Thursday, September 23, 2010

Garden Journal 9/23/10: Busy, Busy and Another Raised Bed Seeded for Fall

Bumblebee on Sedum Autumn Joy
The bumblebees and I both love sedum autumn joy, which darkens in color as the season progresses.

Realization of the Day:
Okay, so it's probably going to take me months, rather than weeks, to get through that ambitious list I recently shared of upcoming blog post topics. But you knew that already, didn't you?

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Garden Journal 9/14/10: How To Grow Asian (Oriental) Greens for Fall by Direct Seeding

Asian greens in the kitchen garden 10-10-06
Asian greens ready to be thinned and eaten on 10-10-06

Realization of the Day:
I don't think the little thrill over seeing tiny seeds sprout up out of the soil will ever go away. At least I hope it won't.

Realization #2:
I've grown a lot of fall vegetables over the years that I've completely forgotten about. Thank goodness I did remember to take pictures of them—or at least of some of them.

Okay, so summer is finally winding down, and gardeners everywhere are busy packing away their garden tools, preparing their beds for winter, and already thinking about next spring. If it's been a good year in your garden, you're also hopefully still picking delicious, vine-ripened bounty.

But what you should also be doing is starting a few fall crops. And this isn't as daunting—or exhausting—as it sounds.

Thursday, September 09, 2010

Garden Journal 9/9/10: Dealing with a Doodlebug, I'm on Twitter (sort of), and What's Coming Up

Molly Doodlebug basking in the greenhouse heat
My favorite kind of garden pest: cute, cuddly, and prefers meat over vegetables.

Realization of the Day:
I started tweeting but forgot to tell you.

Since I'm always behind replying to e-mail and comments (thanks for your patience!), not to mention garden blogging in general, tweeting isn't such a good idea for me. But for the last several months I've been announcing each new blog post on Twitter—mostly on time, though sometimes I still forget to do it. You'll find In My Kitchen Garden on Twitter here, and Farmgirl Fare here.

This summer has seen record number of In My Kitchen Garden visitors (welcome, new readers!), and I couldn't be happier. It seems gardens—and gardeners—are sprouting up everywhere, and about 20,000 inquisitive growers are finding their way here each month. Between that and our recent slight drop in temperatures (at last) I'm so inspired, both in the garden and on this garden blog.

My new goal is to write shorter posts, and post a lot more often. Summer may be winding down, but there's still all sorts of stuff going on in the garden, and always so much to share. Before we know it, the seed catalogs will be arriving! These are some of the things I'm planning to write about in the coming weeks: