A Wild Child Garden In October

October feels like garden goodness to me.  I want all of the root veggies, all of the leafy greens, I am going to plant snap peas and sweet peas with the moon this weekend, and you better believe that the garlic is going in the ground at the first opportunity!! The cool season garden is just like that.  It never stops.  It is so slow and calm, but it is non-stop all at the same time.  Turns out she is alot like me.  My heart just wants to relax, barefoot in the cool grass, with a golden milk latte, but my brain is like no, get up, we have to plant more radishes.  The cool season garden keeps us going.  The world around us is falling asleep, but this space is just waking up.  And she has so much to show us.  In October, I just want to take it all in. All the sights, smells, and sounds of the coming slow down.  It is one of the most beautiful seasons in the wild child garden, and also one of the most challenging.  That is because we have to let go. We have to trust. And we have to have patience.  Difficult. Difficult. Difficult.  But we can do it. Nature will lead the way.

What I'm Planting

This month the answer is EVERYTHING.  This is THE month to plant our cool season gardens.  I have a couple things I am super excited about growing this year that I can't wait to share with you.  Also, I share all of what we can plant in Louisiana in my monthly planting guide.  You can download the full pdf version of the guide here.

One thing I wait for all year is lettuce.  It is one of my favorite things to grow.  Lettuce is so easy, it will grow anywhere, and can be planted all winter long.  The earlier the better if you ask me.  I love to get all of my big bully brassicas in the ground in September, and then fill in all the empty spaces with lettuce in October. Such a dream!!

The trick to growing lettuce in the south is to grow leaf lettuce.  Head lettuce isn't nearly as fun, it takes way longer, and it doesn't come back once you harvest.  Leaf lettuce on the other hand is cut and come again. That means that as long as you are picking, it is going to be growing.  That is my kind of gardening.  Super easy and super delicious. So I will make sure to have all of the best lettuces in my garden this season, so that I can have salads all winter with every meal.  

I think we take that for granted sometimes.  We have the privilege to grow our own lettuce for salads all winter long.  Yet, we don't do it?  Why? Is it because we are a little bit scared?  Maybe we are intimidated because we have never done it before?  I can help with that in THIS episode of the Wild Child Kitchen Gardening podcast.  Break out of your garden comfort zone this season.  I promise you it will be your best season ever if you do.  Lettuce is like that for me!!  I used to be so afraid of it. Now, it is not unusual at all for me to have 10-15 varieties of lettuce growing in the cool season.  I love it so. much.  Here are my favorite varieties below!  These are all heat tolerant and can be planted right now by seed!!  

What I'm Picking

I have already picked my first succession of radishes, and pickled them using THIS recipe.  I also grabbed a handful of lettuce (I couldn't wait another minute), but the hard part of this month is picking the last of the summer goodness.  Removing the peppers, the eggplant, and the cherry tomatoes is never something I look forward to, but I always feel so good after it is done.  These guys are going to keep right on going into fall until we get a frost, but I am usually so excited about what I can plant that I need them gone!  So I pick all that I can, thank them for their service, and move on to new veggies in their space.  

I'm also picking all the winter squash.  'Cucuzza,' 'Butternut,' and 'Delicata' are all divine, but the cucuzza is just my favorite.  I love growing it. I love the history behind it, the stories surrounding it, and it is delicious. The wild child garden is so much more than a patch of veggies.  It is an experience and the stories and memories surrounding what we grow make every bite so sweet.  The cucuzza is one of those veggies with a rich history.  The plant growing on the fence in my backyard came all the way from Italy, ending up in New Orleans when the first Italians migrated here and settled in our state.  From here the tradition was carried out, and Italian families cooked their cucuzza every Sunday.  One Italian family that still eats cucuzza casserole every Sunday for familly dinner is Mrs. Claire's in our garden club.  She was on a mission to find the seeds, and when she did she shared them with the ladies in the wild child garden club, and we have been growing cucuzza ever since.  She brought back this rich tradition of eat cucuzza casserole every Sunday to her family with these seeds, and we introduced it in ours.  This is the wild child garden. After I picked my first cucuzza (pictured below), I was hooked.  The joy of tradition that we get to experience in the wild child garden is so good.

The butternut squash is also ripe on the vine, and it has been such an unexpected joy to grow and harvest. Winter squash used to scare me, and I think it is because I always lost the plant in the first frost. I used to think that winter squash was grown in the winter, but in fact, it is grown in the summer but it stores well, so it is considered a squash for winter.  I never knew that, so I spent many years trying to grow winter squash in the winter. Well, it doesn't work. The first frost will wipe them out every single time.  We grow them in the late summer instead.  And man oh man, what a treat.  They are a beautiful addition to the garden in fall, and they are delicious.  Learning how to grow a garden has been transformational for me.  Knowing how to grow has made all of the difference.  From years of losing freshly planted winter squash in the first frost to harvesting so many to store all winter, butternut squash has become a wild child favorite.  Here are a couple butternut harvests from the Garden Club.

And now that you are going to be harvesting bucket loads of butternut, be sure you make the recipe below.  My butternut squash mac and cheese will rock your world.  It is so delicious and so good for you! This is a keeper of a recipe so make sure you try it.  Not growing butternut squash this year?  No problem. Pick a few up at the store or farmer's markets (make sure you can't pierce the skin when you press with your fingernail), and they will store for you all winter just the same as one you grew. 

OCTOBER PRO TIP:  Leave the squash on the vine until first frost even if the vine dies.  The frost will cause the plant to release all of its sugars giving you a much sweeter squash.  A few days after frost kills the vines, harvest your squash and store for winter.  You can also remove the vines at this time.

I will be posting all month on my social media as we enter into fall in the garden!  It is truly beautiful. I hope you join me there!  And if you want to download my full October Planting Guide, you can do that here!