Fall kitchen gardening

I'm doing a program tomorrow on fall vegetable gardening.  It's so hot and humid, it's hard to think about sowing spinach, lettuce, chard, beet, kale, turnip, collard, mache, onion, and arugula seeds (not to mention transplants of broccoli, cabbage, brussel sprouts, and cauliflower.  But it's time.  It may not be too late to try a few baby carrots, too, and nurse them along in the heat.

But I was reminded, updating this program yet again, how much I've learned about gardening seasons in the South, and how even simple season extensions (cold frames, row covers, and the like) can extend our three seasons of growing to four.

I haven't yet decided whether to sow kale (Tuscan, Siberian, and Red Bor) in the main vegetable garden or the satellite garden (they're susceptible to both root-knot nematodes and woodchuck herbivory); nor have I figured out what I'll plant in my raised beds in the mountains, when the tomatoes and beans finally decide they're finished.  I may need to come up with a cover for the planted beds, to provide a bit of protection towards potentially earlier frosts.