On Rusty Nails, the Summer-to-Fall Transition, Chaos Sowing Greens, and Where to Get Plants This Fall
No. 14 | Fall Gardening in Greenville, SC
I want to tell you the start to fall is everything I hoped it would be…
But I wrote this sitting inside with my foot elevated to prevent swelling for the fourth day in a row, since I stepped on a 30-year-old roofing nail while gardening on Saturday morning.
I’ll spare you the gory details beyond saying I’m very thankful I’ve been exercising regularly, as I had to hop up three porch steps on one foot while gripping my big toe in the other hand to keep pressure on the wound. Oh, the drama.
I made it to the porch door and hollered for Siena. As it goes, she was on the toilet. TJ wasn’t home, so I crawled myself to the tub to wash it, and sent Siena for a whole roll of paper towels and gauze. She was amazing, but flustered, as any 8-year-old would be. She journaled her feelings later that day on a folded sheet of printer paper, titling it simply, “One Crasy Morning.” I can’t tell you how annoying it is to have an injury that requires only a single, normal-sized Band-Aid become this disruptive to my life.
I had just finished tending to my baby lettuces at my new potting station when the offending nail found my big toe. So, on to the lettuces…
One conundrum I’ve faced each fall for years now is the transition of summer’s garden into fall’s in a small growing space that I continuously crop. I still have vigorous tomatoes and peppers and marigolds growing. Carrots nearly ready to harvest. Radish sprouts. Baby arugula that’s been growing since early August. Lots of herbs. I’m not ready to wipe it all out in favor of winter’s greens and the garlic I don’t need to plant until mid-October.
As a practice, I thickly top-dress my raised beds with compost at each seasonal transition. So how to time it all out? It’s frustrated me.
If I top-dress thickly enough now, I’ll bury many small plants, and I’m not about to dig everything up and plant it right back again.
But I also wanted to get a head start on lettuces, spinach and kale. Usually, what has worked best for me with those tiny seeds that need sunlight for germination is to “chaos sow” them on the bare soil at the base of summer’s last stalwarts.
This year I had a modest brainwave: I have a small rectangular, self-watering planter. I filled it with good quality potting soil, and then topped it with a thin layer of seed-starting mix and sprinkled seeds across the top in 5 zones: buttercrunch, rouge d’hiver, romaine, spinach and dinosaur kale.
I’ve kept it on my potting table, making it convenient to keep watered, but it’s the self-watering nature and depth of this planter that really cuts down on the need to baby it the way sowing in conventional seed trays does.
Within days I had sprouts, and after true leaves emerged, I started pricking some out to grow in a less crowded environment using Julie Thomson-Adolf’s suggestion of a kitchen fork. Honestly, I’m not sure separating those out has made a difference (thought the fork works great!): The whole crowded planter is growing strongly like a little portable salad bar. But now I also have cell trays of 10 or so of each type of green for transplanting later.
With this, I can wait longer to top-dress the raised beds, and then transplant some of these little guys out there to grow out. But I think I might keep baby greens in this little trough all cool season.
I’ve said for years fall gardening is my favorite, and I’m finding that more true this year than ever. Just need my foot back in commission, because I have lots of plans!
PSA: Come to the Fall Plant Share event. Saturday, October 4 from 10-1pm. Bring seeds, seedlings, plants you dug up from your yard—whatever! Or bring nothing at all and just accept some free plants. It really is a generous affair. More details below.
The whole crowded planter is growing strongly like a little portable salad bar.
Fall 2025
What I’m Reading & Listening To
Garden Gab Club Podcast
Tessa Pinner and Molly Hendry
Greenville’s Tessa Pinner started the Garden Gab Club podcast with her friend Molly from Alabama. It’s just conversational insights into gardening and plants, with a focus on inspiration and practical advice. Lovely.
The English Gardener’s Garden
Phaidon Editors
I picked this book up over the summer at A Maker’s Post, a delightful plant and housewares shop on Sullivan’s Island. Fair warning: It’ll make you pine for a trip to England, but I have found this book endlessly inspiring.
What I’m Growing
A list of what is actively growing in my kitchen garden right now.
Arugula
Carrots
Cucumbers
Figs
Herbs: Rosemary, thyme, chives, green onion, lemongrass, oregano, parsely, peppermint, spearmint and sage
Kale: Lacinato
Lettuce: Buttercrunch, Winter Rouge, Romaine
Peppers: Jimmy Nardello, shishito, and cayenne.
Radishes
Spinach
Squash: Cucuzza
Tomatoes: My heirloom cherry type I’ve been saving forever, originally called “Blue Berries,” and Amish Paste Romas
Meyer lemon
Resources
Plants Map - Paper Routes - Good Printed Things
A map I wrote featuring great places to buy plants locally here in Upstate, South Carolina. Illustrated by Charis JB.
The Uncomplicated Gardener - Good Printed Things
My zine sharing six steps I’ve learned over time that brought me success and joy growing and tending plants without overcomplicating things. Illustrated by Jennifer Bilton.
Fall 2025 Plant Sales & Events
September 25 and 27 - Hatcher Garden & Woodland Preserve Plant Sale, Spartanburg
September 26 and 27 - SC Botanical Garden Fall Plant Sale, Clemson
September 26 and 27 - AutumnFest, Greenville State Farmers Market
October 4, 10am - 1pm - I’m hosting a FREE Plant Share event, West Greenville. 580 Perry Ave. beside The Oxford Barber Co and Kuka Juice.
October 9-11 - South Carolina Native Plant Society's Upstate Fall Native Plant Sale
Please support this amazing organization! This is one of the best, most affordable ways to stock up on native plants.