Fall Garden

In the past week or so we've been enjoying yellow squash and zucchini from our first ever fall garden. Zach and I have planted summer gardens for quite a few years, but this is the first time we've ever done a second planting. Drew helped me plant both the summer and fall gardens, and the kids really enjoy going out each day to see how much the plants have grown. And I like the fact that they learn where food comes from.

Gardening in Forney is a challenge, though. We moved here three years ago after living in East Texas for three years, where Zach and I enjoyed an inflated view of our gardening prowess. The combination of sandy soil and a garden located on land formerly used as a horse pen meant that the first year we had 468 tomatoes and 14-pound zucchini. We thought we were the valedictorians of gardening.

Let's reminisce some more about the famed garden of 2005, shall we?

Enormous squash plants!

23 zucchini and two squash.

You thought I was kidding about the 14-pound zucchini? I was not. I weighed them.

I remember walking out to the garden of 2005 and yelling, "Stop growing!" to the tomatoes. I did not know what to do with them all.

Fast forward to 2010. We've moved 60 miles to the west, but might as well be on the other side of the universe as far as soil is concerned. The soil in Forney is nasty black clay that is as hard as a rock when it's dry. On the 100-degree summer days cracks form in the ground and you literally cannot see where it stops. I think maybe China.

Conversely, step into the black clay when it's wet and you have a mess on your hands (feet). The longer you walk through the soil, the taller you get, because it builds and builds on your shoes. You can then try to wash it off with the hose, which takes 47 minutes, or wait until it dries and chip away at what is now as tough as concrete. Can you tell I'm bitter at this dirt? I am.

So needless to say, the gardening is more difficult. This summer we had decent squash and green beans, three tomatoes, and a few cantaloupe. When early August came and it was clear the garden was dried up, we decided to try a fall garden. I read that you can grow vegetables in this climate until November, and that the fruit (or veggies, in this case) has a richer taste because it matures in cooler weather.

I had seeds left over from the first planting, so we just tilled up the garden a few times and re-planted green beans, yellow squash, zucchini, cucumber, and cantaloupe. The green beans came up, but were immediately and mysteriously chewed into nubs. I suspect the rabbits, because bugs and weeds have been remarkably absent for the past few months. The cantaloupe and cucumber never came up. My lone champions of the fall garden are my squash.

Ally confirms the rabbits ate the green beans.

See? These plants are puny compared to 2005...

But the squash taste so good, and there is nothing better than going out to the garden, picking some vegetables, and cooking them for dinner within minutes of taking them off the plant.