Fall Gardening – Planting Season

Adam Garden

Today we put in the fall garden,

Here in Houston, October is the first time it is cool enough to manage to grow anything green that goes in a salad. I’ve been gone the past 4 weekends in a row, so we finally managed to head to our favorite nursery, Buchanans Native Plants, to pick up some plants.

This year we didn’t make much effort at seedlings. We’ve failed pretty miserably 2 years in a row on growing our own, and to be honest, our garden isn’t big enough yet for that to be worth the effort. I spent a total of $160 at the nursery (minus $30 for pumpkins) so $130 on plants. That bought us 42 vegetable seedlings plus 2 lemongrass plants for the front.

Lots of greens for the fall

Lots of greens for the fall

 

We picked up:

  1.  Celery 
  2.  2x Root Celery
  3.  Mustard Greens (Regular, Florida Broadleaf, Red Streak, Southern Grant Curled)
  4.  Spinach (Regular, Corvair, Donkey x 2, Savoy)
  5.  Kale (Dwarf Siberian & White Russian)
  6.  2x Romaine Lettuce
  7.  2x Rubba (aka “Climbing Spinach”)
  8.  Swiss Chard
  9.  3x Bok Choy
  10.  Broccolini
  11.  Broccoli (Packman, 3x Green Magic, Santee)
  12. Cauliflower (Purple & “Cheddar”)
  13. Cabbage (Rio Verde, Chinese, Ruby Perfection, Copenhagen, Early Jersey)
  14. Brussels Sprouts (6x Long Island & 4x Jade Cross)
  15. 2x Serrano Peppers

While $130 sounds expensive, the amount of salads we should harvest from this is easily in 5x the cost of the plants. This is sustainability, responsibility, and smart personal finance at its best. Your food is cheaper and healthier than anything in a store, and it gets you outside in the sunshine and provides exercise. Plus there is something very soothing about digging your hands in the dirt and watching plants grow. It’s my own form of meditation.

Fall garden in Houston. Greens and salads

Laying out our garden beds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fall garden in Houston. Greens and salads

Fall garden in Houston. Greens and salads

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fall garden in Houston. Greens and salads

Laying out the plants. Fall garden in Houston.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fall garden in Houston. Greens and salads

Climbing Spinach

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fall garden in Houston. Greens and salads

Fully planted!