Planning a Fall Garden

Moving to a new region, I had high hopes for my garden this summer. I wanted to feed my family fresh vegetables and have some to sell. Uh, that failed miserably. I learned alot, but am still disappointed. One big thing I learned was not to scrimp on fertilizer. Penny wise, but pound foolish. We are building a compost bin so that we won't spend $8/month on fertilizer. I also had great results with apple cider vinegar. Two tablespoons in a gallon of water and put on my plants brought several back to life after I starved them. Surprisingly, in the swampy, humid air of the Mid Atlantic, I had a much better harvest, but on to the next season...

For fall, my goal is to make up summer production and feed my family. Living in the South, I'll be planting the following, based on a frost date of October 20. If you are going to plant, be sure to look at your frost date to count backwards to planting time.

I have a square foot garden in the backyard with 64 squares, which I filled with the lasagna method, and containers on the front porch- pots picked up from Freecycle, recycled soda bottles, recycled milk jugs, and recycled five gallon buckets from my mom and neighbor who work in food service! Seeds come from Dollar General, Ebates sites, and Rite Aid. The cheaper the better and good results with sprouting! In appreciation for the jugs, I'll share some vegetables and make my mom and dad a nice spaghetti dinner with fresh bread.

Here is what I'll plant for fall:

Artichokes
Asparagus
Beans
Broccoli
Carrots
Celery
Green Onions
Lettuce
Mustard
Onions
Peas
Pumpkins
Radishes
Spinach
Squash

Parsley
Basil
Dill

I'll also take a look at dwarf fruit trees for containers as part of our future landscaping project.

Do you garden? Share a tip!