81. Wins and Losses of the Fall Garden

It has been several weeks since I have been able to sit down and write but those weeks were full of good things. I have learned several lessons this year in my fall garden that I hadn’t experienced until now. While some were out of my control, some were. I have also had several things go my way more so than I would expect. Let’s talk about what went well and what didn’t.

Is It Hot or Not?

I feel like while our spring this year was a cool gradual warm up over several months, our fall has been anything but gradual. We seem to go from hot to cool in a matter of days. This caused my cilantro to bolt prematurely even with shade cloth over it. Luckily I was able to purchase transplants and they seem to be doing well. It does appear that we are headed for more cool temperatures very soon.

We also had another later warm spell and while it wasn’t quite as hot, the upswing in the temperatures didn’t make my cold loving crops happy. This caused my yellow heart bok choy to bolt. I was really hopeful to test out the cold hardiness of this crop since I have heard that it is one of the better crops to grow and last all winter.

Bugs and Holes in my Crops

I have heard other gardeners complain about pests eating holes in their fall garden crops especially. A lot of gardeners will cover with insect netting for awhile until the pest pressure dies down. I, however, have not had this problem until now. In past years I would see a few holes in the leaves of my cabbage or broccoli plants but nothing too major that it required me intercepting the pests from being able to access the leaves. This year it seems as though the pests have almost ate all of my leaves of the cabbage down to just the stems. Lesson learned though, you are not immune to what others are seeing as well.

Accepting My Struggles

For three years now, I have tried to grow pumpkins and winter squash. Each time, they die before they even get going. I feel like I have tried several different things to combat this issue and still each year, no success. I usually try to spend some time at the end of each growing season to reflect on what worked and what didn’t. Also, I evaluate what was worth my time and what wasn’t. This year that was corn. While I did end up growing some corn, it was a last minute decision because I had extra space to work with. It wasn’t something that I planned originally as a priority for my garden. I think next year, I will probably be cutting out the pumpkins and winter squash to save room for other things. On a good note though, I was able to source local pie pumpkins and make pumpkin puree from those.

Wins from Accidents

Now onto the happy things, the wins from this fall. One win was my peanuts. After planting a whole bed of peanut seeds to try and get a lot of peanuts to harvest, none germinated or grew. It was so frustrating. However, I had volunteer plants come back from last year where I must have missed some of them last year. These plants exploded with growth. I harvested several handful of peanuts for it kind of being an accident that they were there.

Another win was my sweet potatoes. I have seen a lot of gardeners say that this year was a great sweet potato year for them. I was no different. Sweet potatoes have always been a decent crop for me but this year was excellent. I believe that the weather we have in our climate has always been a help when it comes to growing the sweet potatoes. NC is the main source of sweet potatoes for the country and I feel like that is on purpose because they thrive here. They are such a “plant it and forget it” type of crop. I am so happy with what I got and can’t wait to eat them.

One other win is cover crops. I have always said that every year I want to add cover crops into my raised beds before it gets too cold. Then each year I never do it and by the time I think about it again, it’s too late to plant them. This year, I actually made it a priority. I have several beds that have cover crops in them and I am hoping to see a huge change in my soil health and my crop health next year. I am trying several different types out to see how they each do and compare them next year.

Last win is my broccoli this year. All of my broccoli plants were grown from seed. Last year only about half were grown from seed due to some losses. I decided to try out different types of broccoli this year to see which ones would do best. I tried 4 different ones, Monty, Emerald Crown, Waltham 29 & Green Magic. In previous years, I have grown Waltham 29 and Green Magic and both did very well for me. After comparing them so far this year, the one that is outshining the rest is actually Emerald Crown. I definitely want to see how the harvest goes with the different types before I declare a winner but as far as plant health, that one seems to be doing better than the rest.

All in all, I feel like this year’s fall garden has taught me more than any other year. While I’ve had better success with some things, I’ve struggled in a lot of areas that I haven’t in years past. As always, I will celebrate the wins and learn from the losses. Until Next Time, Happy Gardening!