Planting in Season

After one HOT summer here in SE Georgia, I think that I learned the hard way what it means to plant in season. Of course all the leafy-greens never came up and the peas gave perhaps only a handful of product per plant.

So coming at this from a new angle, I am starting move forward with what the locals call "the fall garden". Having gardened originally in Ohio this is a newer concept to me. (We have a cold, short fall up there!) I have turned over some soil and done a little research. I made a small chart to help me sort out when to start my planting for that fall garden and I was even able to save some seeds from my Okra crop (which did grow very well here in SE Georgia.

The benefits of growing in season are not just having a good natural cycle of crops, but it can also save greenhouse emissions. One study actually shows that crops locally sourced out of season [in winter] produce considerably more carbon emissions than those imported from warmer climates. This is due to the incredible amount of fossil fuels used to heat local greenhouses (Wong & Hallworth, 2012). And growing out of season in the summer is almost impossible here.

All things considered, I am excited to see what happens, and I am happy to say my seed-saved okra has started germinate. A step in the right direction for my little garden. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Wong, A. & Hallsworth, A. (2012). Farm-to-Fork: A Proposed Revision of the Classical Food Miles Concept. International Journal on Food Systems Dynamics, 3 (1), 74-81