I am a fair weather gardener. I don’t like the cold, and I certainly don’t like to be outside in the garden when it’s cold or wet. But spurred on by reading Animal Vegetable Miracle (finally) and by a little something Jackie French said in her Backyard Sustainability book, for the first time ever, I am looking at seed catalogues and planning an Autumn planting.
I’m only half way through reading Animal Vegetable Miracle, but I am already struck by how short their growing season is. I have always whined about how difficult our climate can be here with crazy late frosts then scorching summers, but that is nothing to the months of snow and frozen earth that this family is coping with. The shear volume of food they seem to be able to grow in such a short period made me feel kind of guilty, and quite a bit inspired.
Our winters are cold, but not so cold that we can’t grow things.
Then there is Jackie French’s idea that just made so much darn sense to me- “When you harvest something, plant something else in it’s place.” Not only does that take care of dealing with weeds that grow on any patch of bare dirt around here, but it also means there will always be something growing and something to eat, hopefully.
So here I am, going through the seeds we already have, and those we have saved, to see what I can plant now. Trying to remember where I put the left over seed raising mix and trying to clear a space on the window sill to start a few seeds.
It seems kind of crazy since at the moment we are finally seeing some abundance from our spring/summer crops. We have tomatoes (no matter how early put them in they never fruit till March!?!?) and zucchinis a plenty, plus spring onions, radishes, potatoes and maybe even our first popping corn!
At the same time I am planting silver beet, spinach, broccoli, peas, carrots, parsnips and some other bits and pieces. It’s not a lot and who knows if they will grow, since I’ve never attempted this in autumn before, but hopefully we’ll get something back for our efforts!
Is anyone else planting an Autumn garden? What are you putting in?
And for those of you on the other side of the world, what are you planning for spring??
tiff says
I don’t grow anything, in fact, I kill things.
I have a black thumb, so will have to live through your amazing gardens.
amanda says
I would love to be planting, but the clearing of the garden did not go so well with an endless number of redbacks rearing their heads in our very wet and soggy backyard. :(
We have previously planted in autumn. Brussel sprouts didn’t work, but brocolli and cauliflower went well. So much so we did have some to share.
Must see if our library has Animal Vegetable Miracle.
Melissa says
I must get onto this. Definately some rocket, cos lettuce, rainbow chard. I will try again with broccoli and broad beans for sure.
ChristineMM says
Hello, clicked through from BlogHer, I’m a Blogher blogger too.
Here is a blog post I did about square foot gardening on a tight budget. It’s a photo tutorial and has some tips in there.
http://thethinkingmother.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-to-make-10-raised-garden-bed.html
consider also, reading Four Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman. (organic) He lives in Maine and gardens all 4 seasons.
jenny @ let the children play says
This is just the kick up the bum I need to start planting our autumn crop over the school holidays. In spring I created my first ever no dig veggie garden bed, but now after what became known at our house as the “big storm garden masacre” it is lying empty and calls to me every time I walk past “plant me, plant me”. Now I need to go look up what grows in autumn.
amanda says
Jenny, I have this link
http://www.gardenate.com/
which tells you what to plant at any given time in your selected climate. I’m keeping it for when I have a patch so I can refer to. My husband is a trained horticulturalist, but after my herb disaster (we ended up with weeds) I am no longer trusting him ..