Fall Garden Plans & Overview

It's been a long time since I've shown any photos of the garden as a whole and what is going on there. Since I did some work to prepare for fall crops this past weekend, I took some photos so I could give a tour.

Here's the bed with all the warm weather crops.
As you can see, the tomatoes have no foliage left on the lower half of the plants. The cherry and green zebras are holding their own against the early blight, and two of the heirlooms are putting out lots of new growth at the top with a few green tomatoes. I'm going to let them hang on and see if we can at least get green tomatoes from them. The romas look the worst, and have stopped putting out growth. I'm just waiting for the last three fruit to ripen. The empty spots in the bed are where the zucchini and green beans were. I harvested 1 zucchini this year from 3 plants. They had leaf mold and were still only putting out male blossoms so I pulled them. The kale is looking great at the back of the bed, but we're a little tired of it at the moment. Two peppers are at the front of the bed. One just finally bloomed a few weeks ago and is only starting to develop fruit. I think I'll be trying to bring these inside to see if we can get the peppers to ripen off them. The cucumbers didn't get enough sun, they were shaded by the beans which were in front of them. They didn't climb nearly as high as I thought they might. They may still give a few more cucumbers so I'm letting them hang on until frost.

My other bed looks lush and green in comparison. This is where I'm planning on putting my cold frame in a few weeks to protect winter greens and to see how long I can continue to harvest. Here is a closer look at some of the things in this bed. On the near side, I have swiss chard, carrots, & winterbor kale.
I've also started Italian Dandelion (Chicory), though something snacked on it when I forgot to plug in the electric fence.
Under the Italian Dandelion, I seeded mache which is supposed to be very winter hardy. Near the carrots, I seeded claytonia, another hardy salad green.

In the middle of the bed, I transplanted tatsoi, arugula, & broccoli raab (not pictured).

I also have some fall kohlrabi, which I started from seeds earlier in June and transplanted in mid-July. It is starting to create the small stem swelling that you eat.
I planted sorrel from seed this spring because it is supposed to be a hardy perennial and it is now looking like it is big enough that we can harvest some. I've tasted a leaf and it is very lemony. I found a recipe for sorrel soup that we might try.
At the very end of the bed, I have tatsoi, freckles romaine, and a mesclun mix that are all doing very well, though they won't entirely be within the cold frame when the time comes.
The only thing planted in this bed that isn't frost hardy is the basil in the far back corner. The whole bed won't quite fit under the cold frame when the time comes, so the basil wouldn't be included anyways. In summary, here is the list of hardy greens and other crops that I'm planning on having under the cold frame:

• Winterbor Kale
• Italian Dandelion (Italiko Rosso Chiccory)
• Quarantina Broccoli Raab
• White Vienna Kohl Rabi
• Claytonia
• Verte de Cambrai Mache
• Mizuna Japanese Mustard
• Swiss Chard (semi hardy)
• Purple Haze & Chantenay Red Core Carrots
• Arugula
• Tatsoi
• Broad Leaved Sorrel

It should be an interesting experiment to see which crops survive with the protection of our cold frame.