[habitat_gardener]

It was overcast most of the day yesterday, in the 60s and 70s. The blessing of a cooler summer is that my summer garden is just starting to produce a lot of tomatoes and beans, and the corn is young. Usually everything peaks in early Sept. I've yet to pick the first eggplant.

This is the first year I've bought or made enough seed-starting mix and set up my seed-starting area so that I can start seeds all season. It seems as soon as I've planted something, I get ideas on what to start next. I got a late start (May), but I've had lots of seedlings growing ever since. I've already started some brussels sprouts. These will be the first ones I've grown from seed, and they're just about ready to plant. The only dilemma is where to plant them. I rent garden space, and I'm not sure which garden to plant them in, so that complicates my planning.

I planted my Red Ruby and Golden Beet seedlings yesterday, tucked into odd corners. I grew up eating borscht (which my mother called watermelon soup) but have only started really enjoying beets on their own in the past year, I think because I grew some. I've always eaten some beets -- grated raw in salads, or roasted, or boiled -- but since I've started growing my own I find I'm looking forward to them. I don't like chard or spinach so much, but I'll see if that changes when I harvest the chard plant that volunteered in my garden this year.

I grow perennial kale year-round, so I'm all set for brassicas and leafy greens (hmm, so I better start some in my other gardens, just in case...). It's still my favorite kale, and I've grown red russian, lacinato (black/tuscan/dino), rainbow lacinato, white russian, and probably a few others. I eat kale every day!

I'm thinking about starting some onions from seed. In the past I've bought 6-packs of seedlings -- and divided them into 30-80 plants. I usually don't plant garlic until I've cleared out the summer crops, which usually ends up being after the first frost at the end of November.