Lucy isn’t normally allowed in the garden boxes, but after pulling up the cherry tomato plants I needed the back end of the raised garden bed tilled. I let her jump in and have a go at it and let me tell you Bob, she had a blast!
After pulling up the tomato plants we harvested a few red potatoes that were growing underneath the tomato plants. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like harvesting potatoes in one big swoop. Instead I like to harvest just enough to last a few weeks and then head out to the garden and harvest a few more as we need them.
Luckily, we live in the Pacific Northwest and can get away with this. If we lived in an area with a harsh winter, I suppose I’d be forced to harvest all the potatoes in late fall before a big freeze came along and wiped out my crop.
Since snow is rare in our neck of the woods {it only snowed once last year} I can usually get away with leaving the potatoes in the ground with a bit of mulch covering them during the winter months.
After the plants were pulled and the potatoes were harvested we planted 1 row of carrots, 1 row of beets and a half row of turnips. We also planted 6 Brussels sprouts seedlings. I don’t think I’ve ever planted Brussels sprouts in the fall, only the spring, so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if they are worth the prime garden real estate.
Our late september heirloom tomato harvest. 
Rainbow Swiss chard… it’s a beauty. 
The folks at minigarden sent me one of their vertical planters to try out and I filled it with lettuce starts. Ideally I should have it hooked up to some sort of watering system but I’ll be hand water the plants instead. We’ll see how it goes.
The bean teepees! Aren’t they lovely? I love having a trellis just outside the patio doors. Teepees frame the doors so nicely. In the spring I like to grow sugar snap peas up the trellis. I only wish there was some sort of climbing edible I could grow in the wintertime. Do you know of any?
Pruning. It never seems to stop around here.
Luckily though I can use the clippings to build up my lasagna garden bed on the upper hill.
My goal is to get the area filled in by the end of next summer with compost, clippings and grass. Once I’ve built up the bed I’ll plant a perennial flower garden in the space. Instead of buying plants {which would cost a small fortune} I think I’ll try growing all my seeds under grow lights this winter. If all goes well by the following year I should a rockin’ perennial bed for less than $10 start to finish.
~Mavis
I use Botanical Interests Seeds in my kitchen garden. You can check out their website HERE, order their new 2016 Garden Seed Catalog, or see the seeds I will be growing in my garden this year HERE.
Leave a Reply