A new beginning: Fall plantings!

After weathering stifling heat, all summer with little to show in my humble garden (it all burned up), I have bravely gone out and planted anew. The moderating temperatures helped get me out there again. Also, something ate the rabbits which were eating my crops, so that was another good point in favor of a renewed effort on my part.

As a cooler regime seems to be headed this way, it being late August and all, I decided to plant some radishes and lettuce. I did this last week after clearing out the weeds I’d let accumulate in both raised beds. I used a space of about four feet square and used up pretty much the remainder of my Little Caesar romaine seed. I also went ahead and planted a row of Cherry Belle radish as well as a row of kale, using seed that I had harvested from a single plant earlier in the growing season. To my amazement, many of the seeds germinated rather quickly and now I actually have hope of salvaging has been a meager growing season. I’ll just have to wait, water and weed now until the late fall harvest (I hope)!

Spring has definately sprung!

I suppose one reason that early man called this time of year spring was the way in which everything sort of springs up at you seemingly overnight! That was certainly true of this row of spinach and radish seed that I planted just a couple of weeks ago. Right now conditions are just about perfect for many of the crops I have planned to get a fast start. The weather is mild with cool temperatures overnight. Veggie heaven!

Beware of bargain seed packets!

By now most of us are aware that more is just shrinking besides the dollar. Have you had a Big Mac lately? It’s now more like a Little Bud if you get my drift. A hamburger that used to fill two hands, now rests comfortably in just one!

The same is true of seed packets. The seeds packets are the same size, but not the contents. I recently purchased a packet from American Seed (they also make the NK brand) from my local grocery store. It contained radish seed known as Sparkler White Tip. For fifty nine cents plus tax, I got 86 seeds. That’s pretty close to a penny a seed! (Check out my article on the high cost of seed here). Did you know you can let a few plants go to seed in the summer and then harvest them for free? I did this last season a variety call Cherry Belle which is open pollinated and not a hybrid.

As a matter of fact, you can save the seed from many of your common veggies and reap huge saving in the process. Happy Gardening!