Spring Out & Fall In

I've always preferred a fall/winter garden over a spring/summer one. The reasons are simple. First off, gardening is a much more pleasant activity in south Louisiana during the cool fall and winter months than during the warm, hot, and humid spring and summer. Also, there are fewer insect pests and fewer weeds to deal with during the cooler weather making maintenance much less. And last but not least, my favorite vegetables are broccoli and cauliflower which seem to do best in fall Louisiana weather.

The front-end work effort in getting the Fall garden ready is the toughest part of fall gardening. Clearing out the older spring and summer vegetables and tilling up the soil takes a fair amount of time, particularly for a 2000 plus square foot garden. The weather in August and early September can be quite hot and humid for the initial garden prep. It definitely helps when the there is a temperature and/or humidity drop on an early cool front. However, this is not something that happens too often in August and early September. Plus, when a pleasant period does occur, it's usually not on the "free-time" days available for gardening activity - some of us still have "regular" jobs and need to work. Secondly, it doesn't help much when the temperature and humidity cooperate following a heavy rain, as this makes the ground too wet for clearing and re-tilling. Nonetheless, if one wants to partake of the fall veges then one needs to do the up-front work required regardless of the obstacles.
The first clearout and re-tilling has now been completed. About half of the garden space is now available for the fall broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and cabbage. The plants grown from seed planted in August and early September are slowly ready to set out in the garden. By early October about 180 of these plants will have been transplanted into the fall garden. Many folks have indicated that this number is more than necessary. But we do have lot of family and friends who enjoy the harvest. I was just reminded by my daughter Mitsie that my 3 year old grandson Benjamin LOVES broccoli. Hopefully his younger brother Carter will come to enjoy this fall vegetable. (So I surely need to compensate for this - So what do you think, Mitsie? Is an extra 25 plants OK for the boys?) I have also learned over the years that overplanting is a safeguard to compensate for when mother nature is not quite as good to us as she has been in years past.
The 2nd garden clearout was completed early October. This area will be allocated to strawberries, radishes, lettuce and spinach, which are planted in October. Strawberries planted in the fall are harvested the following spring. So I guess strawberries would be classified as a fall-planted spring-crop. The final clearout will coincide digging of the last 2 rows of peanuts during October. Love those boiled peanuts! This remaining area will be dedicated to onions.

The third week of September had started a trend where low temperatures dipped into the upper 50's thereby signaling the start of serious fall gardening weather. Soon after the temperature highs were back into upper 80's. But one would think that the high humidity and 90 degree plus days were on the way out thereby making the second October garden clearout more tolerable than the first. It didn't happen. With high humidity and temperatures in the 90's, the second clearout was almost as brutal as the first.

But the garden "spring-out" and "fall-in" is essentially complete. All but about 20 or so broccoli and cauliflower plants have been set out. It's time to sit back, do a bit of maintenance, and just watch 'em grow. .. and they really NEED to grow this year. For I surely don't want to dissapoint my grandsons.