Today we’re getting the remnants of Hurricane Harvey in our area, and it is bringing us some needed precipitation. Thankfully we have been spared the deluge that folks to the south of us have been getting, and we just got a nice gentle, soaking rain. And we were spared the high winds we got when Hurricane Ike came through in 2008, breaking off lots of tree limbs and toppling a large blueberry bush. I’ve got most everything planted now for the fall garden, so the rain came just in time to make everything grow!
I set out kohlrabi plants about a month ago in one of the cold frame beds, and they are sizing up nicely. The stems are even beginning to swell up on some of them, which is a good sign. I planted Kolibri, Konan and Quickstar this fall, about 30 plants in all. I need to put some straw in there for mulch to keep the weeds down and conserve moisture. These should be ready early enough I can replant that bed with some hardy greens before winter arrives.
kohlrabi plants in cold frame bed
In another cold frame bed I set out plants of mizuna and pac choi last week, and sowed seeds of a turnip called Topper that is grown primarily for the greens. I got the plants from a local nursery (Robin’s Nest) since I hadn’t gotten around to starting them myself. I will start more greens to plant later for fall and winter harvests from the cold frames and greenhouse.
cold frame bed with mizuna and pac choi
Miz America is a mustard/mizuna I grew this spring, and has reddish purple leaves with a mild but somewhat spicy flavor. It’s good at any stage, though I will likely harvest fully grown leaves and use them for stir frying. Robin always has well-grown plants, and these were an impulse buy since I knew I had a spot to plant them. We’ll be enjoying the greens from these dozen plants while the ones I start myself get going.
Miz America mizuna
I sowed radish seed a couple of weeks ago in a nearby bed, and they are up and growing quickly. I’ve got Alpine, Summer Cross, April Cross, Sweet Baby and Bora King planted this time. Sweet Baby and Alpine did quite well for me in the spring planting, and we enjoyed both of them fresh, cooked and fermented. Bora King is a purple daikon that’s larger than Sweet Baby, and hopefully will give us plenty of roots for eating and fermenting into radish kimchi (kkakdugi). And last week I sowed seeds for turnips next to the radishes. You can see them just emerging in the below photo. I’m growing Hakurei, Scarlet Ohno Revival and Nozawana this year. I’ll have to cover these with netting to make sure the deer and rabbits don’t eat them up.
bed with radishes and turnips
In the main garden area, I replanted bush beans and a few zucchini plants back in early August. Beans usually do quite well here in fall, but the squash is a gamble since powdery mildew can be a problem late in the season. I may try spraying with some Serenade biofungicide as a preventative, once the plants get established. The plant in the below photo is Clarimore, a light green Middle Eastern type zucchini that I’ve been growing a few years now. I’ve also got Astia and Flaminio planted.
young Clarimore squash plant
I have also set out plants for cabbage, broccoli, kale and kohlrabi in the main garden. Those plants are still quite small, and I have mulched around them with shredded newspaper and cardboard to keep the weeds from taking off. It’s a few kohlrabi plants in the below photo, Kolibri and Quickstar. I have a dozen or so Kossak plants in another area. We truly love our kohlrabi here and it would be difficult to have too much of it!
fall planting of kohlrabi
Some time ago I set out a few plants for Dazzling Blue and White Russian kale, plus three plants of Biera Tronchuda. In the below photo you can see the Tronchuda plants towering above the newly planted babies.
fall plantings of cole crops
And I have a plug flat of lettuce seedlings ready to go in the ground in another cold frame bed once the soil dries a bit from the rains. I’m using a 128 cell plug flat for the lettuce which seems to work well for me. I’ve got some of my old standby varieties started like Simpson Elite, Red Sails, Tango, Salad Bowl and Slobolt plus recent favorites from Wild Garden Seeds like Pele, Jester and Tall Oaks. I’m trying a few new ones from Johnny’s including a couple of Little Gem types called Bambi and Rosaine plus a red Tango type called Spritzer. Many of these plants will also go into salad boxes in the greenhouse.
plug flat of lettuce seedlings
I hope you have enjoyed this update on some of the fall veggies I have planted here at Happy Acres. I’ll be back soon with more updates!
