Hello Family!

I can’t believe I’m already considering my 2021 fall garden, well honestly thinking about it I can because it is definitely my favorite growing season. Fall gardening means less pests, less watering, and less problems. In this case, less is truly more. Last year, my fall garden did NOT disappoint, but as always there was definitely a lesson (as in every season) waiting for me mid season that I’m making sure doesn’t happen this season.

Fall gardening for most southerners is all about growing root vegetables and greens – and it’s no different here for this Florida garden. Spring and summer is extremely too warm for my favorite greens and invites way too many creatures to feed on the foliage. With cooler weather eventually on the horizon, I’m looking forward to a more laid back growing season. I’m also excited to start “plant and forget” crops which typically are planted in the fall. This season I’m growing some of my favorites, but I’m trying a few new techniques.

Garden Prep – Fertilizing

I’ll be adding old faithful – neem cake fertilizer (Aina Co.) and compost to my soil to prepare for the fall. I’ve heard that it’s best to add compost only in the fall – the jury is still out on that for me because typically I see good results from application in fall and spring. I always add neem cake fertilizer in the beginning of the season because it’s a slow release fertilizer that will continue to feed the plants over time. It’s nitrogen based as well so it perfect for leaf growth. I gently apply handfuls to the top of the soil and mix it in. I borrowed from Tam of TamInTheGarden her method of applying a few days ahead of time and water deeply to allow it to become readily available to my transplants.

In addition, I’ll water my brassicas and leafy greens with kelp and/or fish fertilizer, alternatively. So week one, kelp – week two, fish. Liquid fertilizer is readily available to plants and these fertilizer – especially the fish – will provide a quick nitrogen (leaf growth) boost. I want to provide a continuous amount of nutrients to my crops to maximize the leaf yield without adding synthetic fertilizer.

What I’m Growing

Root Vegetables

I’m passing on the beets and radishes this year simply because no one in my home eats them enough for me to grow them. I hate maximizing the use of my space! I do encourage anyone who have the taste for them to grow them because they are fast growing and great space savers. Instead, I’m going switch that focus to getting the most out of my carrots this year. I plan to grow Scarlet Nantes Carrots (seeds from Seed Mail Seed Co.) and will be succession planting them so I don’t have to harvest all at once. I will also be growing two varieties of onions from seed, Texas Early Grano and Red Grano also from Seed Mail Seed Co. This is my first year growing onions from seed but Princess of www.PrincessCole.com does it yearly and gave me all the encouragement I need. Of course, I’ll make sure I document everything as usual and write all about it. I’ll be starting these seeds in August (earlier than all of my other seeds) just to allow enough time for them to sprout and start over if necessary. Here are some of the benefits of growing onions from seed:

• wide variety of onions – Variety choice is based on latitude vs. gardening zone. It’s more difficult to find the right onion for your location by the set due to availability.
• larger bulbs – Onion sets are onions that growth cycle was interrupted when removed from the ground and because of this, the bulbs tend to be a bit smaller vs. growing from seed with no interruptions.
• cost efficient – seeds will always be 60% cheaper than the sets. I paid a $1 for 200 seeds.
• lest chance of flowering – Onion sets have a large chance of bolting and flowering before their bulb become ideal size.
• peace of mind of growing environment – you really don’t know if those sets were grown organically or not.

I passed on growing my beloved turnips this year, but they will come back in 2022. I needed more room for calalloo and other leafy greens and I didn’t want to be bothered with the tedious clean up of turnips.

I’ll be adding Blue ginger to the mix simply on a whim because a seller at the local farmer’s market gave it to me free. I’m excited, but I have no expectations on what to expect and how I plan to use it.

Garlic – here’s a garlic growing guide

Am I crazy to deem fall gardening all about garlic??? It is very likely that I’ve gone garlic crazy. I love it so much and it culinary and medicinal versatility is unmatched. Last year, I grew a variety from SMSC that took longer than expect to grow but I definitely got some amazing bulbs. This of course motivated me to grow big or go home with my upcoming season. In shed bed, along with onions, I’ve be growing the following:

California Early – Urban Farmer

Transylvania – Seed Mail Seed Co.

Elephant – Local farmers market

Tochliavri – Seed Savers

Organic Early Italian – Seed Mail Seed Co

I’m expecting to plant at least 72 cloves between 5 varieties – all softneck. I am so so so excited! The plan is hopefully to grow enough to save, store, and keep seed cloves for myself.

Brassicas

I’ll be growing my all time favorite – Collards! I choose two varieties to grow in two separate beds – Morris Heading (unnamed source) and Georgia Southern (seeds from Seed Mail Seed Co.). I am still cooking the harvest I had from the georgia southern harvest earlier this year and I am excited to have another big harvest! Based on my layout plans, collards will be the most prominent crop this fall. This crop is the most requested among family members and community because of it cultural importance and I want to make sure I have plenty of it to go around. Cabbage is another crop that unites my family and I’m planting seeds I got from my local dollar store. The variety I’m growing this year is Early golden Acre. Per sources, this variety is compact in nature and “heads” early. I’ll be the judge of how true these claims are in this Florida zone 9a fall and winter climate. Next, I’m deeply in love with asian greens such as Tatsoi and Pak Choi so I’m growing some of those goodies from Seed Mail Seed Co. I cook each as you would spinach and it’s delish! Other dollar store seeds I’m growing are Swiss Chard (mixed color), Long Island Brussel Sprouts, and Calibrese Broccoli. I’ve grown all before and I think I’m most excited to be growing broccoli again.

Leafy Greens

These are my most fun crops this year (along with garlic) – I’m incorporating some of my favorite culturally important veggies here. Although they can stand some of the heat from the summer, I plan to let them flourish in this fall gardening season. Here’s what I’m growing:

Callaloo (amaranth) – Seed Mail Seed Co. – Carribean vegetable dish you sauteed with peppers

Lagos Spinach (celosia) – True Love Seeds – Based of a nigerian stew called Efo Riro or Efo Shoko

Here are more greens that I’m going to grow because they are in most of my favorite dishes.

Lacinato Kale – Seed Mail Seed Co.

Mustard Greens – Southern Giant (SMSC), Giant Red Japanese (SMSC), Hen Pecked (community)

Spinach – Bloomsdale & Mustard Spinach (tendergreen)

Lettuce

I decided to keep it simple with my lettuce this year and plant a dependable leaf, head, and butter variety. We are goinh with iceberg (head), oakleaf (leaf), and buttercrunch butterhead (butter) which all came from seeds shared with me in our community. along with my carrots, I’ll be practicing succession planting here as well. I’ll explain more later why succession planting is important for some crops.

Flowers

After the mistake a few seasons ago of not having ANY flowers in my garden, flowers are a must during every grow season. This year I’m dabbling in growing flowers that prefer the fall gardening environment and are going to last a while through or until our first and only freeze. I’ll dash a few nasturtiums, alyssum, and poppies around the beds wherever I an fit them in. I’ll add butterfly pea and sweet pea to the cucumber trellis and cross my fingers for an abundance of flowers.

Butterfly pea – Goobs Garden

Poppies (still unsure of which variety but Hungarian Blue is a must) – Burpee

Alyssum – Gold Dust – Ferry Morse

Nasturtiums – Dwarf Jewel Nasturtium – American Seed (dollar store seeds)

Herbs

The only new herbs I’m planting in the fall is cilantro and garlic chives (Seed Mail Seed Co). my herb bed will last until the first frost and afterwards I’ll apply mulch to keep everything happy in dormancy until spring comes. I intentionally started my herb bed to be perennial in natural and I’m excited to see what will actually come back next year.

Techniques

As a mentioned before, fall gardening is my favorite because it’s low maintenance and less demanding. Nonetheless, crops and gardeners (even us in the south) face a few obstacles that can prevent them from being their absolute best. Based on what I learned last year, I’ll be adding the following to my fall gardening plans to help make this one of my best fall grow season yet!

Succession Planting – per Wikipedia, succession planting is several planting methods that increase crop availability during a growing season by making efficient use of space and timing. I am going to plant my carrots, lettuces, and cabbage using a method of succession planting where I start seeds at different times to stagger the maturity date. The purpose is to extend my growing as much as possible and prevent a large harvest at once. I find it hard and overwhelming sometimes to process and clean so many vegetables at once.

Mulching –  practice of covering the soil/ground to make more favorable conditions for plant growth, development and efficient crop production. Mulch helps in the cooler weather by helping retain moisture and warmth. Here is our guide on mulch in the garden.

Row Covers – Last year, I lost 95% of my garden due to not covering my plants for our only frost. Go figure?! This year, I adding some easy row covers from Amazon (here) so when temps get lower than favorable, I’ll be able to cover them with a breathable, but warm fabric.

I’m expecting peace and abundance this season and I hope sharing my personal garden plans with you provide the same! This is of course an outline of what I wish to accomplish but all gardeners know, a garden will not grow to be what we want it to be, but what it is meant to be. Happy Planting!

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