October's Changing of the Guard in the Garden - Planting Seeds

Time to plant fall greenery.
We have just the right weather for putting in a few vegetables to boost the healthy components of winter's dinner table.

Chard, kale, lettuce, broccoli raab, mustard, Pak Choi and spinach can be planted in a sunny spot now and still have time to produce baby greens for salads or stir fry.

Chard, raab and kale can be used to make fresh rolls filled with cooked, seasoned rice.

Raab, rapini or broccoli di rapa, is easy to grow. The new leaves flavor salads and sandwiches, the larger leaves and pseudo broccoli heads can be steamed.

Kale has a dozen varieties. 'Lacinato' is cold tolerant and light frost sweetens its leaves.

Pak Choi is added Asian soup, steamed with garlic and olive oil or chopped into salad.

Spinach lovers don't have to be told about its many uses from vegetarian lasagna to wraps.




Prepare and amend a sunny bed. Use leftover veggie seeds from your spring garden or buy a few packs of the ones you know your family will eat.

I just ordered 5-new kinds of lettuce from Baker Creek. They are our geographically closest seed catalog company. My selection was based on the Cornell growers recommendation site.

Oklahoma State University recommends many varieties for Oklahoma gardens -
Black Seeded Simpson , Grand Rapids T.B.R. , Prizehead (red) , Red Sails
Salad Bowl , Waldmann’s Green, Butterhead , Bibb , Buttercrunch , Juliet , Merveille Des Quatre Saisons, Romaine , Little Gem , Romance, Batavian – (combo. of romaine & head)
Cardinale , Little Loma , Nevada , Assorted Greens
Mizuna , Pak Choi , Red Mustard , Red Kale
Arugula , Mache , Mesclun - misc. salad mix , Mizuna , Radicchio , Upland Cress
Mustard - Florida Broad Leaf, Southern Giant Curled, Tendergreen
Kale - Red - Red Russian, Green - Verdura, Blue - Vates

If you miss this planting season the next one is Feb 15 for early spring vegetable seed planting.

Wall-O-Water, Geography and Lettuce

The Wall-O-Waters have been in place for almost two weeks waiting for the weather to improve enough to actually put tomatoes in them. In the meantime, the water in the sides has been warming and will warm the soil.
By the way, on one of my Internet browsing trips, I read the results of some research department that said Wall-O-Water works well for tomatoes but not so well for other vegetables you might think to start early in them. The researchers tried cucumbers and nixed the results.
Behind the Wall-O-Waters -125 heads of garlic that are forming - planted last October using methods of the Tulsa Tomato Man who has been relentlessly generous with garlic-growing advice over the past two years.

On another note, The Association of American Geographers is meeting in San Francisco for an annual convention. "Geography, the science of place, is an integrating discipline and is a pivotal study element in all the natural sciences."
The 80-session titles include some tantalizing topics including: Every Day is Earth Day at USGS, Effects of Sea Level Rise on Population, Global Land Change Detection Using Remote Sensing and Biogeography: Vegetation Mapping. Wish I could rent a movie of it.

Back to garden talk - Renee's Seeds just released a good article on planting and growing lettuce, called "It's Lettuce Time". Here are some highlights -
There are 3-types of head lettuce: Romaine, Batavian and Butterhead. Romaine we know from Caesar salads and lettuce wraps. Batavians are not available in the grocery, you have to grow them at home. They resist bolting in the heat though so may be worth a try. The Butterhead widely distributed in plastic boxes at the supermarket is only one of the many choices available.
Check out the seed types available and the planting tips, too, at Renee's Articles (click for the link).