Canokie, that is the way I do it (although I did not use potting soil this time), My broccoli is just now coming up. The way the weather has been the past couple of years I would be afraid to say when the proper time is to plant.

I dont think I will buy new seeds but I have plenty of thing I can plant. I may plant a lot of mustard because I have the seed and it tills in easy. I have not priced grain rye this year, it may be too high to buy for a cover crop.

I have only tried to grow carrots one time and it was a big flop. I dont think you can kill green onions. I have some Evergreen winter onions that have been laying on the lawn for a week or so, I plan to cut the tops of of some of them and replant them, the rest I will try to give away.

Larry

I planted yesterday and today. Carrots peas brocoli cauliflower onion and some flowers. I had to get rid of the tomato jungle. I just pruned the Romas and pulled all the other spring ones.

Thank goodness the weather finally broke. I spent most of today and yesterday outside. I have fall tomatoes and beans that are flowering now, so, not everything was late.

Canokie;
That's how I just planted all mine - with the trench as suggested by the OSU Fall Planting Guide.

And I only recently started. I knew I wouldn't keep them moist enough in that gawd awful heat wave. I'm a newbie so I benefit even if I plant at the wrong time for I haven't actually grown much though I try to utilize the planting dates.

bon

"OSU Fall Planting Guide"

Go ahead and go for it. Our weather is so variable here that more times than not you'll still get a good crop even from crops put in the ground somewhat late.

I don't use potting soil in the trench, but you can if you want. However, be sure it is good and moist when you use it, because most soil-less potting mixes are high in peat and when peat gets really dry, it is almost impossible to get it to hold water again. So, keep it evenly moist all along until your seeds are up. I use compost instead of potting soil.

I've not planted much for fall because the cool-down has not been very kind to us This week isn't over yet, and we've had highs of 109 and 106, in each case with the high temp going 8 or 9 degrees higher than forecast. I do hope that the cool weather gets here and stays here. I'd like to think we've seen the last of temperatures in the 100s at least.

Fall weather is highly variable. We've been here 14 years and have had the first hard freeze of fall as early as the last week of September a couple of times and as late as mid-December once or twice. More normally it arrives in my area between mid-November and Thanksgiving. So, I never worry too much about planting the fall garden late since there's always a good chance the really cold weather will arrive late as well.

If I'd planted fall crops on time, the poor things would have had to deal with high temps in the 106-112 range, so I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for the cool down. Sometimes it is just too hot to plant on time.

Dawn

I have been waiting, not wanting to take the chance with the heat being what it was. But it looks like other than a few high days here and there we are in the clear now and I am going to go ahead and plant, then use frost blankets down the road if I have to.

I am excited about getting it going....

Canokie, I plant much like the OK fact sheet late in the year. I will show a picture of 3 short rows of broccoli planted on the 11th and is now about 1/4" high. The corn behind it (only had about 75 or 80 seeds) is running a little low on nitrogen and a little high on grasshoppers.

The small seeds like broccoli I just drop in the furrow and sprinkle with a water can. The water will wash enough soil into the furrow to cover the seeds. I use about 1 gal of water per 10 feet. The sides on the furrow keeps the water from running off. It takes very little water to get the seeds up, but it may take a lot more when the plants are much larger.

These are cheap seeds, I might take more care if I was using more expensive seeds.

Larry

Larry, that was so helpful - especially the water amounts. Thank you

bon

Thanks for all the replies - glad to see I'm not the only one! And thanks Larry for the photo and details about how you plant - it really helps! Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words :)

Shelley