There’s something interesting about the garden this time of year. Summer isn’t completely gone, but fall has already started making itself at home.
Right now, Haven Harvest is somewhere in between.
Some of my summer plants are still hanging on and producing, while other beds have already been cleared and replanted for the cooler months. I’m learning that gardening doesn’t always have a clear beginning and ending. Sometimes one season simply grows into the next.
Making Room for the Fall Garden
For my fall garden, I’ve planted collard greens, spinach, cabbage, carrots, beets, and onions.
After a summer filled with tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, peppers, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and plenty of lessons, it feels good to see another round of seedlings and vegetables taking their place.
I especially love growing greens during the cooler months. Collards are already a regular part of the way I cook, and spinach is something I can use in everything from smoothies and tofu scrambles to soups and pasta dishes.
The carrots, beets, cabbage, and onions will require a little more patience, but patience is becoming one of the things this garden continues to teach me.
You plant something. You care for it. You wait.
And sometimes it grows exactly the way you expected.
Sometimes it doesn’t.
Either way, you learn something.
Summer Isn’t Finished Yet
Even while I’m planting for fall, a few members of the summer garden aren’t ready to leave.
I still have bell peppers and habanero peppers growing, along with my peanuts and sunchokes.
The sunchokes have been particularly fun because they’re one of the perennial crops I’m adding as I slowly work toward creating a garden that doesn’t have to be completely replanted every year.
I’m also waiting to see what my peanut plants have been doing underneath the soil all this time. That’s one of the funny things about growing root crops—you spend months caring for a plant without really knowing what’s happening underneath.
Eventually, you just have to dig and find out.
Taking the Garden to the Deck
I’m also experimenting with another growing space: my deck.
I’ve started working on growing herbs there, which will hopefully give me easy access to fresh herbs for cooking while also allowing me to make use of a space that wasn’t producing food before.
One of my long-term goals for Haven Harvest has been to look at my entire property differently.
Instead of asking, Where can I put a garden?
I’m beginning to ask, Where can I grow food?
A raised bed can grow vegetables. A container can grow herbs. A deck can become another little growing area. Fruit trees and berry bushes can become part of the landscape.
It doesn’t all have to happen at once.
Learning to Grow Through the Seasons
Every season in this garden has taught me something.
I’ve learned what I planted too close together. I’ve learned which vegetables thrive here and which ones struggle. I’ve learned that some plants will surprise me, some will disappoint me, and some will produce far more food than I know what to do with.
And now I’m learning how to extend the growing season instead of packing everything away once summer ends.
My ultimate vision for Haven Harvest is still the same: to create a productive little ecosystem around my home that provides a meaningful portion of the food my family eats.
I’m nowhere near finished.
But when I look outside and see summer peppers growing beside beds filled with fall vegetables—and herbs beginning on the deck—I can see that vision taking shape a little more each season.
For now, I’ll keep planting, experimenting, harvesting, and learning.
Because apparently, there really isn’t an “end” to gardening.
There’s just the next season.
— Lulu
