One of the many things I love about living in South Louisiana is the fact that I can garden year round. In Canada, where I’m from, you have to plant everything in the spring (after what you hope is the last freeze) and you gather one big crop at the end of the summer. Here, in south Louisiana, we have spring, fall, and winter gardens, in which we plant different vegetables.
Pictured here is what I got out of my garden today. The tomatoes are a variety of grape tomatoes I tried for the first time this year. This one plant has been producing loads all summer long and it is still going. As for the bell peppers, I planted them in the spring but they got a very slow start (I’m not sure why). The plants now look good, are producing well, and will likely continue for another couple of months. Peppers and tomatoes are spring/summer crops here and the plants usually die with the first frost.
When we have more vegetables than what we can eat, we preserve them in several ways. Peppers are great as they can just be chopped and frozen in small quantities to use in recipes when needed. Tomatoes can be canned in jars to use in spaghetti sauce or any tomato based sauce.
Below is one of my fall/late summer tomato plants, which are now starting to have small fruits in them. This is my second time trying fall tomatoes and I wasn’t very successful the first time. We shall see!
In the next 3-4 weeks, I will start planting my winter garden and if everything goes well, we will have fresh vegetables from late December to April. Winter vegetables that I plant include carrots, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, and spinach. When I plant my vegetables, I always look at the Farmer’s almanac first to see which days are good. To tell you the truth, I don’t know that it really works, but old time gardeners here follow the almanac and I’m just not willing to try another way, just in case…
The best days to plant in October this year are 1, 2, 28, 29, 30 for above ground crops, and 10, 11 for below ground crops. If you live in the south and you haven’t tried gardening yet, you should. It does take a little bit of time and work but the rewards are great and it is a great relaxing activity (sure helps me keep my sanity). If you have a garden and are willing to share your secrets, I’m all ears!
