli seedlings yesterday, but we also threw in some cauliflower and brussels sprouts. Gus wanted to try to start lettuce and sunflowers early, and since we had extra seeds, we did that as well. We don't have adequate light inside our house, so we put the seedling tray in the shade garden. It will still be hot, but the filtered sunlight may be enough to help the plants grow. Really, it's our only shot at growing seedlings unless I invest in a grow lamp, so my fingers are crossed that the heat doesn't overwhelm.

The other issue that we face is our extremely limited garden space. Some people can plant fall gardens in the summer when their summer gardens are still producing, but I haven't the area from which to choose. Instead, I need to wait until some crops have stopped producing, or have died, and then use that spot for our new veggies. Or maybe I'll end up digging up a new spot for the fall garden. The grass is already dead, and by that I mean completely and totally dead to the point that we will probably have to re-sod. So, a new garden bed? Yes, that could happen.

Either way, along with the seedlings that may or may not happen, we will be planting kale, spinach, carrots, bunching onions, radishes, beets, and chard. With any luck, we'll have fresh veggies through early winter, at which time the winter garden should be in full-swing.