Changing This Kitchen Garden From Summer to Fall Planting

Today it is time to change this garden over from summer planting to fall planting, and man we've got our work cut out for us. Check out these gorgeous flowers. We have got the largest zucchini, at least one of them. There's about 10 more where this one came from. There are eggplants and tomatoes galore. We've got peppers. Come around here, let me show you what else is happening. We dug all these two potatoes. Here's what's remaining from these beds here. Lots and lots of tomatoes. We've got these gorgeous peppers growing on the plants here. We've got tomatoes, y'all. They are leaving the building. They're like exiting. They did not want to climb the trellis this year, so they are all out here laying down on the job, and you can see all these tomatoes here just kind of fruiting and doing their thing. We've got the most beautiful basil all going to seed. Look at this stuff. So beautiful. The bees are loving it, and of course more giant zucchini and a few more eggplants, a few more zucchini, lots of basil. We're going to clear out most of this, get ready for the fall season, so stay tuned, see what we do. All right, so eggplant goes. Yeah, eggplant, I, yeah. What do you think? Honestly, the eggplant and the zucchini. Zucchini, for sure. Clearly, you're done with that. Yeah, we ate a ton of it, and then, and then I just, like, you're like, I'm done. Okay, good. So we'll pull the zucchini and the eggplant. This tomato plant and this one have produced, the other ones, for whatever reason, I mean, I just didn't do anything. I just didn't do anything, yeah. Do you want to take these tomatoes off that are crazy? Yeah. You want to just harvest all the green and let them ripen? Honestly, no. No, just let it be. Okay, too much work. We're not eating a ton of tomatoes. Okay, you want to just stick them in the compost pile? Yeah. Okay, okay, so pull all the tomatoes. Yeah. Pull the zucchini and the eggplant. The squash, the yellow squash can go. Okay, the peppers. Yeah. Are still producing if you like them. Let's try it. We can, like, clean them up and. They don't take up a lot of room. Yeah, and we, and it's nice because they're already big. Your flowers still look so pretty. I really don't want to touch those if you're okay with that. It sounds great. We're bringing some pansies in, but I don't know, like, you've even got snapdragons still. It's crazy. I know, isn't it funny? Just stuck it out. Yeah. Okay, so we're going to rip out squash, zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, leave the peppers. Somehow you got lemon balm. I'm going to take that out. I came back. But you never had lemon balm in here. I did, a long time ago. You did? The first time you came over here, we pulled it all out. Oh, because this was thyme. It was, and the thyme. The thyme is gone. I wonder if somebody, if my landscapers pulled that out. And also, I'm like, they already saw what's happening in the front. I planted the mint and the thyme in my, like, stone garden beds up there. Uh-huh. And they have taken over. All that stuff that's under the fence is mint. Oh, amazing. And they are all over. So I'm like, potentially they made it here. Oh, they jumped. They jumped all the way. Okay, great. So we'll get this out of here. Leave the peppers, eggplant. We're just going to do, like, a massive, massive pulling. Long time, Tom. We had those Japanese beetles, and they just shredded it. Shoot. But now it looks gorgeous. I feel like we should leave it. Leave it. And you can cut back the flowers if you want and get more. Okay, great. We brought, and Sydney's on her way with more plants. So we'll just get it all out and then see. We have broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and then greens and stuff like that. Great. Okay, awesome. So I would love to have a little, do you still have your little table? Yeah. To, like, put harvests out here. That would be really fun. They're so pretty. Those are the redheads. And they're really tiny. Uh-huh. Now it's, like, this is over. We can still put it up there like a harvest. Not pretty. You can buy them that size, so I think this has just been out here too long. But the little baby ones are so cute and so delicious. So you get them even sooner than that? Oh, yeah. I'll pick them when they're, like, twin size, and you can see what's going to happen. They're really tender. So fun. All right, so do you want to keep the plant, or do you want to pull out of the pot? Sure. Okay. Let's see. It's huge. These are the gardenery seeds. No, we didn't plant gardenery seeds. What was it? I know we planted, because I can remember you saying, like, I just want one plant. Or I just want a few plants. Maybe we put plants in here. All right, let's see. Yeah, they won't taste quite as good. These are more of the size you want. It makes some serious zucchini bread. Carter? Fine. All right, I see a ton of squash you have there. You are the land of gourds. We need a bigger harvest table. Or we just put all the zucchini on the floor. I think that's the solution. We did a meme, like, in the summer, and it's like, teach a man to fish, and, you know, you fed him for a day, or give a man a fish. You fed him for a day. Teach a woman to garden, and the whole neighborhood gets zucchini. So, like, you are. I told Carter, I was like, this is the meme. Like, we can just do this video. You are, like, very successfully growing a melon family. I mean, impressive. Tons. All right, y'all get Betsy hauling this huge tomato. So, how did the potato thing go? Oh, they were, like, rampant, happy, and healthy, and there are tons of them in there. I know it. So, I think some will still go to seed, and I'll probably get potatoes in the fall again. So, did you just cut them back? I know. You know what happened is they got overrun with weeds. So, I had the landscapers just help me, because it was, I wish you, I should have taken a picture of it before I had them help me. It was insane. Really? The weeds were, like, gumming over the brick wall. I wonder why they got so many weeds. I don't, that, for whatever reason, those two beds are worse than the others, even if they have coverage. So, I just try to stay on top of them, and it's not a bad deal, but I got lost, felt lost in the summer. Did we decide we're pulling eggplants? That's what I was doing. Great. Especially the ones that don't look good. So, maybe when we turned back the time, it gave the lemon balm, I don't know, some space. Well, I had a huge, time was awesome all summer until it got that desperately hot. Oh, really? Yeah, and then it, and then the lemon balm, I came out here recently, and it was totally dead, and I could see that it was dead, but I didn't pull it out, so I'm not sure what happened there. That's so funny, because it is no, there's no sign of it. Do you want to eat this one? It's not, doesn't have a lot of fruit, but it does have a lot of flowers. I was thinking about, I cut some of the branches back. Okay. I'm thinking we'll just see if maybe it, now that it has more sunlight, it'll be happier. Yeah. Okay. Well, we should have seen us cutting them. It was pretty funny. We're gonna do that meme, teach a woman to garden in the whole neighborhood, get zucchini. Although, these are not edible zucchini anymore. Zucchini are. Those are now officially baseball bats and weapons. Yeah. Okay. I'm gonna take off, like, anything that doesn't look healthy, and then. Hopefully, that'll kind of pick up your peppers. Okay, did you say we're pulling this sunshine? I think so, yeah. Sunburst. Sunburst. Sunburst squash. And where did you get it? No, I don't mind at all. This is great. Okay. Whoa, that lady just fell out. All right, I'm thinking of pulling this snapdragon because it does look kind of tired. Yeah. You know what's funny is the oregano did not do much after the spring. It just took a break. Mine could, I basically could be an oregano farmer right now. If anyone in the world needs one. Do you, what year is it at? I'm wondering. Oh, yours might be too tired. Yeah, maybe. That's how I'm thinking it might be the case. This might have been my fourth summer. So, for this calendula, do you want to? I've been pulling some of it. Do you want to just pull it? Yeah, I feel like it's looking so dry. Did this come up from seed? This is what we planted? Yes, we did. Those are gardenery seeds, I'm pretty sure, too, right? Yeah, those were beautiful. They had their moment in the sun. The good news is, yeah, we're in control of our own fate, and then the bad news is, we're in control of our own fate. It's like you can see it both ways, and I've lost my pruners again. I've lost two pairs so far. Oh, there's the silver ones, too. It's already looking tidy. It does look a lot better. Just getting those zucchini out, I think. So, now that you did it, the previous year, did you get that much zucchini? Yeah, we did. Would you do it again? Oh, yeah. I loved it. It's just that you got tired of it. Honestly, it was more just that I couldn't. Every time I came out here, I was depressed about the state of it, and so it was hard to choose to come look at it, because then you come, you grab a couple zucchini, and you're like, and now I'm just going to leave this place in a mess. So, I kind of just gave up because of that. Betsy, we got to do some garden therapy for you. It's okay to face it five minutes at a time. Just do a little bit. That's what I need. I wish you could have seen this situation. I've only called the landscapers in one other time, and I was like, I can't do it. You're like, you've got it. I don't know. I don't honestly know how he did it. Do you know we have this client? She is so cool. I've never heard of this. She's having an agrarian year. That's what she's calling it. Whoa. So, she got a garden with us. She started beehives and rented chickens, and then she's making sourdough. This is almost all my life. We have beehives we put in up there this summer. Did you? We have honey. I'll bring a jar out for you guys. It's so delicious. Are you serious? It's so good. I'm doing sourdough for the first time this summer. Okay. The chickens, how does a person rent? So, it's like a rental. She ended up not liking it because they actually, she said she didn't like the house they were in. She felt like it was too small. Okay. She didn't have, if she let them out, she didn't really have the space for them to row. Yeah. But basically, they just bring the chickens to you in this little house, and you rent them, and they learn how to take care of chickens, and you get the eggs. Fascinating. Yeah. It's cool. I'm going to Google that. I would like chickens. I can ask her about it. But I just thought that's so neat, like an agrarian year. Yeah. Well, that's really cool. And then it also lets you off the hook. At the end of the year, you're like, yeah, I'm not going to be that person. Yeah. She just, well, she, I think she's taking it, and she has such a cool mentality about it because there's no, there's not like a game plan or like a, it's like I'm learning skills. Yeah. Yeah. That's really cool. Yeah. I'm like, oh, we should make this a thing. Kale. Is that the kale? We have kale up there. You don't like the bok choy. It's basically the same. Yeah. I'm just trying to remember, I feel like you didn't love it the first year. We didn't eat much of it. Okay. I like it when it's a baby shape, and it's hard to eat that much of it. Okay. Maybe a few. A few? Okay. Somewhere. Yeah. How about collards? That's a different taste too. I did not eat collards, but somebody, my Aunt Maureen was telling me all about how she's cooking them, and I was like, well. Okay. Maybe I just missed the mark. Okay. All right. So let's. You look great. This parsley you have, I feel like if we just cut it back. Yeah. It'll be fine. That'd be so. Okay. Bicolored. So last time what we did is broccoli down here, and I was thinking doing the same thing because that worked well. Yeah. All right. Which should we say, cabbage, cauliflower? You want any, all, some, none? I think all. Yeah. Some cabbage, some cauliflower. Some. Oh yeah. Cauliflower and broccoli for sure. Okay. Those are like the big ones. Okay. So what, I think last year what we did is like cabbage here. Yes, we did. It was more cabbage than we needed. Was it? Okay. So maybe. It's like cabbage. Yeah. I don't even know. Is it possible to put them on the corner? A couple of little corners and make them. They are, they'll grow like a ball, like, you know, kind of they'll grow in the same shape as the broccoli, but we could just do like two instead of four if you want to. This is always that funny time of year where you're like, part of me just wants to rip everything out of my garden because I love. I know. A completely clean place. I know. I was thinking that. And then the other part of me is like, no, I worked so hard to keep this plant alive. I don't want to kill it. I would be up for doing it if you think it's worth it. I think it's fine. I think you're fine. You have so much space. And during this season, it's honestly beneficial to keep because it'll give some shade while everything else grows. Okay. It's kind of like shocking to have everything pulled like to the soil, I think. We shouldn't let that be its own massive thing like it wants to be. That's angelonia. Those will last all the way till frost. I would love it. Yeah. Those things are so pretty. I love those flowers. And then the cilantro, are we doing the middle? Yeah. So I had laid it kind of at a caddy corner. You could put it on the edge. You can do in between. I would get a spate, but maybe even right here. Well, you said when you get a set, grab the, there's a cabbage. I need, you want to do just one here? I think one in each corner. That would be four cabbages. Yeah. That sounds like a perfect amount. Okay. You probably ate about four. They leave. So I have this kale where basically they completely deteriorated it. Like Carter even came over and he was like, what's wrong with your kale? But now all the leaves are fine. It was like, they came back. If it's a plant that keeps going, you just let it live there. It just, they'll just like, eventually they'll eat all that they can. And then finally they'll like, let you have it. It doesn't always happen. Yeah. All right. So we'll just do one cabbage. You know, they huge. I think that was because the slugs kind of took over this. So they were eating them. And I think because I had a lot of them in the springtime. They're so good for garden health. Oh, good. Literally. I was happy to have them because of the slugs. They're not going to really bother your plants and they're so good for pest control. Arugula. Oh yeah. Arugula. Sorry, I got lightheaded. Spinach. Spinach. I'll leave you seeds. It's too early right now. Maybe we can come back up. I miss it. It was so, it's so nice. We could do, I don't know if it would, if you're like, it's, you don't like the carrots, right? No. And did you enjoy the radishes or no? I didn't mind them. We just didn't eat that many of them. Okay. So no carrots, but beets and arugula and some lettuce. Yeah. And then I'll leave you with spinach and we can try the spring mix on once. We could do like spring mix on one side and arugula on the other. Okay. Can I do that? Okay. I'm going to go grab, I just need some water. So she's like, even if you're just sitting outside, like under a patio, your body is like processing energy. Bed and doors. I think about my kids just like sitting in class all day. And then like, you know, everybody gets diagnosed with like ADHD and stuff. And you're like, uh, maybe we just need to go outside. Touch grass. Maybe we're just like sick of being indoors so much. What's crazy to me is in middle school. So here in Illinois, it was not like this, but here, um, they only have a PE for one, uh, six week period and then the rest of it, it goes to like art and computer science. I'm like, your body needs to work out every day. That's wild. Especially if you're 12 and you're changing like every day, you need to run or something. All right. I have got a ton of food behind me that we just pulled from the garden. Let me show you how we took some things out and planted for a fall and the things that we left to keep going for a couple more months. I'll show you the harvest at the end. All right, let's start on this side. We've got Swiss chard that we pruned to be a little bit healthier. We staked some peppers. We cut a lot of peppers off these plants. We added broccoli down the center, this, uh, uh, Angelonia and snap dragon. We're going to keep in the garden for a little bit longer. We've got broccoli and then we've got lettuce seed on both sides, arugula and black seeded Simpson. We kept the parsley. We're going to let this tomato run a little bit longer. And then we added one cabbage here at the end, some cilantro and some kale back here. We're doing cauliflower and cabbage. So we've got cabbages down here, cauliflower here, a little bit of kale and cilantro, then more cow cauliflower on this side. Let's go back to this other side. And then I'm going to show you the harvest. So we're running the irrigation on this side. I'm getting wet. We've got cauliflower, loads of lettuce seeds, and we're keeping these peppers because they're going to take off when it comes into the fall season. And then we've got more broccoli, cabbage, kale, and cilantro in this bed too. And here is the harvest. I don't know if we have enough zucchini. Um, so I'm going to be maybe getting a few more of those plants for next time. No, seriously, Betsy told me that they got a ton of zucchini. They just got tired of harvesting it. So that's what we have left. Probably, I don't know, 15, 20 pounds worth. We have these beautiful little squash. We have some tomatoes. We have these cute little fairy tale eggplants. We have some, lots of some of bell peppers. And then we've also got some acorn squash out there going broke in the garden. So this is just really the end of the summer haul. She said she's been pulling from it all season long and now we're planted up and ready for the next season.