Fall Gardening

Sunday, a friend asked if my garden was winding down yet. This time of year, sure the tomatoes squash and other crops are mostly finished, but there is still so much happening out there. In fact, there are many crops that are just getting started. The best part of fall gardening is that many of the pests the drive me away are gone. I haven’t sustained a mosquito bite in days! The nasty little bugs that were sucking the sap out of the okra have moved on as well. The slugs on the cabbages are another story.

A quick list of the non-perennial edibles growing:

onions
garlic
bok choy
cabbage
carrots
radishes
purple top turnips
pole beans
sweet potatoes
cherry tomatoes
spinach
peppers
okra
purple potatoes
arugula
unidentified lettuces
cilantro
dill
tomatillos
kale

Several of these root crops and the spinach will overwinter, meaning a sweeter harvest in early spring.

On one of my earlier posts, a reader commented that they may skip the summer battle altogether next year and just focus on spring and fall gardening. This really isn’t a bad idea. The summer heat, pests and mosquitoes in the south (as well as the weed jungles) can make veggie gardening quite miserable.  There are some veggies like my pole beans that will just grow and grow all summer long but not set fruit until the temperatures cool.

I’d love to hear what you guys have growing and your thoughts on scaling back summer production.