Welcome to the weekend coffee share! Can I grab you a hot beverage? What’s your preference? I would not say that fall arrived in all its glory yet, but there are some noticeable changes, like cooler weather and darker evenings.
Yesterday afternoon I decided to take a walk around one of the smaller lakes in the area. My weather app said that there was chances of light rain. I actually like the rain. However, five minutes into the walk it started pouring down and it was not a light summers rain, it was actually cold. I still enjoyed the walk but didn’t quite walk as far as I planned, I was soaked and it was cold. This week I also noticed that the evenings are much darker, a sure sign that fall is approaching rapidly. During the summer we have daylight almost 24/7.
I see the changes in the garden as well. I figured that I’ll show you what’s growing in the garden this late August weekend.
There are some raspberries, they are super sweet in the late fall, sweeter than in the beginning of the season.
I have a third crop of radishes on the way. Radishes likes the cooler weather.
More beets and parsnip on the way. The beets are the third crop of the season and the parsnips are actually sown last fall, parsnip have a longer growing time. Beets, squash and carrots have been on my plate in some shape or form almost daily for the past six weeks. Yesterday I baked pizza with a tomato sauce made with my own tomatoes, the first of the season (unusually late).
I have several garden beds with green onions on the way. I harvest those when needed, they can be harvested all winter long, they don’t mind the frost or snow! An excellent crop to grow in our climate.
In this particular garden bed they have celery as companion plants. The celery is going to be harvested soon. Green onion can have almost any plant as companion. This year I started all my green onions from seeds, in containers outside, it was around March and it was still cold outside. Most people in my area starts them inside in January, they take up a lot of space during a very long time before they plant them outside in early June. I simply skipped that and started them outside, it seems to work just fine.
I’ve started to harvest seeds from the garden. The seeds above are marigold seeds for next year.
These are poppy-heads with poppy seeds inside of them. One poppy-head have hundreds (if not thousands) of seeds. I make sure all seeds are completely dry before packing them in airtight containers. I store them in a dark cupboard. I usually collect a lot of flower seeds and share them with my friends and I also plant flowers with the kindergarten children at work later in the spring. Marigold and poppy seeds can actually be planted all year long. You can spread the seeds on frozen ground or in the middle of the summer, even though I think spring planting is the most common. I always spread some seeds over my garden beds in the late fall, to get a head start for the first pollinators in the spring. I love having flowers mixed in with my veggies and many of them, like marigolds, help repel some pests as well.
I took this picture of my garden yesterday and at the bottom right corner you can see some marigolds that I planted mid-summer, to have some colour this fall.
The sun is shining outside my window and I am getting ready to go outside this beautiful Saturday morning. My bike is begging me to go for a ride :) Before finishing up this post I have to add that I am very happy with the work-school-life balance this week. How is your week? Do you have any fun plans for the weekend, please tell me in a comment! Thank you Natalie for hosting the weekend coffee share.
Maria
GreenDreamsSweden 
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