October 2024 garden update
Fall is upon us! Happy Halloween! Leaves are changing color quickly, and the warm weather this week gave us all the bonus opportunity to enjoy beautiful Fall. My garden is slowing down, but carrots, spinach, and romaine lettuce are still growing strong - and so are my herbal tea herbs!
Need a healthy potion on Halloween? Check out my “good witch’s brew tea” recipe here.
Sunflower contest winner: If you didn’t see our winner post, I’m elated to share that our neighbor Willow (age 5) won our first annual Croton Kids Garden Sunflower Contest. Check out her sunflower here. Congratulations Willow!! Thank you to everyone who participated and sent me the most enthusiastic messages - it was so fun to grow edible flowers with you! Let’s do it again.
Garden content for all seasons:
In years past, my gardening activities have hibernated through the holidays and early winter before seed starting for Spring begins. This year is a bit different! I’ll be keeping the gardening and learning going throughout the cold season. Please check out and subscribe to my new YouTube channel and brand new Instagram. I’ve been creating gardening shorts daily - there’s a lot more to come; please send me suggestions for anything you want to learn about at alexandra@crotonkidsgarden.com. I’m also brewing up some ideas for more local classes in the cold season. More to come soon!
Tea harvests: I’ve been rapidly harvesting as much sage, tulsi (holy basil), anise hyssop, mountain mint, raspberry leaf, peppermint, chocolate mint, thyme, rosemary, and lemon balm as I can. I like to preserve herbal tea herbs for use all Fall and Winter using a dehydrator indoors, but this year, I’m also trying the ice cube method. Lots of my tea videos on Youtube.
Soon it will be just the beginning again - starting new annuals, watching perennials reappear!
Garlic soon:
2024 Garlic: I planted a generous crop of garlic last Fall, and I was rewarded with a beautiful summer harvest. I loved the garlic, but I equally loved harvesting, sharing, enjoying the garlic scapes that came out of it in early June. My 2024 garlic harvest video is here.
If you haven’t planned a garlic garden yet…it’s not too late for this year!
What to plant?
Garlic seed! Resist using garlic you have in the house from the grocery store - ideally, use organic garlic from a seed company. I’m planting Organic Italy Hill Giant Ivory Gardneck Garlic - can’t wait!
The seed company I buy from just changed their operations, but I’ve had success with other crop seeds from Hudson Valley Seed Company and have heard good things about High Mowing Seed company in Vermont. Love another regional seed company? Let me know! Always want to test new seeds.
When to plant? With these warmer temperatures we’ve had, best to wait on planting garlic. I always follow the plant between Halloween and Thanksgiving mantra. Last year, I planted on November 4 which worked well - every year is different! Follow my YouTube and Instagram for garlic planting instructions in next few weeks.
Greens for Fall and Winter: This year I focused on some simple greens - cold-resistant butterflay spinach and flashy trout back romaine. I’m hoping to keep these going in the garden so I can have fresh greens in salads through these cold months - let’s see how long they grow! I’m finding the best cold frame/greenhouse setup to meet my gardening needs and help me achieve some all-season garden goals in 2025 - excited to find that perfect fit!
2024 Season Garden Wins:
It was a great garden season. I was traveling for much of July and got to see how much some garden planning, plant biodiversity in the garden, automatic watering, and mother nature’s touch can help the garden grow with no day-to-day maintenance. Click through below to see the plants in-action!
Ground cherries - I finally had luck growing these from seed in the garden! The plant really took over the garden bed, so I’m not positive I’ll grow again, but the tropical taste and perfect snack size might push me to go for it again in 2025, with a different location.
Circus peppers - I loved these! They are easy-to-grow, space-efficient, and delicious snacks for the whole family.
Summer sweetheart tomato - What a fantastic two-bite tomato! This was second year growing these in the garden, and my first year growing them with my Croton Kids Garden classes. Great in containers, great in the ground. Easy abundance and health.
August 2023 garden update
Welcome to our garden
Late August is here. What a growing season it has been, and more yet to come! In early August, we hosted our final Summer classes; it was a joy to keep our gardens growing together all summer.
Speaking of gardens…How are your gardens? How are your daily routines as we shift to Autumn?
^Summer sweetheart two-bite tomato and mountain pepper harvest
At this seasonal time of transition in our gardens and our family life, I took a few moments to remember (and capture!) all of the different types of plants we’ve started from tiny seeds in my classes this year. The number was astounding!
Here’s my quick list:
Garden vegetables and fruits:
Tomatoes: 3 types of cherry tomatoes. Summer sweetheart - a new hybrid two-bite cherry tomato - has been particularly prolific, disease-resistant, and amazing! See picture above.
Ground cherries: So light and tropical tasting! My kids’ favorite!
Lettuce: Many kinds! Flashy trout back romaine is my go-to lettuce; it’s heat- and cold-tolerant!
Spinach: Asian spinach recently; Butterflay will be planted in September for cool-weather growth and harvest.
Bush beans: Four varieties this year; Dragon’s tongue and Sequoia are our favorites. Beans are a go-to crop for us, as they’re easy-to-grow, forgiving, and perfect to eat right off of the plant.
Carrots: Compact carrots in containers and purple full-size carrots!
Cucumbers: I’m so impressed by how well ours our doing with very little supplemental watering, and lots of room to spread out.
Peas: We planted sugar snap peas and shelling peas this year. They are easy to plant, they “fix” their own nitrogen and help improve your soil, and the compact varieties are quick-to-grow and delicious in Spring and Fall.
Peppers: Mountain peppers for the win this season. See picture above.
^Freshly-cut herbal tea bouquet from our garden (echinacea, mountain mint, peppermint, chocolate mint, lemon balm, anise hyssop, and tulsi (holy basil). Perfect in the vase, then straight to the teapot for brewing.
Herbs
Ginger!: It’s our first year, and I am so looking forward to that first sight and bite of baby ginger when I harvest in early October pre-frost. Will keep you all posted!
Anise Hyssop: Fantastic licorice smell and taste.
Lemon Balm: You guessed it, lemon!
Basils: Genovese, Tulsi (Holy) Basil, Gaeta
Mint: Chocolate, Peppermint, Mountain mint (Such pretty delicate flowers)
Feverfew
Chives
Chamomile
Sage: We see so many different colors when we make it into tea - sometimes more yellow or a rosy pink.
Echinacea: With a healthy dose of compost from my composting worms, my five echinacea plants had a major growth spurt in their second year; they’re now taller than me!
With just a bit of incremental planning and time in the dirt in the next few weeks, you can keep enjoying your harvests well into Fall. Who knows? Perhaps the best is yet to come. A few weeks ago we planted our last succession of compact peas, and I already see great summer growth on the plants.
What’s next for us? Next we’ll focus on cold-hardy butterfly spinach in September and garlic planting in October-November. I’ll also be trying to plant Mache (New York Corn Salad) for the first time in my home garden. I’ve learned that this plant can overwinter, so I will plant it somewhere where it won’t be disturbed.
As I type I hear the sounds of crickets marking the season. Enjoy all the late summer and early Fall days ahead.
Happy harvesting!
— Alexandra