The vegetable garden is certainly winding down, but it’s not to be dismissed just yet as several fall crops are making good progress towards delicious autumn harvests. Actually, fall produce is among my favorite. Beets, butternut squash and rutabaga really revv up my internal engine when it’s getting chilly outside. Soups, warm salads, and roasted everything…. I don’t know if I have the patience to wait for all these crops to mature!
At the moment, I have young cauliflower seedlings struggling to get going. I’ve never had any real success with growing cauliflower and I’ve read and heard from others that it’s a tough crop, but I thought I’d give it a go since I had so much empty space in my plot this year. Nearby are the very large and very ugly stems of the rutabaga that have been in the ground for almost two months now. They seem to always be stressed but the plants have made it much farther along this year than they did last so I have some small hope of getting those delicious swollen orange roots to eat. Also coming along is a mixed planting of several carrot varieties. Fall carrots are perfection for me – a sweet and healthy treat! The butternut squash vines were taking a big hit from cucumber beetles and squash bugs but with a little layering early on, they seemed to have outgrown the damage and are bearing nearly 15 squash between the two plants. Hopefully they’ll all make it to maturity without mishap. The radishes are nearly ready while the beets are just beginning to make their stand in the four short rows I sowed two weeks ago.
