Our first fall vegetable garden in Texas was in 1979. What a treat that was for the girl from Ontario to be picking broccoli from the garden for Christmas day dinner. Even then, we were gardening organically. Leaves were used for mulch. A large compost pile was kept behind the garden.
The trick to the fall vegetable garden is protecting those little plants from our scorching hot August and early September sun. Cedar roofing shingles, or in our case, Redenta’s Garden info signs, work well. In the middle of August, a little later than we should have, we planted a dozen tomato plants. We also planted some lemon and Armenian cucumber seeds, French fillet, yellow and purple bean seeds and some squash seeds. In September, we followed with broccoli, cabbage and Brussels sprouts plants, and radish and turnip seeds. We have had many cucumbers, several meals of beans and last week I harvested the biggest crown of broccoli ever. Today we will have tomato salad and tomato soup. The turnips will be used in both a beef stew and minestrone soup I plan to make this weekend. And Sunday breakfast may include fried green tomatoes if the weather forecast rings true and we have our first frost.
November 17th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
As a fellow Ontario girl who still resides there, I’ve read your last couple of posts with much envy. Our gardens are now covered with a thin blanket of snow and my gardening focus has turned indoors as I begin the annual effort to keep a rosemary plant alive over the winter. Looking forward to reading your blog over the winter.