Fall Gardening Without Expectations

 I like gardening. I liked gardening as a kid. I always start out my garden with great intentions and lofty goals that subside by July as summer presses on. As I've gotten old my garden has grown. This year was an interesting year for most of us. This was my best gardening year to date. Early in the quarantine/stay at home order we added two more raised beds to our garden area and then fenced in the entire garden area. I started petunias in our basement for the flowers. We were invested in our garden. Since we had a lot of time at home it was the best taken care of garden I've ever had. 

Since fall has arrived we cleared out the garden as it was necessary. I tried my hand at a fall garden. I planted some cabbage, lettuce and spinach. Then when it started getting cold (not just cool) I had the husband help get the cold frame out of the shed and tucked them inside it. The lettuce and spinach are ready to be harvested but I'm also interested in watching and see how much more they might grow. Cabbage plants are nice looking, nothing to eat yet. I'm not a huge cabbage fan so this isn't a big deal either way. 

My cold frame soaking up some sunshine. Left to right: mix lettuce, spinach, and cabbage.

I also planted a couple rows of onions. Apparently they'll grow all fall and then they'll be ready to pick earlier in the spring. I've got time. I've also left my carrots in the garden. I pick them as I need them. It makes storing them much easier by just leaving them in the ground. 

The carrots are on the left and onions are to the right.

I tried a new crop this fall. Garlic. I like cooking with garlic. I buy my fair share of garlic. I read about growing my own garlic and it didn't seem that hard. So I went and bought some from the vegetable store down the road and talked to the owner about planting it as well. So far everything is going as planned. Well, except the fact that the middles are still skinny enough to sneak through the slats of the garden fencing and they find the green scapes delicious to munch on some days. They also like scratching through the straw I've thrown over the grown to help insulate them for the winter. So we'll see what the spring brings. 

It's not much really when you look at it but I've had fun working on my fall garden intermittently. It's less work than the spring garden. This could be because I have lower expectations for my fall garden. It has been a welcome distraction. Not having much to show for my fall garden we are already thinking about spring gardening. Two days before Thanksgiving our first seed catalog arrived. As a child I remember flipping through my grandparents seed catalogs that would arrive after the new year. I'd dogear pages of items I liked. Then the catalogs started arriving between Christmas and New Year's. The arrival of the first seed catalog has moved it's way up until we are now receiving them before Thanksgiving. I do love a good seed catalog. I love the flower selection more than I do the vegetables. So I've spent the last couple of days dreaming about what seeds we might start late winter and what we might plant come next spring.