First Fall Garden {Former Chicken Yard}

 Back in September we planted beets, swiss chards, carrots, radishes, kale and green beans in the former chicken yard. We were afraid that since this yard was recently vacated by our 8 girls that there might be too much nitrogen in the dirt. 

Well, the radishes, swiss chard and kale and doing wonderful, in fact they exceeded any expectations exceeded any previous time we’ve planted them. Baker Creek seeds really do provide very good seeds, and we couldn’t be more pleased with the results of these three crops. 

Kale surrounded by tomato plants

From Left to Right: radishes, carrots, swiss chard and beets

The beets and carrots however, did not fare as well. They did get big beautiful tops, but did not provide much in the form of beets or carrots to eat. We were afraid that this was going to happen with these 2 crops, but it was definitely worth the shot. We did learn a lesson and you can’t learn without trial and error. 

When we pull the garden, we will share what we ended up doing with everything. I believe that they will all be blanched for the most part, but I’ve also heard a lot about kale chips and I wanted to try to make some of those.  {the carrot tops already made it into the composted}

The green beans really did climb well, but they haven't produced any beans to date.

Oh yes, lets not forget about our volunteer tomatoes in the former chicken yard. We have several that have blossoms on them. Once all the other crops are pulled we will put them in tomato cages and cover them so they can be in a sort of greenhouse. Hopefully we won’t need to plant any tomatoes this coming spring, just depends upon if they end up being indeterminate tomatoes or determinate.

Bottom left is our Kale and behind the tomato was our little radish patch.

M & S

Uptown Grange