Fat Bear Fall Garden: It Actually Happened

We've been incredibly busy these last few months, and I din't  see how we could possibly have the time to plant a fall kitchen garden.  It always takes more time than I expect to clean up beds, hoe, plant, mulch, and then do garden magic on all this stuff.  But, it has happened, and I have to give Ben most of the credit for this one. When he had a few spare moments, Ben hoed up some vacant beds and spread manure on them.  By the time he was done, all I had to do was sprinkle on some seeds and do a little dance over them.

We have added arugula, kale, spinach, chard, beets, broccoli, carrots, and lettuce to the kitchen garden.  I planted beets four different times, and the first ones are almost ready.  I can't even believe it!  I did two plantings of broccoli, and the first set is struggling from a caterpillar issue.  The younger broccolis seem a little more vigorous.

Nasty little green caterpillars are colonizing my poor broccoli.  What's a girl to do?

We had great beets this spring, and this latest set is also doing very well.  These fall beets actually seem to be maturing faster than their predecessors.

It's great to have garden fresh salads again.  The chickens are also happy that lettuce has returned to the menu.

Our very late tomatoes are alive and almost producing.  We'll see...

Beets and carrots; with their powers combined, they can't be beat. 

A raised bed of Earliglow.

We had several crowns leftover from our high tunnel strawberry project.  I managed to get all of the extras into the garden this fall.  I also transplanted several runners from the strawberries that were already growing in the kitchen garden.  In all, I think we have about 250 strawberry plants in the kitchen garden right now.  All of them should be ready for harvest next spring, and I couldn't be more thrilled.

In addition to all of the stuff recently planted, our peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, herbs, and strawberries from the summer are still producing.  We have a very happy kitchen.