Fall Planning In The Garden + Container How To Videos

Fall has been here for a few weeks so  let’s talk changing of the seasons in the garden!   Fall means the hearty crops are back, lots of bushy greens and getting ready to anxiously await that first Frost.   Even though Summer is over, it doesn’t mean gardening is done – it never is!

This Fall we are growing Sugar Snap Peas, Kale, Cucumbers, Spinach, Lettuce, Radishes, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Pumpkins, Soybeans and Carrots.    We have also begun planning for Winter where we will be growing Brussels Sprouts and Pak Choi.  If you’d like to stay updated with our Garden Calendar, you can always check this link out (found in the sidebar too).  I periodically update it whenever anything is planted or transplanted.  This is super helpful in knowing the exact date we plant and preparing for the next year so I would definitely recommend always keeping track of your garden schedule.  We come back to this page many times during the year.

The broccoli and cauliflower were transplanted on both August 15 and September 5 as we are trying to space them out slightly.  Here is the broccoli ready to move into it’s new container home.

And here it is living in it’s new luxurious container condominium.  We usually grow 3-4 broccoli or cauliflower plants per container.  This year we will be growing 18 separate plants. 

Just a few days ago I spotted this, it was a pleasant surprise to see the broccoli heads already starting to pop out and say hello!

Some more views of the broccoli and cauliflower:

One of our favorite Spring and Fall plants are Sugar Snap Peas.  These not only are delicious for snacking but they make some of the best quick and easy pasta dishes!   Peas were planted directly into the soil on July 31 and have just begun producing peas which will last a few weeks.

The peas are planted in all 3 boxes.  Who’s going to make it to the top of the fence first?

We’re kale crazy so we went from our 4 summer plants to 10 plants.  The kale got transplanted into their container on August 3.  Here it is as a little baby..

Here’s 6 of our new kale plants:

Do you spot our other 4 kale plants which have been growing since Spring? We learned a few years ago that Kale will grow throughout the seasons!

Kale, you are so pretty.

I’m in loooooooove with youuuuuu.

Pumpkin season is here, so I love nothing more than picking our own pumpkins in the garden!

I title this picture “Pumpkin looking over it’s city”.  Look at how hazy that day is by the way, you can hardly see Manhattan.

Our cucumbers are one of the surprises of 2013, they have done such an amazing job, to the point of I can’t fit anything else into the bottom shelf of our refrigerator as it’s completely filled with pickles!

Our tomatoes are still producing!

We planted 2 more boxes of soybeans which are almost ready to pick.  If you remember we just harvested some soybeans, but don’t worry I have some soybean snack recipes hidden up  my pink silk sleeves.

I always love to see the transition of the garden from season to season.  The bright colors of Summer are close to over, to be replaced by dark luscious greens.

And then we get ready for winter, here are some of our seedlings we have begun to harden off.  My goal this winter is 2 words: Brussels Sprouts.

Here are some videos I did as part of the Gardenieres on container gardening.  You can apply container gardening to anything you grow, really – I mean anything!  Our entire garden is containers, so if you are thinking on giving container gardening a shot, I would strongly urge you give it a try.   Not only is it perfect for spaces that you can’t grow directly into the ground (like our roof), but it’s also great for actual yard spaces.  If we had a actual yard, we would still container garden our plants, the results have been exciting.  The other great thing about sub irrigated containers is you never will doubt if there is too little or too much water.  Because there  is a hole in the bottom of the container, when the water comes out – then you know you can stop watering.  If no water is coming, keep on watering!

Here is a Step by Step on how we make our Strawberry Buckets.  We use Home Depot 5 gallon buckets. Our strawberries are doing awesome this year, even giving me handfuls in October.

[youtube id=”ap3v81f2XLw” width=”600″ height=”340″ position=”left”]

Here is a Step by Step on how to make your own Herb Garden Container.   This works great on growing healthy herbs, but this is also the basic technique we use for the majority of all our plants (from tomatoes  to pumpkins to broccoli).
[youtube id=”mhBu5SsW1G4″ width=”600″ height=”340″ position=”left”]

Hope you enjoyed the videos, let me know if you have any questions! 🙂  Are you gardening this Fall? If so, let me know all about it!