Fall Planting, Part 1

Yesterday I went to a class on winter vegetable planting at my local nursery.  It was interesting, but I would have been better off spending the time actually gardening.  So, today I had a chance to actually plant some.  I used some of our finished compost and some of our home-grown worm castings to amend the soil.  I planted a Mesclun lettuce mix in the raised bed.  While there, I transplanted some impatiens that were self-seeding in my chives and gave them their own pot. 

In a separate area of the garden, I turned DS loose with four packets of old flower seeds that needed  to be planted or thrown out: pansies, sweet william, forget-me-nots, and an "annual cut flower mix" that some realtor left on our doorstep.  These seed packets ranged in age from 1993-2006.  Do you think anything will sprout?

Near our amaranth I put in some more carrots (carnival blend and scarlet nantes) and beets (Detroit dark red).  Also planted some white globe purple top turnips - my first attempt at turnips.  Using some shallots that I purchased from the grocery store for $1 million per pound, I divided those up and put them in.  Flat side down, covering the tips with dirt.  If all 7 grow, that will reduce the per pound price I paid.

I hope to find a nice spot for a variety of peas - maybe mid-October would be a good planting time for them around here.  It is still 90 degrees today and supposed to be triple digits this week, so no peas yet.  I still need to harvest more worm castings from the bin and distribute the rest of it.  We also have plenty of compost to spread around.  I'd like to put some under the citrus.

And this week we scored a few more bags of Starbucks coffee grounds.  DH has to borrow FIL's shredder so that we can chip up the yard trimmings that we have waiting.  Once those go into the bin, we'll fluff in the coffee grounds and kitchen scraps and it'll start cooking.

Today I harvested some cowpea green beens to steam for dinner.  Yum!  DH had some fresh basil on his tomato and cheese GF sandwich.  DD had some of the nectarine puree that I made from our tree this summer.