Fall Vegetable Gardening Failures

Maybe I am not cut out for Fall vegetable gardening. I am not sure I have the right personality for it.

I am a bit of a procrastinator. Or, perhaps a nicer way to put it is, I spend a lot of time thinking before I actually get to the doing.

That is not as much of a problem in the Spring. First, I am so excited to finally get outside again, I can’t wait to get to planting. And, if for some reason, I am slow to get moving, I have a lot of time ahead of me. Who cares if the peppers go in a couple weeks late? There is still plenty of growing season left and I will get my peppers sooner or later.

Not so with Fall gardening. Now, I am racing against time. Get the plants in the ground early enough so that you can harvest before the first major frost. If you delay a couple of weeks, you better hope for a late frost.

In early August, I decided I needed to start thinking about my fall garden. By then, I was already overdue to plant broccoli and some other plants. Oh well, no matter, I don’t really like broccoli that much anyway. So I put together a list of vegetables I would plant. On that list was peas, which I have never grown, but my husband loves.

So on the day that the peas are to go into the ground, I go to my local nursery. Guess what? The middle of August is not the best time to buy vegetable seeds. So no peas this year.

Still, I planted lots of spinach, some lettuce and some radishes.

Last year, I also tried a Fall garden. The seeds would sprout, but then would die because of the brutal August heat combined with not enough watering (the mature plants were fine, but the seedlings were much more sensitive).

Now we get to my second personality defect – laziness. I can water the garden once a day, but more than that? I just don’t have it in me. And these little seeds need more than that. Unlike last year, the seeds didn't even seem to sprout (except the radishes – thank goodness for radishes). After a couple of weeks, it was clear that they weren't going sprout. So what happened? Laziness and procrastination got together and let things go for a couple more weeks.




Finally, this weekend, I decided to try starting the seeds indoors. I had all the supplies, so there was no reason not to wait so long, but….

When I looked at the planting charts again, I realized I have now missed the window for lettuce, and so now, I am down to planting spinach. My hope is to grow the seedlings inside for a few weeks and then transplant them. It will be my last chance at a fall vegetable crop this year.



Wish me luck.