RAIN!!!!!

This has not been an easy summer in Austin, TX. We've had record heat (July was the hottest month ever recorded here!) and over 65 straight days of triple digits (nearly tying the record set in 1925), massive drought, and very sad veggie crops.
But the end may be in sight!!! It's September, which means it's time to start prepping the beds and planting the seeds for the Winter garden, it almost feels a little cooler, and it's sort of raining outside: amazing.

My to do list for the following few weeks (transplants to wait til the 3rd week of September or so)

• pull old summer plants and till the soil, adding compost and other amendments
• wildflower seeds (successive plantings through the end of October)
  
• plant carrot seeds
• multiplying onions
• sugar snap peas
• pansies
• kale transplants
• broccoli transplants
• end of sept/oct: garlic
• new perennials for the 'strip' of native plants
• i MAY plant some cool weather herbs to fill in where the warm weather herbs will be passing: dill, cilantro from saved seeds of spring.
  

Last year i had a larger assortment for the Winter: but we loved the kale and broccoli most so i'm focusing on that. I'll be keeping all the Fall plants until they begin to die back or quit producing, at which point i'll pull them and fill their empty spot with successive plantings of kale and brocc. This will force me to plant successively so that i don't have to deal with the dilemma of : aaaaah we have too much broccoli all at once!!! When the basil freezes i'll fill that raised bed with pansies or some cover crop. The other side of the raised bed that used to be all basil is now divided by one oregano and a new thyme plant to replace my dead one- and filled with rotating garlic and onions. I may have to switch these two sides occasionally to avoid disease, we'll see.



So, it may not be such a novel concept for everyone: but scattering carrot and wildflower seeds while it rained lightly on my shoulders felt paretty darned amazing!