I have been thinking about the cool weather veggie planting for a while now, and since this is our very first fall/winter crop planting (it is actually my very first veggie planting YEAR...so far so good *knocking on wood*), i am not really sure about when i should start planting them. i have just been itching to get started.

okay, so the zucchini growing in full force, the cucumber is following suit, the tomatoes....the TOMATOES are just STARTING to turn orange/red (the ones bigger than a marble), the jalapenos are producing like crazy and my watermelon plants barely have any melons to speak of except for things that look like melons, but are barely an inch long....but i do long to eat broccoli again...and the sugar snap peas...and some lettuce! i can't believe how outrageous the prices are for lettuce at the grocery store is. even at the local farmer's market, the prices are a bit high.

yes, i am SUCH a newbie. i just want to see things grow and produce. and while i do save some for us to eat - like i ate the last 2 harvests of soybeans by myself (oink) - i actually enjoy giving this produce away more. i guess its the people who come to pick them up are very thankful for them, some even drop off some of their own grown veggies/fruits (which is fantastic!).

and you are right, i am writing about thinking when im supposed to start all the cool weather crops, yet i have photographed seedlings of cool weather crops. i think i might have jumped the gun a bit, but i can label it a "learning experience" if none of these current seedlings produce anything edible. *aha! talk about a newbie scapegoat*

so, this weekend will be a full one of planting seedlings and trimming stuff. did i tell you that i trimmed my zucchini plants yesterday? yep! and i think i might have went overboard a bit. but hey, they grow back those leaves within a week anyway. i did forget to take before pictures, so you are going to have to rely on what it looked like last weekend. i will take an after picture when i get home today. oooohhh...and i get to turn my compost pile for the first time. i wonder how successful that will be....

anyways, the soybean and bush bean plants need to go in the ground. where? dunno yet. the beets also need to go in the ground. where? in that small plot that i prepared 2 weeks ago. i have to also prepare the next small plot dedicated to the cool weather crops.

i also counted the number of seedlings of broccoli i currently have growing...it came out to about 20. sheesh, what was i thinking? and there are also smaller peat pots that i threw more broccoli seeds in that have not yet sprouted yet. anyone want broccoli seedlings? they are the calabrese variety. for the swiss chard, i have around 10. i think this will be enough for the entire season, since you can cut as much as you want and leave the rest till when you need it and it keeps growing.

lots of beets, but then again, they don't grow more than one beet each, i may need a few of those. one of the snow peas i planted last week is starting to peek out of its peat pot...how exciting! these are used more in asian cuisine - the flat podded variety of peas. yum!

how will this all turn out? i don't really know. i've only lived in this area since the beginning of this year, so i don't even know when it starts getting cooler around here. this following week should stay in the high 70s. we'll see. maybe i should start documenting the temperature each day i post something to keep a record of this during the year.

see you all later.