The Fall Garden

Over the past few weeks, I have planted my fall garden. I start by taking up the summer plants that were burned by the drought, or have stopped producing. I started broccoli and cauliflower from seed, planted some green beans from seeds as well. This past weekend I put in 12 lettuce plants that will give me greens… this replaces my swiss chard from the summer.

I also planted some carrot seeds a few weeks ago, and only about half of them came up. Yesterday while I was at the Edmond farmer’s market, I found out why. I was talking with one of the farmers, and mentioned that I recently put carrots in the ground, and he asked me how I germinated them. I told him that I just put the seeds in the ground and asked why he asked. He said that carrots need a moist ground while the seeds germinate, and with our warm, dry weather, you really need to make sure the soil stays moist, or else they won’t grow. That explains why I only get half of them to grow.

If you like garlic, this is your chance to try an easy winter garden. Buy some garlic at the market, break it into individual cloves, and plant them in the ground (upright – about an inch deep, 4 inches apart). I usually plant at the beginning of October, and in May or June, you will have a fresh garlic bulb for each clove you planted. When the stalk flops over, it is ready to pick. Hang the garlic in a cool-dry place to dry out, and it will last for a long time. I still have a box full of garlic from this past spring.

Even though it is cooling down, remember to keep gardening! Our first freeze does not come until the first week of November, on average.