Fall Garden Update #3

Make no mistake about it, fall has arrived in Minnesota. The lows are dipping into the 40’s here in Saint Paul, and my fall garden is running behind.

It seems everything, from my radishes to my kohlrabi is taking a few extra weeks to get ready. But the seedlings started life with pounding rain, too much shade and the onslaught of slugs. Only the strong survived.

One good thing I learned from this fall bed, is which radish and which lettuce seem to be the most hardy. Out of the easter egg blend radish packet, only the white globe radish has managed to bulb out. The red radish pictured above is just starting to bulb however. And from the lettuce sampler seed packet, only the bibb lettuce is still standing.

The spinach and bright light swiss chard were doing well for a while, but now they’re visited daily by slugs. I set out some beer bait, but it seems a furry animal keeps drinking it up. I can’t catch a break. :-)

The Little Finger Carrots are growing well but they need to get bigger roots to harvest. The kohlrabi is doing so-so, but I’m not sure they’ll bulb out before the big freeze. Speaking of which, the metro is under a frost advisory, but the garden should be OK. My plantings are cool weather crops and I think it’ll stay frost free. Stay tuned.

Perhaps the last red raspberry of the season.This pepper was grown from seed. It looks like a jalapeno, but another on the same plant looks like a baby bell pepper. I’ll be tasting them before it gets too cold.

All this grass was started in late August and it has grown incredibly well. Hopefully this means we’ll have a lush yard in spring, instead of the awful weeds we dug out.

Technorati Tags: fall,garden,planting,growing,radish,lettuce,grass,seedlings,kohlrabi