September's End

My little turnip sprouts have turned into big leafy plants. I rode my bike to the garden straight after work today to give some much needed care to my garden by the metro. While I continue to visit the garden frequently I have been finding it harder to spend good solid chunks of time there. This might get even more difficult as the light leaves the day sooner. At the same time, I love the fall and I love being outside in it so much, so I'm sure I will continue to spend a significant amount of time in the garden. Today I thinned the different seeds I planted early in September: turnips, radishes (red and black), mesclun, oakleaf lettuce, arugula, and mustard greens. I made a lot of progress in this, though I will probably need to go back and do a final thinning in another few days. I came away with significant amount of the leafy greens, just from the thinnings. I think I will never buy lettuce from a store again.

Also, I accomplished some weeding, and more harvesting. I have another crop of bush beans going strong that I was finally able to harvest. A lot of eggplant, some of which I roasted for dinner tonight. A lot of peppers that I will begin drying. More basil, rosemary, thyme, oregano. I also picked a handful of tomatoes, though the plants are in the final throws of fruiting.

I just planted some kale and some more lettuce the other day, which is already starting to sprout. In a rather sad moment, I decided to finally pull out some of my squash plants. It was a very final sort of action, but I am excited about putting new things in their place, and

the gradually changing landscape of the garden. I started to prepare the former squash bed for another planting, getting some hummus and manure into the ground. I am going to start a second crop of mustard greens, turnips, and radishes in their place. Maybe some more carrots.

There was a row of radishes I planted a few weeks ago, that was refusing to grow. I found this strange and frustrating, because all the other rows have come up so well. I though that maybe I had simply forgotten to plant anything in there at all. Well, today I discovered that I had planted something, not radishes, but carrots. That made for a nice little surprise. I do hate waiting for carrots to germinate though... they seem to take forever, especially next to the turnips and radishes which provide such instant sprout gratification.

In the plans for the near future is a really good go at my herbs. I need to pick some serious quantities to dry and have ready for the winter months.