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On my kitchen windowsill is a bell jar filled with flowering broccoli left over in the garden. We haven’t been able to eat nearly as much as the plants have been putting out, and the lovely sunshine yellow flowers and purple tinged buds make for a sweet, quick, wildfloweresq bouquet.
Today I got to harvest the first florets from our broccoli plants. They’ve been growing since late August, maybe early September. And they have gotten to be absolutely humongous. I’ve never grown broccoli before, but I didn’t do anything special, except to put them into my favorite Lucky Frog soil. I bought Early Dividend starters at our local organic plants store and I’ve been so happy with these beautiful plants. One of the best things about them is that after the main head is harvested big side flowers will form. Keeping you in broccoli for weeks and weeks. I took some pictures of the raised bed so you can see how big they’ve gotten, next to them I’ve planted garlic, which will be covered with a thick layer of hay by the end of the weekend to protect the bulbs from frost.
I’ve started our fall planting, it always feels to early, as if planting these yummy vegetables beckons the winter to us, and quickens the end of these long southern summer days. Our summer vegetables were amazing, and I couldn’t keep up with them. Our friends were delighted, with the amount of tomatoes and peppers I’ve had to give away.
Our pepper plants have just hit there peak, producing sweet little orange peppers, and large yellow bells. But the true glory of the summer season was definitely our Roma tomato plants. I’d never grown Roma’s before and was shocked as I kept track of the pounds of tomatoes brought in through the season, we finished up with just under 28 pounds of tomatoes from one plant! They would probably still be going if it wasn’t for the humongous Tobacco Moth Caterpillars that devoured most of the plant before I was able to find them.
So for fall I’ve decided to add the great cold weather vegetables that we love to our peppers, purple basil, and regular basil. We have carrots, broccoli, kale, cauliflower, and once the frost hits and the peppers die back we’ll be adding garlic in as well. Don’t these little babies look yummy all ready!
Fall is a wonderful time to plant vegetables in your garden, the cooler weather makes the time spent out doors so much more enjoyable than during the hottest days of August. There’s a wonderful variety of vegetables that can be planted in the fall and they tend to taste better than there spring grown counterparts.
The Painted Rabbit 