Plucking and Planting: Late August in the Urban Garden

The Lord blessed us with a great year in our little urban garden! We have enriched the soil with worm castings for the first time, eaten our first watermelon, picked dozens of zucchini, experimented with companion planting, grown our first heirloom tomatoes, enjoyed the wonder of homegrown potatoes, savored fresh green beans, had smoothies packed with back-yard-chard ( Swiss Chard!)...not to mention  experienced countless moments of joy in watching little seeds turn into plants, and then into food.  I absolutely love gardening.  As a result, this time of year, the "plucking up" time, is always a bit depressing.  No more daily watering; no more puttering around in the dirt and sunshine;no more lush greenery when I step out my back door and when  I pull up into our parking place.  *sigh* 

Cherry tomatoes...a huge hit this year!  We acquired 7 bushes at 50 cents (!) each from a local grower.( Thanks, Mom!)  Lots of yummy homemade salsa this summer!

Lillian Yellow heirloom tomatoes. I purchased one plant from a local back-yard grower for  one dollar.  This has been the best producing full-size tomato plant this summer. In fact, I still have about 8 tomatoes ripening!  These are tasty and are quite beautiful when dried in the dehydrator! 

We didn't have one problem with disease with any of our heirloom tomatoes this year.   The Lillian Yellow was planted with two varieties of basil, and directly beside four pepper plants.  All flourished, which makes companion planting worth trying again, in my opinion!

 Well, this year I am being proactive about dealing with the no-garden-anymore- blues. I am reading all I can about fall gardening in our zone and the news is good! While I have grown both lettuce and Swiss Card in the fall and winter before, I am going to try it on a much larger scale this year.  I already have 18 cups of seedlings adorning my kitchen window sills! Hopefully, I can put these out as full plants when I am also putting our new seed and have a "staggered" crop this year. I purchased seed from a local "feed and seed" store and have been very impressed with how quickly they have sprouted indoors.  I spent three dollars on three scoops of seed and will be thrilled if I can provide an entire fall's worth of greens for my family from our garden!  I am also reading all about greenhouses.  Starting plants from seed in those chilly no-gardening months...hmmm.... :)

a tiny squash...but he grew it himself!!!

This post is linked to The Homestead Barn Hop. Come on over and see what other gardeners are writing about!

You can join me at Raising Homemakers and Far Above Rubies ( click image below) for their link-ups as well!