Fall Garden Planting Started

Fall Garden Planting Started

After my foot injury 2 weeks ago, I started getting worried that my garden planting wasn't happening on schedule. I still had 2 small beds to amend and many things I wanted to start by seed right in those beds. But I couldn't get around the garden very well and I certainly couldn't use a shovel and get up and down off my knees very well.

I called upon the help of my gardening friends and clients. Lo and behold last Sunday morning three wonderful, generous women came to my rescue. The really cool thing about it, is they all wanted to learn how to start a garden bed by seeds.

I coached and guided them and they did the work. Lucky for them we never needed to use more than a small garden shovel and trowel. But they planted many rows of seeds. The weather was perfect for gardening. We had a great time chatting and taking about gardening life and all the wonderful things growing your own food meant to each of us.

Now a week later I have tiny seedlings popping through the ground. In fact they could be seen as early as 4 days after planting!

Let me take you through a tour of my three newly planted garden beds:

The front yard is the newest of beds. This is where the grass was just a year ago! This lovely key-hole garden is now planted with:

Spinach

Chinese kale

Red leaf lettuce

Cilantro

Swiss chard (there are 2 chard plants left over from the summer that have doubled in size in a week since amending the soil!!)

The 2 back gardens are smaller. They were the first beds I used for food 2 years ago. Boy have I learned a lot since them.

The garden bed tucked in the farthest corner of the yard (about 2 ft x 3 ft) is now where I grow the plants that have a longer maturity or harvest date - onions, garlic, carrotts and beets. This year I threw my radishes in with all of this.

You can see the seedling coming up here as well. Notice the fancy plant marker - a plastic knife! Use a sharpie pen and they will hold up to all of the harsh AZ weather!

The third garden bed I call the salad bowl since I put my lettuces there. It is closest to the house and the back door. It has a vent from the crawl space which helps keep it warmer on cool winter evenings. Last year I had lettuce for almost 4 months for the same spot.

What is missing from all of this is the diversity of companion planting. That will come next week when I add the nasturtium and sweet alysum seeds and a few marigolds.

What did you plant this fall?

Happy Digging,

The Garden Goddess

Down 2 Earth Gardens,LLC