Fall Planting of Cole Crops

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Just because free fall is in the air , it does n’t intend that the gardening season is over . In fact , for some crop it has just begun . The Brassicas , which have been referred to as “ cole crops ” for centuries , love the cool fall weather in my Zone 7 garden . Plant them now , along with moolah and other salad greens , and delight them in the month to come . Before we get a hoarfrost , I cover them with floating course top , which protects them and gives a longer harvesting time of year .

It is the first workweek of September and we are still harvest tomatoes and peppers galore . Last week , we stab the potatoes – we only imbed one rowing this twelvemonth – so it is n’t a large craw . There are enough to meet the toboggan . I utilise the toboggan for ail and onion plant crop too . It is easy to drag about on the grass and right into the garden wherever we are digging , and there is lots of room to spread the green groceries out . Since the Allium have to bring around , I can move the heavy load about easy – under screening during the Nox so they do n’t get dew on them and no critters get into them – and back out under the shade Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree for good air circulation during the daylight .

Homegrown potatoes are sugared and tasty . After rinsing off most of the soil , we leave them overnight to dry out . Then we divide them into larger and smaller sizes and put them in cardboard boxes . The boxes are closed so that light source does not get in , yet there is raft of airspace . We stash away them in our cellar in the coldroom ; the nervelessness and dark help to store them longer , and keep them from sprout and/or turning green . If potatoes are queer to light , they will turn green – you should n’t use up the green part – so peel it off ; or if the whole murphy is fleeceable , put it in the compost . According to Anahhad O’Connor in the clause , The Claim : Green Potatoes Are Poisonous , written for the New York Times : “ The realism is that green white potato vine contain high levels of a toxin , solanine , which can cause sickness , headaches , and neurologic problem . ”

So the Solanum tuberosum were dug , leaving overturned earth space in the garden to plant the next crop . My neighbor , Denise Sharp , has a greenhouse stage business . She grows all sort of annuals and perennial , bed plants , heirloom vegetables and fruit , herbs , and flush from seeded player , and she takes ordering from local businesses , nurseries , farm stands , garden club , and establishment , and she grow flats of plants for them . She also sell retail ( www.sharpfarm.com ) . She grows out most of the herbaceous plant flora for the Potomac unit of the Herb Society of America ( of which I am a member ) for our very successful plant sales agreement and I am very fortunate to have her for a protagonist and gardening colleague . She let me start 20 different sort ofCalendulawhen it was Herb of the Year , and this preceding summertime we spring up out nine dissimilar dills , since it is Herb of the Year for 2010 . I had just see her recently and she let me recognize that she had plenty of the brassicas quick for transplant .

Yesterday , I went over and got a flat of assorted cellpacks – Brassica oleracea italica , three kinds of kale , cauliflower , collards , chard , and two type of moolah . This morning the moon was good for planting aboveground crop and it was full just after noon , so I needed to get them set before the moon changed to tooth root . So I used my garden rake to take down out the soil and get rid of extraneous skunk . Then I used my two - sided hoe ( which is one of my most - used garden dick ) to dig two dustup of alternating holes for the organ transplant . I added a mixing of aged compost , manure , and a little constituent plant food to each hole .

Then I sat on my rear terminal ( knee operating theater last November so I ’m not kneeling much ) and shoot along down the row as I plant each plant . I use my most favorite horticulture instrument for transplanting ; it is called a horihori and is also know as a Nipponese weeding knife . I launch the amendment into each

hole , then take the plant from the cellpack and tease up their rootballs so they can send roots out in all directions once they are in the earth . I lean to go out a slight clinical depression around each plant so that it holds the weewee when they are irrigate in . A nurseryman ’s dominion is never to transplant a works without watering it in right off . I had late plan , so I asked my hubby Tomaso to do this while I ran inside to shower down .

Next stop : IrelandI was converge my mom and my sister to go over our final path for Ireland . My other sister is flying in from Oregon tomorrow and we are heading off to theEmerald Isleon Monday for two whole hebdomad ! Needless to say , we are aroused . We have spend countless hours planning this trip-up ; my mom is half McCleary , so we are going in search of our roots , gardens , Guiness , food , amazing landscape , historic and natural sites , and more . There are more garden on my list than we can possibly see , piles of markets , some organic farms , peat bogs , the Burren , rock’n’roll formations , oceans and lakes , internal parks , and on and on …

They say we ’ll need raincoats and bang since we ’ll be mucking about and I ’d probably be ripe at home in my “ wellies , ” except as you’re able to see – they are quite worn ( about 12 or 15 class old)–they’ve fall behind their buckles and I used an inner - vacuum tube bandage to underwrite a slash that was letting water seep in . Also , they are a bit bulky to carry in my suitcase . I ordered a pair of “ Bog Boots ” that are quite jaunty and waterproof and come about mid - calf , so I am all set to go – well other than packing ! My program is to take tidy sum of photo and blog to you all from the route ( driving on the other side ! ) in Ireland . I hope that you will find that gardening report from Ireland are fun and exciting . I ’ll be in touch ; meanwhile if you have n’t put in your fall cole crops , you well get officious . I plan on feed quite a bit of Colcannon ( a lulu of mashed Solanum tuberosum machinate with chopped cooked kale or cabbage)–just what I have recently harvested and planted in my home garden – and I will be beam you a recipe for this traditional dish .

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