The summer season has drawn to a close. The air is crisper, the days are shorter, and the leaves are gearing up for their brilliant display here in East Tennessee. Autumn is a wonderful reminder to all of us that it is a good thing to welcome a little change into our lives.
This time of year in the community garden realm, we typically see what I have heard called the “September blues” – our crops are tired out, and so are the gardeners. Once past the height of harvest season, interest in the gardens tends to slow down to a trickle, and gardeners’ participation in the effort is almost directly proportional to the plants’. Typically, John and I would fall into this category, as we had always seen gardening as an exclusive Spring and Summer activity. But this year we had decided to switch things up. Since the garden had been so successful this summer, we thought, “Why not try to continue it for the fall?”
When you look at the reasons for why you should do a fall garden, it really just makes sense. Extending the garden season increases your annual harvest yield. The cooler weather means you will have to water less often. Additionally, there are fewer pests in cooler weather, although I currently have some cabbage worms eating my collards as I type this.
For the new season, we wanted to switch up where we sourced our seeds and seedlings. Since growing your own food is all about reducing the journey your food takes from seed to plate, I looked for a seed company that not only offered varieties that I was interested in growing but also was located a little closer to East Tennessee.
We are exciting to get growing with Hoss Tools (hosstools.com)
Hoss Tools is located in South Georgia, a mere six hours from us.
We are growing the following varieties from seed from Hoss:
Collards – Top Bunch
Kohlrabi – Purple Vienna
Peas – Oregon Sugar Pod
Radish – Cherry Belle
Beet – Early Wonder
Aside from seeds, Hoss offers some handy garden tools, including cutting edge wheel hoes, as well as a serious YouTube channel that you should check out!
For our seedlings, we shopped even closer and supported Beardsley Community Farm (http://www.beardsleyfarm.org), a community farm on the former grounds of Knoxville College Farm, that offers opportunities for learners and gardeners of all ages and levels of experience. Beardsley is doing meaningful work in the Knoxville area. They grow over 100 varieties of fruits and vegetables and donate over 10,000 pounds of produce every year.
We purchased the following seedlings at their fall plant sale:
Kale – Red Russian
Rapini
Cauliflower
Cabbage – Napa
Finally, we are growing the final veggies from seeds we had left in our seed stash:
Broccoli – Romanesco
Peas – Organic Shelling
We just got our seedlings in the ground this week, and our seeds (with the exception of the beets, radishes and some more kohlrabi) have been in the ground for the last several. We’ve even had our first two collard harvests! We can’t wait to share with you our first ever fall garden. Thanks for joining us on this journey together, and happy Autumn!
I really enjoyed this post and your thinking. Buying seedlings and plants grown locally is always better than purchasing those trucked in from who know where, and grown who knows how or with what! I try to buy locally whenever possible, and my first choice is from a family-run or community operated business rather than a big corporation. That’s important to me, too.