Tuesday Garden Update: Early October 2011

Hi, and thanks for stopping by! After a welcome fall rain shower this morning, I'd like to share what's happening in our garden now.

A lot has changed in our garden since the last time I posted about it. Many, many tomatoes have been harvested (we have about 5 gallons of sauce in the freezer right now, not to mention the many batches of tomato soup, pasta sauce and pizza sauce that never made it to storage!), as well as about 45 pounds of acorn squash currently in the basement! In addition we've harvested much parsley and basil which we've used fresh and dried, not to mention the snow peas, beets, carrots, eggplant, and peppers we've enjoyed.

But fall is upon us, and it's time for the winter garden. I'm excited to get some broccoli and cabbage in, as well as some more snow peas, carrots, parsnips, spinach, beets, and lettuce. Here's a view of the bed we planted last week (with lots of help from my husband, who did all the hard work!). Looking at this picture, from front to back there are carrots, parsnips (yes I read AFTER these were planted that carrots and parsley should not be planted next to each other... we'll see how it works out!), spinach, lettuce mix, broccoli, and finally kale. As of today, the kale, spinach, and lettuce seeds are sprouting, the broccoli transplants are doing well, but no sign of the carrots or parsnips (yet!).

I've also got more broccoli and cauliflower seeds started, as well as cabbage seeds sprouting, waiting for space in the other beds.

In the other beds, we're waiting for tomatoes to finish up. Checking on them today, I found a couple visitors to our flowers -- some Skipper butterflies.

How is your garden doing? If you've planted a winter garden, please add a link in the comments!