Lawrence.com

If you’re anything like me, I tend to keep equal track of my successes and failures. When it comes to gardening, it’s usually about this time of year when I take a step back and look at how much my garden resembles (or how completely it has deviated from) my seemingly well-laid, albeit ambitious plans from the very early spring. There’s almost always something that didn’t germinate properly, something that the neighbor’s dog ate, or a space that wasn’t managed as well as I’d like. There’s almost always a few seed packets that haven’t been opened yet.

It’s lucky for people like me that the growing season is cyclical, and there’s always another planting to get ready for. Now’s the time to start making plans for your fall garden.

As there are obviously many types of vegetables that we can grow in Kansas, there are only slightly fewer planting dates for us to pay attention to if we so choose. I guess what I’m trying to say is that there’s almost always something to plant. It all depends on your level of interest. Things to look forward to are many of the things you’ve probably just run out of from your spring garden; Carrots, broccoli and most of all, radishes are on my list of things that I’m hoping to see more of before the end of the growing season.

I rely heavily upon the planting guide which is made available through our local county extension office. They’re fantastic folks and they’re a great example of your tax dollars going towards something you’d actually like them to be spent on. Anyway, although the guide isn’t absolute in what it includes, it has a great visual to help an interested grower get a basic idea of when some mainstays might be put into the ground and when. If there’s something you were hoping to see on the planting guide, do a little homework your self; it’s no guarantee that what you were hoping for is fall garden material, but the worst case scenario is that you can start anticipating your spring ’10 garden now. If you feel like you may have missed he date by a week or so, I’d say try to plant it anyway. You don’t have to tell anyone you planted it, and if it doesn’t work out, then it’s no big deal. If it works out, you can proclaim your late-harvest victory for all to hear (and for all to rub their nose in… just a little) right before you share your bounty with them.

Personally, I have a whole other plot that I had every intention of expanding upon this past spring. Needless to say, it never happened, but I think I’m ready to step up my game and get it tilled, fertilized and planted with as much as it will hold for my fall garden.