Fall Garden Update

These days, with a young infant in tow, I don't get to garden nearly as much as I would like. Okay, it's barely ever. However, with the help of the hubbie and Sophie, I've managed to get some Fall veggies planted......(yay!)....

~ My favorite veggie....leeks....we planted a LOT of them....it's the first time....high hopes these do well....I'm already dreaming of all the leek soup I'll be eating!!!

~ Remember my favorite gardening quote? Well, my garden doesn't see my shadow much at all. So, as you can imagine, my cabbage and brussel sprout plants have been totally ravaged by loopers. Here is the damage....criky. I really hate those damn things. I handpick my loopers so they've been having a field day in my absence. Last week I cleared them all out and I left the plants in to see if they're able to recover at all....

~ My marigold plants have exploded lately and they are really gorgeous!

~ I planted some random Asian Greens plant and it's thriving. I have no idea what this plant is called nor do I know what to do with it.....but I'm in love with the chartreuse tinted stems....

(*** Random Fact: I learned of the color Chartreuse because I worked at Benetton in high school....they used that name for everything!)

~ Spring and Fall are my favorite seasons and only more so because it's lettuce season. How gorgeous is this? And it tastes DIVINE too!

~ Look how colorful my first bed is.....it's so lovely!

~ The hardest part of Fall planting is having to pull out Summer crops that are still producing. This year I did some research on how to save the bulk of my tomato plants. I read about storing them in a newpaper-lined cardboard box. Guess what? IT'S WORKING! We have hundreds of tomatoes ripening in the garage and just look at all the beautiful colors....

I've also planted radishes, onion sets (white, yellow & red), Swiss chard, and some other Mustard Greens. Let's see how this goes.....

Ah, relief....

I went to Renfrow's today. For two things. Number one: Pumpkin plant. Check. Number Two: Tomato Blight. As I mentioned, I removed the infected leaves. Well, much to my dismay, the blight is just showing up at the bottom of the plant. It continues. WELL, as I've been celebrating all the rain that we've had in Charlotte because I haven't had to water in three weeks, the rain is the cause. It's too much and it's causing the blight to appear. The soil is way too moist and hasn't had enough time to dry out between rain storms. Can you believe it? It's nothing I've done.....something completely out of my control. The lady helping me said that everyone else is having the same problem. She also said (and I quote), "This has been a really tough year for gardening". Is it wrong that I wanted to kiss her? I naturally chalked up all my gardening issues to my inexperience. As usual, I was being too hard on myself. This is a tough year for gardening. Since then, I've been walking around with a smile on my face.


I also spoke to her about planting more cabbage and broccoli in the Fall. What, come again? I know, I know. With all the looper issues, I said I was done with the brassica family. Well.......I had to harvest the cabbage head at the end of last week. I went out one morning and found a MASS (and I mean large MASS!) of green, gobby, gooey, LARGE eggs of some type. It was DISGUSTING. I hadn't seen anything like it before. I don't know about you but I had no interest in finding out what was going to hatch out of those suckers. So, like any brave woman, I had my husband harvest the cabbage head and remove the plant and put it directly into the garbage. Shew. Crisis averted! I knew there were loopers in the head so we gave it a nice, long salt water bath. Only one worm floated to the surface but lots of tiny white eggs were floating in the dish afterwards. Anyhoo (I am long winded).....we started using the cabbage this weekend.


WOW!!! In my lifetime, I have never tasted cabbage like this. I didn't even know I liked cabbage this much. It is DIVINE. We've been adding shredded cabbage to our salads every night. Not only is the color GORGEOUS but the taste is simply out of this world. I can honestly say that it was worth every damn worm I pulled off that plant. Worth all of my obsessing. I would otherwise never have known how good cabbage can actually be.



The good news? The Renfrow lady told me that I won't have those looper issues in the Fall. Oh happy day!!! I am seriously ready to pop open champagne to celebrate the very thought of growing this ridiculously delicious cabbage without all the looper issues.


AND, I just have to say.......I know you've heard it all before....but I love veggie gardening. I LOVE IT.