UFC July Challenge :: Fall Gardening

Seed saving watermelon radishes
Originally uploaded by Whit-2-tis

This month i felt like i cheated a bit, because i had planned trying to fall gardening this year. I had the leeks, spinach, kale, carrot, lettuce, mache, radish seeds all pulled out in June, waiting. :) It seemed like everytime a new challenge came out, i was one step ahead of the game.

When July came around, i thought of planting seeds outside, but something tells me that with the heavy rains we usually get in Nov, that our soil would not drain quickly enough to keep the crops from rotting. Maybe waiting to plant them in the greenhouse would be best. I am going to wait until mid August, since it has been getting so hot in there. For kicks and giggles, i threw all my Parisian Market carrot seeds out near the melons, so we'll see what happens.
I did start a project in June...i saved a few of my best watermelon radishes for seed, since i forgot to order more this spring. Their seed pods are just starting to yellow. I'll be happy to get this area cleaned out to give the tomatoes more space to breathe.



Our first tomatoes are coming in now...they are the Purple Cherokees. Not purple yet, but if i leave them too long, the chickens squeeze out of their pasture, find their way to the AG, and devour them. Grrr....another reason to keep birds for produce rather than pets. :)



We've also got some peppers coming on: jalapenos, cayenne, and anaheim.  Moose is salavating over this jalapenos...just waiting for them to get a little bigger.
This summer hasn't been as productive in blog posts (and gardening) as i'd like. We are keeping two homes effectively...why did we do this again? :) I've been tackling the interior painting at the old place for the last 6 weeks, blanking out our eclecticness in hopes of a quick sale. Moose is updating the lighting in most areas of house--removing the ineffecient 1960's and replacing it with something suitable to still keep it relevant to the style of the house. Of course, now that i am almost done, i see on one of these "reality" realty shows that in some parts of the country you can list a house and give a paint allowance to the buyers. I coulda had a V8!

The grass should be done growing for a couple months and we can focus on planting more crops for fall and harvesting the tomatoes and blueberries.

Incase all this fall gardening doesn't work out, we join Full Circle CSA through Moose's work. The bounty you can find from the state of WA in this thing is amazing! We're due for a box today, so i'll take photos and share with you this week. Moose's idea was to join to get a feel of their quality standards, then possible approach them with something we can produce here. So many exciting possibilities out at this place.