Fall Planting

The time has arrived to start planning for your fall planting!  It is hard to take time away from an increasingly busy summer garden to think about fall however now is the time to plan what vegetables you would like to have growing when the leaves start to fall and the sweaters come out of storage.  We live in zone 6a which means each winter, on average, our risk of frost is from October 19 through April 22.  If you live in a different zone, the Virginia Cooperative Extension provides the following handy formula to help you determine when to plant for fall harvest.

• Take the first frost date for your area (ours is October 19^th)
• Subtract the number of days from seeding or transplanting outdoors to harvest (this is the days to maturity)
• Subtract the number of days from seed to transplant if you start your own seed
• Subtract the average harvest period (this is the length of time you expect to be harvesting your crop for fall)
• Subtract the Fall Factor (about two weeks)
• This equals your fall planting date

So, for example, here in Ohio our first frost date is October 19th and we want to figure out when to plant De Cicco broccoli for fall harvest, we approach finding the date like this:

The High Mowing Organic Seeds catalog lists the days to maturity for De Cicco broccoli at 48 days from transplant.  We need to add another 4 weeks, or 28 days, for the time from seed to transplant.  De Cicco has a long harvest window, so we will estimate 21 days for the harvest period.

• 48 days to maturity
• 28 days seed to transplant
• 15-20 days harvest period
• 10-14 days Fall Factor

This formula tells us that about 100 days before October 19th is when we want to seed, making the fall broccoli planting date around July 13th.

Here is a basic guide for planting dates in zone 5-6

Vegetable Planting Calender | eHow.com

Woodhaven Place

Welcome to Woodhaven Place Homestead and Gardens!  We moved in Christmas week and spent the last 6 months getting this wonderful property ready for the growing season.  For three years, we have been reading about homesteading and looking for a property that would fit our budget and location.  A complete stranger we met walking around an open house told us about what would become Woodhaven Place in September.  The house was not on the market; at the time the owners were remodeling it to sell as for-sale-by-owner.  We discussed an offer with the owners and two days later put our house on the market, 30 days later had an offer, and we closed both houses the same day one week before Christmas!  Talk about a God-thing, we were amazed over and over how the process just kept moving forward in spite of all the odds against this happening. 

This is what our property looked like when we moved in Christmas week

Woodhaven Place is almost 6 acres in the middle of the suburbs.  Driving up to our home you would never know a working homestead was in the back.  We are surrounded by woods on all four sides with (after much work) cleared acres in the middle for a garden.  We back up to farm land on one side and the other three sides have suburban homes hidden by a thick perimeter woods.  With huge evergreen trees and hardwoods protecting our little homestead on all sides, you get the feeling of being out in the middle of the country however are only 5 minutes away from the mall. 

 One acre is very beautiful dense woods.

We have been so blessed to find our dream property right in the middle of our family and friends.  

Because we really are “urban homesteaders” we have a fantastic opportunity to expose farming, bee keeping, food preservation, and many other homestead skills to the surrounding community.  We believe that we have been placed in the perfect position to do what we have always wanted, live a more self reliant life and show others how to do the same.