Fall Planting in the Growing Dome

I am excited this fall, because for once I don’t feel terribly behind on my winter crop plantings. I have 2 separate beds of my “greens mixture” beets, chard, kale, swiss chard and parsnips coming up, about 3 weeks apart, I have garlic sprouted about 4″ and more just breaking through the ground. Onions are up about 5″ tall and I’m ready to plant more, one bed of mixed salad greens that are about 2 weeks from harvest and another batch that hasn’t broken the surface of the dirt yet. This weekend I will be planting another “greens bed”, more garlic (is there ever enough garlic?) and perhaps some cabbage. Every time one of my jalapeno pepper plants decides that it no longer wishes to bloom, I pull it out and plant something in it’s spot. My lettuce is coming up tucked between 2 still producing tomato plants, and all around the edges of the planting beds onions are up. It took me a bit of time to get my hands on some spinach seeds, but they are planted as of Sunday, and I’ll plant some more each week until the weather is too extremely cold for seedlings, then I’ll resort to planting some inside flats to keep my next batch of plants ready for early, early spring planting. Having seeds ready by September made a huge difference this year, as I was able to start planting as soon as the nights starting going cool, instead of just starting to search for seeds then. Every time I plant the time frame between when I stop harvesting one type of veggie and can start harvesting the next is getting shorter and shorter. This time around, I will be harvesting fall veggies before the summer ones are even done! If you haven’t planted your fall/winter crops in your dome yet, now’s the time, don’t wait for the summer plants to completely die out, tuck seeds in around their roots and in any open spots you have! It’s all about the food.

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Kyle
Kyle joined the Growing Spaces team in 2015, and enjoys being involved in all the exciting projects and developments happening around here!I graduated from Pagosa Springs High School in 2009 and moved to Gunnison, Colorado to pursue a degree in Environmental Studies. After graduating from Western State Colorado University, I moved back to my home town Pagosa Springs. Since moving back home in 2013, I have been working to develop a farm in Arboles. In my spare time, one may find me backpacking in the wilderness, cruising on a mountain bike, slacklining in the park, or skiing Wolf Creek. I also enjoy creating art when I am not outdoors. The mediums that I enjoy working with are yarn, canvas and paint, and clay. I have been experimenting with aquapoinics and am always excited to share knowledge on the subject with others. I joined the Growing Spaces team in 2015, and enjoy being involved in all the exciting projects and developments happening around here!

4 Comments

  • Thanks for this post! Inspires me to get out there and do some fall planting. I felt like it was too late until I read this!

  • Great to hear it, I know it’s kind of challenging to think winter crops, when the temperatures have been so lovely. We were lucky enough to have a long fall this year, but I didn’t let that stop me this time from moving forward with planting winter seeds! I am excited to get the kale, swiss chard and beet greens ready to harvest as I bought a juice extractor for $20 at a garage sale this summer and I want to give that a try soon! I’ve got a friend who is so in tune with her dome that she produces the most amazing salad greens all year long, so that’s one of my goals this year. Kim includes flower blooms in her salad along with bits of chives, dill, fennel, basically whatever is growing and it makes the most scrumptious lettuce mix, we even had it on tostadas the other night! Happy gardening in your Dome and more importantly happy eating!

  • Thank you for that additional info. I don’t have my dome yet but have done the 50% down, hoping to take delivery in about 5 months. Can’t wait!!! In the meantime I’m enjoying following everyone’s dome adventures on the blog here and grateful to be learning from all of you. A $20 juice extractor is an amazing find, I’m sure you’ll enjoy that a lot. Your friend’s salad sounds awesome and that’s sure what I’m aspiring to!

  • Thanks for the information. I was waiting to pull my cucumber plants before planting some greens, but will now tuck them in around the cucmbers.

    I feel lucky to have seeds, since I wasn’t able to plant for the summer, my outside garden wasn’t ready and my dome wasn’t complete. I’m looking forward to trying everything.

    Judy/Crestonean

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