Planning for Fall

I've been mulling over what to grow this fall, and I was finally inspired to get a move on after seeing Crystabel's plans laid out. Since I planted my cantaloupe, sweet potatoes, and watermelon late (they're in the right raised bed), I've decided to plant my beds more or less by month. As next spring rolls around, I'm going to gradually switch over to having each bed designated to certain veggies instead of a mish-mash of stuff in each one. That's the plan, anyway... To the people who know me and my occasional "obsessions" with putting things into excel: This is only the first page! LOL Please click the plans for your perusing pleasure. I'm told September is the hottest month of the year here (you mean it's going to get hotter than the 100* heat we've been having??), so I have some time to prepare for planting my cool weather crops. Here are my to-do's:

• Enrich soil in SFG - I'll do this by adding compost, used coffee grounds, and grass clippings. I was told 1.5 months was a short amount of time to do this in, but what can ya' do...
• Build trellis to add to SFG - I'm going to try to find recycled materials through craigslist, so I'm not sure how I'll be making this yet. I was given a height max of 4ft by DH though, so hopefully my peas (and whatever grows on it in the future) will be content... When I built my SFG, I installed PVC pipes on the right side before adding the dirt. These will allow me to install the trellis but also allow me to remove the trellis if I don't need it (yay me for planning ahead!).
• Add another set of 2x4's to my salad table - This will increase the soil depth to ~7in. Even though Lettuces have shallow root systems, a single level of 2x4's really only amounts to 3in of settled soil, and I don't think that's enough for growing good lettuce.
• Decrease height of salad table legs - When I built the table, I forgot to account for the added height from the casters so it's pretty, well, leggy right now (har har). It's a good height for working on, but I'd like it to be shorter so it's easier on the eyes.
• (maybe) convert the buckets I received in May to self watering containers (SWCs). This may or may not happen before fall sets in. I was originally planning on making the SWCs for next spring/summer's plants, but I also want more space to grow things now! I may just dump some dirt in a few and see how things grow...
• (maybe) Create removable "hoop house" over one or both raised beds - I'm thinking the hoops can hold either plastic to create an enclosure and extend my season (I don't know if that's really needed here or not), or row cover to protect against bugs.

Update on the Garden (I have picturitis)

Wahoo! After this post, I'll finally be up-to-date with the going on's of my little slice of growing things... A lot of pictures below, but I can't help it! I'm proud of my plants for working so hard. Feel free to click on the pictures for their full size versions. I love this picture... My LO is *so* good about not touching any of momma's plants. He walks up to them, shakes his head, points, and walks away... so cute! This isn't the most current pic (taken 5/7) of my onions and beans, but I love it because it shows how perfectly the AC unit shades my onions in the afternoon. I bought 2k ladybugs a few weeks back to get an aphid outbreak on the plum tree under control. They did a great job. Here is one of the baby's on the side of the deck turning into an adult ladybug. *Definitely* click on this one! Here's a more current picture (5/13) of the left side of my SFG. It just tickles me how straight up the bean leaves are in the afternoon sun. Unfortunately, my 3 rows of carrots bit it. Well, actually the only ones still alive are 8 that I remembered to add vermiculite to when I planted the seeds. I know it's not the right time for them, but I replanted more carrots in the 3rd square in front. I added vermiculite to each hole with the seeds and will be more dillegent about keeping them moist--especially with this weekend's temp's getting into the 90's. In the 1st front square, I planted a cherry tomato *gasp*. That's right, folks. Me, a non-tomato fan, am growing a tomato plant! I went to a Master Gardener's class two weekends ago, and they gave me a Cherry Tomato baby. I know *nothing* about tomatoes but no worries. I'll be doing some reading soon. And the left side (5/13) of the SFG... My okra and peppers are loving the heat, and my broccoli are doing surprisingly well (thus far, but praying the 90's don't bolt them). Shading them in the afternoon has been very helpful. My peppers, marigolds, and basil. My basil is so tiny because I took so long to thin them out. This is also my 2nd round. None of the seeds germinated the 1st round, so I started over with a lot more seeds... I finally remembered to look at the type of hot pepper I'm growing... Here are the first blooms on my Fresno Chili plant. Boy Wonder picked this out for Daddy because Daddy *loves* spicy food. These are the 3 broccoli I kept in the salad table. They enjoy the shade too. I don't have the greatest shade setup here, so I'm using an empty pot to keep the sheet from smooshing the plants. These guys are all that's left in my table--again, because I started too late... My canteloupe have finally started to grow. It was touch and go for a while for the front left plant. I had to cover it with an empty container at night, and that seems to have done it well. See the baby leaf in the middle?

Ah, yes. My pride and joy... This is my Dwarf Meyer Lemon. I was so extatic when I saw this! If you've ever tasted a Meyer Lemon, you'll understand where my joy comes from. They aren't sour/tart like Eureka or Lisbon lemons--those are the standard store-bought kind... They have this sweet, perfumy smell and flavor, and you can almost eat them like an orange. It's in a 5 gallon nursery pot right now, and the guy I bought it from at Western Garden Nursery said I should be able to keep in the pot for a year, then pot-up to the one I have it resting in.

Lastly, here is a view of the whole "garden." I took out most of my strawberry plants from the window boxes because they weren't being pollinated by bees, so the berries were tiny. I also planted these before I read about them, so I didn't plant them correctly and they ended up having a few issues. I kept the healthiest two which I replanted in the bottom box. I just want to see how they grow, and see if I can overwinter them successfully in the garage. I already have plans for next spring for a 4'x4' raised bed for strawberries--but that's a TOTALLY different post for another time! In the top box I planted some pretty groovy looking snapdragons and verbena. I used to have the "If I can't eat it, I'm not growing it" mentality, but my first season of gardening has taught me that having flowers around is quite beneficial. They help keep the bad bugs (blasted aphids) away, and attract the beneficial pollinator bugs (yay bees & butterflies). Hope you've enjoyed my garden update! Cheers.