September gardening....la rentree arrive!

Hi all, and welcome to September. Doesn't seem like it could be this late already, but it is....

Now that we're all back from vacation (which is why there was no August update...I was gone, too!) -- the kids are back in school...we can turn our attention back to our neglected gardens.

What's growing well for you? I have MOUNTAINS of tomatoes -- my Moneymaker seeds bought at Lidl have outdone themselves, and I'm happily waffling between salad caprese, Greek salad, or just tomatoes. The vines are well over 2m tall, and bigger around than my thumbs. Chuffed to bits with this variety...and a friend just sent me some oxheart seeds for next year (I think they're the same thing as coeur de boeuf, but I'm not sure). Need to find some of the yummy cherry varieties for next year, too.

My peppers are just blooming now, so I might get some salsa from the jalapenos yet.

My broccoli went to seed, as there was no one here to harvest it, but it looks like it did well.

I have teeny little ears of corn forming, and a lovely pumpkin...lesson learned is to start that one in the ground, otherwise I have gorgeous pumpkins in September, and not a one in October when I want it.

Still a few string beans, and a lettuce or two that have hung tough through the summer. Cukes, watermelon, and Charente melon are there, but definitely not growing any...dunno what to do about that...

What's on your planning list for fall? I found a cold frame for cheap this summer, so I'll be trying kale (same friend sent me some seeds for an Italian kale that she adores), cauliflower, another round of broccoli, mache, some cold-weather lettuce, and parsnips...I'll likely add to that later, but that's the list for now.

Hi!

We've eaten nearly all the carrots, and a few parsnips (though that was infantacide). My broccoli/calibrese is still putting out small flower heads so I'm certainly planting Calibroc next year.

I have no plans to plant anything until the spring, other than the strawberry plants which I have allowed to make runners to increase my plants. I've made coldframe-type lids to put over them so they should be fine.

This was my first year SFG and I am happy with the results. I plan on two more boxes next year and a bit of tweaking about what/where I plant things.

Thanks for reminding me, Icemaiden...I forgot to mention that along with weeding after my absence, I have to build and fill a 2nd box (4 x 8, or 1,2m x 2,4m) this fall, too.

And I just looked at the Canadian update and remembered that I want to buy some garlic from the health food shop and try it in the spare squares next to the strawberries :-) I've tried it in the garden before with no result at all but perhaps under a plastic lid it will be happier?

Hi,
I thought it was about time I'd drop in again, it's taken me some time to get started into the new schoolyear, but I think now I'm back on track. Over here in Holland the weather has been terrible; we've had so much rain, and temperatures more suiting for november than for the end of summer... so I haven't been out in the garden very much.
I'm harvesting some tomatoes now and then, but my plants haven't been doing well this year. I think in a week or so they'll be done, and I can pull the plants out.

The slug-population has gotten completely out of hand, with this type of weather (as have the weeds, by the way, but not in the SFG! ) I've stopped sowing lettuce and sorts, because they get eaten faster than I can put 'em in.

For fall crops I had some brussel sprouts, cauliflowers and kale planted, kale has disappeared completely (like it had never even been there), but the others are still growing, so I keep my fingers crossed. The sugar snaps I planted in summer are starting to produce. They're a lot smaller than in spring, but they too have suffered from the slugs while we were away. They're just as sweet and crunchy though, a real treat.

I'm gonna have one (yes one!) squash as the complete harvest of 9 or 10 plants (I had zucchini, kuri, butternut and patisson planted, but snails ate all of the flowers). It's growing on a butternut-vine, but I think it has been crosspollinated with a zuchini, because it has the shape of a butternut, but it's green striped like a zuchini. It'll be a surprise what it tastes like, I guess.

Still growing are chard, parsnips, soybeans, eggplant/aubergine (which is doing great, there are 9 riping on that one plant! It turns out slugs and snails don't like eggplant, so I might plant more next year...pity I'm the only one in my family who likes 'em). Also some string onions which I forgot, so now they've grown bulbs anyway (even better) and some carrots. I'm pretty sure I put new turnip and radish seeds in, but I guess the snails got those too.

Oh, and I harvested some purple potatoes, they taste great, but didn't produce much. I'll try again next year, hopefully winter won't last as long as last year so I can start earlier.

Anyway, so far for my garden update. I expected to have more of a real end-of-summer-harvest, but hey, you can't have it all... we had so much in spring, so I'm still happy with the results of my first year of SFG. And I've learned a lot too, so maybe next year I will do better. I think I'm gonna clear out most of the squares soon, mix in a lot of fresh compost, and call it a season.

I have a little cold frame, in which I may try to grow some wintery stuff (mache seems to grow all season), and maybe I'll build some sort of A-frame-like construction on top of my biggest SFG, to stop the rain from washing out all the nutrients during winter (and to be able to start early next year). But I'll just see about that, planning is easy

@Icemaiden:
Garlic doesnt grow when the soil is too wet, so growing it under a plastic cover could help with that. It does really need a cold period too, but I guess in Iceland it will still freeze even under a cover... Or you can remove it when most of the wet season is over.

Thanks for that advice Mirjam. I was talking to someone on the weekend and she said that when she tried garlic all she got was one large clove for each clove planted. I wonder if it just doesn't divide into new cloves in some conditions?
Oh well, the box will be partly empty and it is not as though a bulb of garlic will cost much!