All of the websites are reccommending carrots and beets and 'cold' crops like kale and lettuce. The two items I actually bought for the fall garden are lentils and radicchio, of which the latter is on the list and the former probably isn't on ANYONE's list, but it is a cold season item and I am curious to see it grow. Hullless oats is an interesting idea, but would require more planning and obtaining seed a little earlier than now. If we were to add chickens or goats to our 'farm' in the future, that would be a no-brainer to plant as a cover crop AND a useful easy to thresh grain for storage. After having all of those squash bugs in the zucchini I am rethinking what to put there. Pyrethrin daisies would help prohibit those bugs from living there... Articles say that Butternut squash is not affected by these bugs - so planting them in their own place next year (instead of mixed) would help when wanting to know what to pull and what to leave. I see a 'polar coordinate' effect for the squashes next year - with varieties being planted at different o'clocks all around the garden with beans in between them of different varieties. Plains coreopsis and calendulas are seed packets I already have that are good for fall planting in this zone. I think there is enough season left to get another crop of southern field peas - especially the purple hulled peas which require no support and were a heavy producer in this soil. I would like to plant more of the Mississippi Silver crowder peas but they do require more support. The provider green beans are mostly done -- and they have a fence. That would seem a natural place to put another crop. The peas are mostly carefree, which is an added bonus.
thinking a bit further, not so much on the polar coordinate idea.. kind of between what happened this year and trying to separate some of the important things.
an idea of a map, for myself, for next year
corn and black eyed peas in the back, purple zinnias and yellow marigolds scattered about.. hills of a FEW types of squash, keeping the butternut away from the zucchini. A section at the side back for pumpkins - just a few plants because treated well they will do something... and have room to run off to the side out of the garden. In the middle of each squash type area pyrethrin daisies or other bug-hating plants put in the middle of the hills? Maybe zinnias, because they will be tall. The pyrethrin is supposed to be a good organic pest-killer, it makes the bugs shell bodies soft when they get it onto them, and then they are easily hurt and killed by other species wanting to eat them. Spaces for both the bush varieites of beans that need no fence and a place to train up the varieties that do need fencing to keep them from choking the ones that do not. Planned room for the field peas with the same thing, fencing at the sides for the ones that need it and a swath in the middle for the variety that does not (quick pick pink eye). Having the pink eyed peas in the place where the zucchini was this year is supposed to do well at having the wasps kill the bugs when they start to emerge. Tomato varieties separated with their own supports so we are not crawling in an overgrown jungle and wondering where X tomato type is and if it is going to produce. A swath for cucmbers up front and some planned space for radishes and basil. More room for carrots that are out of the way and will be able to be left to their own until the time comes ripe. One site I am reading says to keep planting radish seed all around the squash all season long - even if there are no radishes, it will keep the squash bugs away. That seems correct in a way... I had not a single squash bug to be seen until I stopped planting the radishes because the weather was too hot to actually GET radishes. I should have kept planting and not cared if there were actual radishes or not.
sunrise seeds, this local harvest seller (Indiana) seems to have a few varieties of beans and pumpkins that are interesting to me.
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