Fall gardening, for me this year, means keeping it easy.
Mostly because the squirrels and sun aren’t on our side come late September. I’ve started cabbages and kale and lovingly transplanted them to well-prepared containers up and down our stairs in autumns past, only to have squirrels dig them up daily until the sun lost itself behind the neighbor’s house.
Never again.
This year I have my magical cold frame I converted to a squirrel-free grow box – I simply swapped out the glass lid for a hardware-cloth (wire mesh) lid. Anything I plant outside of this box will be on a whim and left to its own devices on the squirrel front.
Inside the box, we took our freshly emptied summer pots, seeds leftover from spring, and planted mesclun mix, turnips, radishes and a few onion seeds.
With heavy rains forecast for the following few days, the kiddo and I dragged out an old shower curtain, tucked it under the lid’s edges, and weighed it down with scrap wood for good measure. These rains would be remnants of Hurricane Isaac, and all summer has been either no rain or crazy-windy-big-storm rain, so might as well add the wood.
The kiddo, B, who had methodically pinched the tiny seeds from my palm and less methodically sewed them, was very into storm proofing the cold frame. She’s three now and loves a good project, especially a short one she can get her helping little hands on.
The next day we got nearly 4 inches of rain in two hours.
I didn’t touch anything for two more days.
Today, SEEDLINGS!!! Tiny sprouts!!! No washout from the rain! Not wanting to further starve them for light, we set the scrap wood cover aside but kept the shower curtain. The weatherman says we’re still at risk for all-or-nothing rain the next few days.
Let’s see if we can squeeze a few beet, spinach and kale seeds into the squirrel-free, rain-shuttered box in a few days.
