The summer isn’t half way over and temperatures reached triple digits today but I’ve already begun planning and planting my fall vegetable garden. Last week I sowed seeds of rutabagas, turnips, and various kale varieties directly into an empty raised bed.

The garden is shaping up nicely as I continue to direct seed and transplant summer vegetables into the raised beds. The leafy spring greens that were harvested beginning in March are finished producing and have been removed from the garden to make room for summer crops. One reddish tinged wild kale plant was left behind in the garden to produce seed.

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It has been so dry that I resorted to watering the garden last weekend after planting parsnip, salsify, turnip, spinach, and kale seeds. I also transplanted a few heirloom lettuce, spring broccoli, and Swiss Chard plants out into the garden.

It’s finally warming up and feeling more spring like here in the Eastern part of the U.S. There are also more and more green vegetable plants and herbs springing up from the garden.
The garlic and shallots are already over six inches tall and growing quickly. Kale, collards, spinach, and mustard greens that were planted last fall and remained [...]

I’ve been noticing more and more clues that indicate spring is quickly arriving to my Central Pennsylvania, Zone 6 vegetable garden.
Of course it will be another six to eight weeks before I feel comfortable about planting any cold sensitive crops in the open garden. But the vegetable growing season has started and here are a few [...]

Well I don’t know about you but I think that I’m about ready to pull the trigger and get a few seeds in the ground… indoors of course. It’s still winter outside and the forecast includes continued cold weather and the possibility of snow, but it’s getting close enough to spring to start a few [...]

My hopes for an early arrival of spring suffered a setback this weekend. Freezing temperatures and seven inches of snow have a way delivering a dose of reality to the vegetable gardener looking forward to spring gardening activities. It could have been a lot worse though, neighboring areas received three or four times the amount of snowfall that [...]