The transition from a summer to fall garden is strange. In the spring, you’re waiting for it to be warm enough {or enough daylight hours} to start putting things out, as green slowly takes over the world. But as summer fades, your plants are dead or dying, and you’re pulling them up to make room for the next round. From seed to sprout to plantling to produce to compost. What a journey.

After a slow-start-but-very-prolific summer of tomatoes and peppers {RIP to the cucumbers, they tried, oh they tried}, and green beans that didn’t know when to quit, the summer garden finally reached its end. Granted, the peppers are loaded and still blooming, but even they are starting to show signs of the ending season. All the rest has been cut back as green manure {like the bonus round of peas that planted themselves}, or added to the compost pile. It’s a strange feeling, that removal of the old plants before you can start the new.

The tail end of summer/September in general was a whirlwind for us, so we were a bit behind getting our fall seeds going, but thankfully not too terribly behind schedule. The radishes and arugula sprouted quickly; carrots and the other lettuces taking their time but finally starting to make their appearances. And I continue to be amazed by the spontaneous growth of onion sprouts {they won’t be planted until next spring, though we will transfer them to trays before moving them to the greenhouse to overwinter}.

The only real casualty of the whirlwind were our brassicas: we started them in soil blocks and for the most part they sprouted beautifully, as hoped {cabbage was not a fan of the soil block, uncertain as to why}. But when we should have been moving them to growbags for fall growing … the whirlwind. Thankfully we were able to salvage a handful of broccoli and a few Brussels sprouts, and they transplanted nicely.

Are you planting a fall garden? If so, what do you like to plant? We will miss our cabbages this fall/winter, but thankfully others in the family had better luck with theirs.