Friday, August 17, 2012

Fall Gardening Necessary This Year!!

After a summer which brought record heat, droughts, wild fires and other disasters for gardens and crops, fall gardening is necessary this year!  Hopefully Autumn will usher in cooler temps and some rain for the parched land.  Farmers and plot gardeners as well as container gardeners alike are looking to the fall for the possibility of raising crops to stave off starvation and enormously high food bills this coming winter.

It is too late for corn!  If anyone thinks they really need corn or corn meal for the winter, then my advice to them is to get it now and to get enough to last!  Corn crops all across the country have been decimated, burnt, dried up and many have been baled to feed to live stock this winter since the hay didn't make either.  This has resulted in raising food prices, sales of dairy and cattle farms (can't afford the feed to continue) and is contributing to the rising cost of gasoline at the pump as the gas contains ethanol which is a corn product.

Corn and hay were not the only crops affected by the adverse weather this summer.  Gardens dried up, didn't produce or produced miniscule amounts.  Farmers' Markets found the abundance of veggies to be sold at market was not available this year.  Many markets were unable to offer items such as green beans, fresh lettuce, corn on the cob, slicing tomatoes, and other items.  A trip to the market in my locale gave me the option to purchase jellies, candles, indoor plants and herbs, fresh honey and syrups and a few stands offered some cucumbers and peaches.  I was hoping for Pawpaws, black raspberries, green beans, fresh green onions and garlic!

With little from the market and even less from my parched summer garden, I have decided it is necessary to plant that fall garden - even though I try to be done with gardening, canning, freezing, etc., in time to get ready for hunting season and time to put up meat for the winter, this year I am going to be doing both at the same time!  Hopefully!!!  Otherwise, who knows what we will eat this winter?!  I know I can't afford food prices now and the forecast is bleak to say the least on when that is going to change!

The fall garden can contain many items.  I purpose to plant lettuce, cabbage, beets, broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, green beans, green onions and peas.  I am still hoping my tomato and pepper plants will straighten up with the cooler, wetter weather and produce some more tomatoes and peppers!  Of course, with fall gardens it is hard to predict if you are going to have a long enough growing season for some items.  The way this year is going, it will be my luck that winter will arrive early and snow by the end of September!!!  I don't really think so, and I am counting on good weather lasting through October so my fall garden can produce as much as possible in a short time period. 

Besides planting outside, I am also starting new herb plants in my kitchen to grow over winter to have fresh herbs.  I love the smell and the flavor of sweet basil.  It helps keep the kitchen and house smelling so good all the time when it is growing in the kitchen!  Peppermint is another favorite of mine for growing indoors for a delightful fragrant aroma and is good for so many things.  Peppermint tea is great for stomach aches and acid reflux or indigestion.  There are many different herbs that grow well indoors and have many uses besides just flavoring.


Have a great fall garden!  Wishing everyone mild temps, sunshiny days with rainy nights - not storms either, just good gently rains for the gardens, and a prosperous healthy winter!!!


Just Me - Granny D

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