Our Fall Garden... or Lack Thereof

Our garden this summer was awesome.  It produced as much as we could eat on a weekly basis, but no more (unlike the okra in our garden the first year... literally coming out of our ears for weeks).  We finally had yellow zucchini and squash, which didn't come up at all in our first year of gardening.  Our compost experiment seemed to work out for the better, with all of our plants responding quicker and with more fruit than last year.  Like I said:  awesome.

I was so excited to plant for fall, just knowing that our success would carry into another season.  We counted backward from Georgia's average frost date, October 15, and decided to plant the first weekend in August.  I was so hopeful.  Until, that is, nothing happened.  [Forgive the lighting in these photos-- morning fall light definitely isn't as warm as summer morning light.]

Our peas came up almost immediately, which was a relief.  Cute little plants compared with our massive tomato plant in the same row.  But the Swiss chard, squash, and lettuce came up and immediately wilted, and the carrots and cilantro never even peaked their heads above ground.  Enter the Debbie Downer soundtrack here.

Fortunately, though, we're still enjoying a handful of tomatoes each week, and maybe I'll make some fried green tomato sandwiches before the plant frosts over.

And our marigolds, both from plant and from seed, have really been shining the last few months.  Check out the deep red of our marigolds from seed, hanging out in the tomato plants.  Beautiful.

Our basil really grew a ton, though, and I made some yummy pesto (which we ate last night for dinner!).

I'm not quite sure what we did wrong this time, but hopefully once spring comes again we'll have another beautiful garden to show off on the blog.  Until then, let's pray we'll get at least two peas in this harvest.  For now, we're enjoying our beautiful cosmos.

Tell me about your successful, plentiful fall gardens.  Who out there is enjoying homegrown salads with lettuce and carrots?  I have to tell you, I'm jealous.

P.S.  I updated our Garden page a tad.  Take a look!