Planting the Fall Garden

 Do any of you keep a journal? None of us has ever been faithful at journaling except for a garden journal we've been keeping for over 20 years! It has really helped us stay on track and remember plantings and harvests from year to year. Methods that worked, things that didn't. Sometimes we jot down other homestead happenings too!
Thought y'all may like to read an entry from our garden journal (in italics) from earlier this month.
Check out the SUPER Savings SALE going on in the shop!
Enjoy!

August 23rd
Planted out the Spaghetti Squash (sown July 29th) in the kitchen garden this afternoon. It takes 95 days till harvest & there are 60 days to the first expected frost (Oct. 15th) but we may not have a frost so soon and be able to harvest a few squash! The starts look amazing! Mom has been faithfully putting them in the dappled morning sunlight and then bringing them back inside the cool house or into the shade if the days are nice. Not everything germinated and we still want to sow more! Reading past entries has encouraged me that there's still a lot of time left for late summer harvests and fall gardening! So, we have Arugula, Dill, Kale, Cilantro, Cherry Tomatoes and a few lettuces, sown on July 29th. 

In the next few days we plan on starting more lettuces, radishes, beets and lots of greens! These will be sown directly in the garden beds!
So if you haven't sown any seeds yet there's still time! Especially if you use row cover or have a green house, hoop house or row cover! 

 The Moon Flower vine (the lone one that germinated) bloomed last evening for the first time! Its delicate fragrance drifts on the breeze, so lovely!
The bell pepper plants in the back garden are lush and beautiful and while they haven't made any huge peppers or turned red yet we have been picking a few green ones as needed and they are loaded with fruit and blooms!
This morning I picked 7 tomato horn worms off the peppers and cherry tomato plants. There was one smaller worm but on closer inspection I noticed it was covered with  little, white braconid wasp larva, yay! That one I left as the larva will kill the worm AND help with next seasons pests!
The Goji Berries are ripening and I've been putting them in smoothies and drying a few in the car along with elderberries and other herbs. The Goji plant out by the driveway died back mid summer then started leafing out again and  is just now starting to bloom. Strange, but glad it's not dead! Another report on Solo (our Rooster) he flies over the back garden fence and eats the Goji berries AND Cherry Tomatoes! It's his morning routine! So mine will be to chase him away, check for more horn worms and pick berries!
Still picking Lamb's Quarter, Plantain, Red Clover Flowers, Morning Glory Leaves, Apple Mint, Passion flowers and leaves for our green smoothies and tea! Especially happy for the latter, Mom found little plants in the wild and  transplanted them under our kitchen garden trellis' and they are growing so well and producing flowers and leaves for our relaxing teas! The fruit is abundant too and we hope to make something tasty with them and will be sure to throw the seeds back and pray for more plants so we can have enough to use fresh and harvest some to dry for next year! So thankful for these prolific plants and wild weeds! 
Our Red Raspberry harvest was quite small- 12 berries total, the chickens found a few but they just didn't produce well. But we have harvested leaves for tea and have them drying in the car. 
Now the hillside alongside the house and garden is covered with Black-eyed Susans! One advantage of not mowing is enjoying all the different flora and fauna of the seasons. The bees love it too!
Very thankful for the rain we got last night- (it was pretty dry) and heard more is on the way! 

It did indeed rain for a couple of more days and now we are enjoying some nice, humid free days, which is rare for Tennessee  summers! That's why the car is the best place to dry herbs and berries!
Hope y'all are enjoying these last days of summer and are encouraged to sow some seeds!!
For the next few weeks we are running our biggest SALE ever! Take advantage of these super savings (plus FREE shipping) for a limited time only! 
Many Blessings,
​The west ladies