Setting Up the Fall Garden

This summer I can definitely say that we had a more successful garden than in 2008. With that said, I still want more. I want to harvest as late as possible this year and possibly extend the growing season into November if possible. With that in mind, I placed an order to Johnny's Select Seeds ordering Arugula (Sylvetta), Miner's Lettuce (Claytonia), Scalliona (Evergreen Hardy White), and Napoli Carrots. All of these are recommended in Eliot Coleman's The New Organic Gardener as suitable crops for extending the season. They also are good crops to use to early in the season so I will probably use these again next April.

I sowed the following row of seed: arugala, carrots, beets, miner's lettuce, and scallions. The first 4 of these were sown in an area that I can easily cover with the cover I built for my lettuce last fall to help them reach maturity in late October once the frost is possible. Additionally, I transplanted a row of mesculin greens and beets that I started several weeks ago on the deck. We'll see how these goes.
The reason I was able to do all of this planting today was because I pulled up all of my carrots back on Thursday (along with a less destructive harvest of tomatoes and a couple of beans). These were mostly "little finger" variety (3" baby carrots) and I got about a 1/2 pound harvested. The larger carrots and beets did nothing in this same area so overall I was disappointed with this area of the garden. After the harvest, I mixed in several 5-gallon buckets of compost and some garden manure to hopefully give these new plants a bit better soil to grow with.
September should bring a heavy tomato harvest, hopefully some zucchini (if the blossom end rot finally ends), and a few more string beans. My the end of September/beginning of October I hope to have more peas and potatoes, bush beans, celeriac, Brussels sprouts, and some butternut squash like the one shown above. I have 4 small squash like the one above. They are now in a bit of a race against the frost so I am curious to see if they are actually going to ripen in time. He is hoping for a mild fall and long growing season to help everything along.