Yesterday was the first day of fall and boy could you tell.  Today even more.  The wind is blowing and it’s chilly.  Last night I even wore a sweater.  In the desert the weather changes abruptly.  September 20th it was hot and sunny.  Fall hits and it’s cold…well and still sunny because the desert is almost always sunny.  We enjoy clouds and rain and gloominess just to have something different.

The plants in the garden is sighing a big relief just as I am.  This summer was a summer from hell.  I literally.  I mean satan is the only one who could have devised such a summer.  Almost every SINGLE day it was above 100 degrees and with humidity!  I thought that I was either going to melt or combust.  And the poor plants.  They’re all sun scorched and stunted, but they still produced!  I love summer gardening even with the heat because of melons.  Mmmmmm.  Zucchini too. I love Zucchini bread.  But it’s the melons that make me look forward to every summer.

Yesterday I noticed the beans, which had dried out and withered and were completely dead had started growing leaves again.  So have the grape vines which were looking nearly dead.  How, especially with the beans, they are growing leaves again is beyond me.  I mean they were crunchy dead for the past month and a half.

Fall is traditionally looked at as the end of the growing season and the harbinger of the year’s death in winter.  For the smart gardener in the desert and the rest of the world too, fall is the beginning of a new growing season.  In the desert, this is an easier growing season as the beans have told us.  Now unfortunately in one month the frosts will hit and the beans and grapes and melons and tomatoes and pumpkins who are all smiling for now will be wiped out.  But lucky for us there are cold season plants that happily grow in the fall and winter.  These include carrots, beets, swiss chard, celery, kale, leek, lettuce, radish, rhubarb, spinach, turnips and even tomatoes can be started by seed in January.

Cool Season Crops Not Affected by Frost
	Asparagus		Broad Bean		Broccoli		Brussels Sprouts
	Cabbage		Collard		Garlic		Horseradish
	Kale		Kohlrabi		Leek		Onion
	Pea		Radish		Rhubarb		Shallot
	Spinach		Turnip

 

Cool Season Crops Affected by Frost
	Beets		Carrots		Cauliflower		Celery
	Chard		Chinese Cabbage		Endive		Lettuce
	Mustard		Parsnip		Potato		Swiss Chard

 

Warm Season Crops
	Cantaloupe		Cucumber		Eggplant		Lima Bean
	New Zealand Spinach		Pepper		Pumpkin		Snap Bean
	Squash		Sweet Corn		Sweet Potato		Tomato
	Watermelon

– See more at: http://www.northeastnursery.com/plants/seasonalcrops.html#sthash.XJ4zgxrA.dpuf