Hello everyone, Bridget here, and I am so excited, it is actually fall and it feels like fall. I'm
in Southern California, zone 10b. So, last week we were still in the mid-90s and by the end of
the week, we're going to hit the 90's again. But, for the last few days over the weekend,
we've had cool mornings, cool evenings we've had some drizzly days like today,
and I'm so excited because it means that we are going to be in fall really soon.
So today I want to talk about the things that I'm doing; the planning the prepping the planting, all
the stuff I'm doing for fall right now. But first, if you haven't subscribed go ahead and hit that
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Alright, so fall. This is a hard time for me because everything is an absolute mess.
I'm cleaning, I'm pulling, I'm getting all my tools together. I'm cleaning my tools,
I'm really bad about doing this. I'm super lazy during season, and so they get gunked up. So,
I'm also looking at what tools I have and what I might want to get for next season,
nothing wrong with that. I'm going to be amending my soil, doing a little bit of soil testing also.
I'm going to be pulling plants, and then I have some starts ready to go,
so there's a lot going on in the garden; Plus, I might be doing some builds for the fall, so
I'm excited about that too. So, I'm going to walk you around, show you the mess that is my garden,
and just give you some ideas of what I'm doing for fall. All right? So, let's go take a look.
So here's some of my soil that I'm going to be using to amend the beds. I have a bunch more in
another location, I've got raised bed soil, I've got some soil building conditioner, grow mulch,
I've got some chicken manure in there, I've got all sorts of things to amend my beds. I've also
got some of my own compost, so that's ready to go and I've already started doing that a little bit.
Here's some of the seeds I've got started and I'm going to be transplanting. I've got a few
here and I've got some in other locations. This location right here doesn't get a lot of sun,
so that's really good for some of the lettuce. I have some kale over here, some squash,
I'm really excited, I've got garlic, two little soft neck, and I've got some hard neck also.
But two of these. Now for California, I'm going to have to put it in the refrigerator
for just over a month, I think about 40 days. I can't wait to get those planted. Now, some of
my seeds are actually in the beds, I direct sewed in the beds and then some are here, some are over
on my potting bench. And, I have a lot more to plant, and I'll be planting carrots directly in
there, but I've got beets, and I've got radishes, lots of flowers, I've got some bell peppers going,
these greens, some winter squashes, I have corn, I have some pumpkins, I don't know if
those are going to come through. So, quite a bit, quite a bit. I've got my soil testing kit here,
ready to go. This is going to tell me pH,
Different nutrients and minerals. Since I'm using the same beds and
they're contained, I like to test it a little bit just to see where I'm at with those beds.
I've started pulling plants already, in here was a tomato plant, some rainbow chard, some flowers,
nasturtium. So, that is empty right now. Over here, I have this volunteer tomato plant that's
going to get yanked out. The bed soil needs to be amended. You can see that it's a little low.
Plus, after the season I want to give it some nice nutrients, compost, all the rich organic matter
that it needs. This purple beauty bell pepper has a little sunscald on it,
but I've got some new ones coming in. So, those are staying. I've got some flowers ready to go in.
Again, another tomato plant that's coming out. This is a little sugar baby melon that
is also coming out. My nasturtium, I'm going to check it out. I use it as a trap plant a lot,
let's see how well it's doing, but I may start again with those guys.
Got some mint here that needs to be trimmed back.
I still have some beauties here, they're doing pretty good with the sun. Aren't those gorgeous?
Now, my tri-color sage is staying in. This right here, our little cucamelons,
they're kind of hiding in the sage. They were getting a little beat up by the critters,
so they're protected there. Over here, you can see I actually have a little sugar baby watermelon,
I'm not sure if I'm going to let that keep going, or if I'm just going to yank it.
Got a little coneflower in there.
Marigolds, we'll see about that. This mint, I mean this basil needs to go.
I let it go to flower for the bees. I've got some mint to start it - I
want mint really bad I guess. I've got some basil started, so I'm going to change that
this tomato plant needs to come out, I do have one little tomato in here.
Wanted to see if it will ripen up a bit more before I pull it, I still have time.
Here, I've taken out quite a bit, and now my tomato plant's the last thing to go,
and I'll replant that. Over here, I've got an orange bell pepper plant that's staying.
That was marigold to come out, and I did take out quite a few other flowers and other plants.
This tomato plant's coming out and the plant behind it, also.
And, you can see, with my tomato plant,
yep I got a little bottom rot, and it means that I don't have enough calcium in this soil,
so I definitely want to check it out, but these are done, this plant is done.
That little white thing right there, those are my worms, my little worm compost. I've got some peas
already coming up in this bed, and I've got some started down here, I've got things everywhere.
Right here we have
some eggplant, and that's staying, so that one's gonna be good.
Over here, I'm working on my little water garden,
I actually added some fish into that garden, we'll talk about that later.
I've taken off some of my screens so I can work in the bed.
Now back here, I have some corn, sweet corn in there.
I have some squash, I have some pumpkins in there, but I replanted the pumpkins because they got beat
up, so I don't know how those are going to do, it's a little bit late, but we'll see. I also have
some beans that are planted and growing up the corn, if we can find it, there's some flowers in
there. So, that's going pretty, well some borage in there. Now, I took off the top of my screens
because they needed room to grow, and something got it. So sad, so I have some shade cloth
and I'm going to, probably put up some arches and cover these guys up.
On some of my container plants, this fox glove, it's still hanging in there, the hummingbirds
still like it. I have a bunch of herbs in here, but I do have this one sage plant and
the roots got really waterlogged. So, I'm going to see if it'll survive. That tri-colored sage
had the same problem, it was getting root rot. So, I'm going to leave this one and see if it'll
come back, if not I have some other sage going. I have this one, and then I have some started.
I still have a few flowers here. All these chives.
Everything else is in stages of being pulled or planted.
My potting bench is a mess. Got lots of stuff going on there.
All right, so that is what I'm doing in my garden. I gave you a little tour of what's going on here,
and I can say it could be a little overwhelming transitioning between two seasons, at least for
me, maybe not for you, but there's just so much for me to do. And, so really what I do is, I just
kind of put it in little buckets, and I say; Okay, I've got my tools that I need to think about,
tools I need to clean up or repair, or tools I may need in the garden for the fall season. I look
at my structures, do I have all the structures I need, and how am I going to utilize those in fall?
Then, I put my soil in a bucket, I had some really heavy feeders in spring and summer, so I need to
look at nutrients and minerals that need to be added back into the soil. So that's where we do
some soil testing. I've got compost, I've got more soil to add to my containers and my raised beds,
I've got organic fertilizers, and then this may be where you bring in your beneficial nematodes also,
because I've had a lot of critters that could be in my soil right now. Then, I look at plants;
What plants I'm taking out, what plants I want to add, what plants are staying through
the fall season. That to me is probably the most overwhelming part because I want to make sure I
get planted. So, I have some seed started, I have some direct sown, and I have a lot more to do,
but I'm just going to do it weekly, and i'm not going to stress about that. And then,
finally I'm looking at just where all my beds are and I'm saying; Okay, do I want to keep
all these beds where they're at, or do I want to move around a little bit? Right now, you know
we have less hours of sun, but the sun has also moved, so there might be some things blocking my
beds that weren't before and I just want to get as much sun as possible through the fall season. So,
those are just a few things I'm looking at. You know what, gardening's not supposed to
be stressful and yet I can get stressed about it. I say, do what you can, make your lists,
create your buckets, and just enjoy the process. And, I definitely do. I'll have some wins and some
misses, but I love being in the garden, so just don't let it get to you. And, for those of you who
are putting your beds to bed, you can still be doing things as well, especially in the soil area.
So, we'll be talking about that a little bit more, things that you can do for your soil in fall and
winter, so by spring there isn't much for you to do and you're going to have some really gorgeous,
beautiful, living soil in there, all right? So, we'll talk about that. Again, I appreciate you
guys joining me, if you have any questions, or you want to share any of your stories, please put that
down in the comment section. We'll put any links that we think are helpful in the description,
so check that out, and if you haven't go ahead and hit that subscribe button so you can grow
along with us through fall and winter. So, I will see you guys all again real soon. Happy gardening.