itching for my fall garden adventure

we are having a bit of unseasonably cool weather right now upper 80's and lower 90's. and it is killing me to not try and put out fall vegies! I just know if I do we will get one last blast of heat and fry all the little seedlings! I went ahead and planted more chard yesterday to try and ease my garden ants in the pants. I left all my taters in the ground from spring covered thickly in hay and have been digging them up as I need them which worked well. they have even decided they could start growing! I think I will dig a few up just to replant and see if I can get a small additional fall potato harvest.

i bought a bunch of seed packets on sale after the spring rush. something like 20 for 1$ so I have tons of carrots, kohlrabi and collards to plant. and left over snap peas that failed miserably this spring...hope it wasn't the seeds that were the problem......i have had luck in the past with fall pea plantings before so I am excited to think I might still get some decent peas. I will probably try and track down some cabbage seedlings in addition to starting some of my own. I want to stagger the plantings of them to see just how far into the winter they can make it.

so......what are your gardening plans looking like right now?

yeah i've been pulling up a few of the dwindling summer garden plants this week..just finally pulled up my bean plants..so i'm seriously thinking of getting my fall garden in as well..maybe i will this next week..we are getting some rain today so it is very tempting to get it in..i may just do it..we'll see..it is a thought.

esp the greens..although i still have some lettuces left from my spring planting..as i've been doing the cut and come again and we have had a cold year..only one day so far above 100

tomatoes just two weeks into ripe now..so we have been slow

I'm trying to revive a struggling lemon tree (I think it has outgrown its wine barrel) and container of mint, and wondering if my tomato plants can overwinter (frost is uncommon here, and they are on the south side of a house).

And I'm mentally preparing for a big project I've mentioned elsewhere:  An abandoned lot will become the playground/garden of a new elementary school.  I'm collecting seeds for it, and trying to make the best, most resilient plans I can.  A high priority is building moisture-retaining soil, with zero budget and not much time.  I'm trying to decide on a lawn mix (maybe no grass) and what to do about raised beds, and thinking of ways to get families involved.  Two ideas I'm mulling over are making seed balls with the kids and asking neighborhood families to bring in Christmas trees in January.

If anyone knows of a drought-tolerant dwarf grass, I'm curious to hear about it.

zoysia is often planted here to reduce mowing. I heard conflicting info as to how drought and sun tolerant it is though.

so, the weather guy says that this is it! no more summer temps! so in the ground is

horseradish
collards
peas
pakchoi
kohlrabi
chard
carrots

I have started some cabbage but it will be a few weeks before it is ready to go out. I am going to stop by a nursery to see if they have a few cabbage seedlings that are ready.

I have potatoes that are volunteering. some I haven't even dug yet so that will be an interesting experiment! fall potatoes are not terribly uncommon around her but I have never heard of them from whole undug harvests. I think in alot of ways they could perrenialize here, but disease build up might prevent it from really being viable.

Thanks for that name.  It sounds like zoysia is the best sort of grass I might plant, but only where the soil is deep (i.e., not if I have to cover pavement with lawn)...one more reason for a mix of species.