At last I have found a carrot variety that I think is fantastic and grows very well in my soil here at the farm on Beaver Creek in Huntersville.  It’s called “Yellow Sun” and is a delicious carrot that is truly a golden yellow and very strange to harvest.  I kept thinking it would turn orange!  The roots are 6-7 inches long and it is well filled with a blunt tip.  I think it’s best cooked.  I know that people have trouble getting good carrots in heavy clay soil.  The trick is to raise the row or bed of carrots and work in plenty of organic matter to keep the soil loose and give the carrot room to grow.  I doubt we can grow the long tapering type imperator carrots, but we don’t have to.  These carrots, for one, do very well.  I’ve also found that the variety “Hercules,” which is about the same length as the “Yellow Sun” is also a good choice.            
There are also a couple of turnip varieties that might be of interest.  They do very well for me and I love the taste of them.  “Scarlet Queen” and “Hakurei.”  They have a very gentle taste for turnips and the stems of the “Scarlet Queen,” which are red, are delicious in salads or lightly steamed.  Both varieties are best when they’re harvested around two inches and can be prepared together.
I’ll go over other vegetable varieties that work well for me in the early spring when we are ordering our seeds for the garden.  As you may know, I truly believe in experimenting with vegetables to find varieties that grow and taste best.  The “Yellow Sun” carrot is a new variety and certainly worth the cost of a packet of seeds.  I tried a cutting celery a year ago, which grew so prolifically and, dried, gave us the celery flavor for soups and stews in the winter.  They are just the leafy herb with the celery flavor.  Trying these different varieties keeps you growing as a gardener, as well.
Well, I’ve been working in my perennial beds to get rid of monsters and mistakes and beings who take over as they choose.  Most are being dug out for better locations either around the pond, as some do great in boggy conditions, or outside the garden fence or wherever I think they might show themselves to advantage, but can’t take over the world!
We gardeners work hard in our flower beds to mix plants that will look good together.   We work on height and color and imagine what will go well where.  When I drive along our roads and see the Joe Pye Weed, with its stately, beautiful, mauve colored flowers and the New York Ironweed with its deep purple and the bright Goldenrod, which is a true golden yellow, I always think of the absolute perfection of nature.  I mean you couldn’t design anything better than the complementary colors – purples, mauves and yellows together!
For beautiful fall colors in your flower beds, there are the following plants that can be planted this fall starting now:
Chrysanthemum—They like to grow in full sun and are great for flower cuttings.  They can stay blooming until the first hard frost and range in so many colors, it’s hard to list them.
Cyclamen—These are tiny little beauties that flower at the beginning of autumn in pink or white rocket shaped flowers.  Their marbled leaves look great through winter and they can be grown in part shade or full sunlight.  They reach about six inches in height.
Fall Asters—They range in colors from white, pink, blue and purple to red.  They like full sunlight and rich soil and if you pinch and prune them back they will stay compact instead of getting leggy.  They grow from one and a half feet to five feet in height.
Japanese Anemone—They can have poppy like flowers of white, burgundy or red.  They like to grow in part shade to full sunlight and make good cut flowers.  It’s best to mulch them the first winter, otherwise they require no special care and are beautiful.
Ornamental Kale and Cabbages—They have very beautiful foliage of blue, purple or green and are often planted with pansies to create a very colorful area of the garden.  They grow from 18 inches to two feet in height.  They sometimes can last through most of the winter until spring.
Miscanthus—These are grasses that are very easy to grow and range in height from three to eight feet in part shade or full sunlight.  Their plumes are beautiful and are in colors of white, cream, pink, bronze, silver and purple depending on the variety you choose.  Their clumps are beautiful on embankments and hillsides and keep the soil from eroding.
Phlox—Colors range from white, blue, red and pink to purple and make a great autumn plant.  They grow from two to four feet in height in part shade or full sun.  Phlox need good ventilation so don’t crowd them, they need plenty of air.  Some are wonderfully fragrant as well.
Winter Pansy—They flower throughout the autumn and winter and can reach a height of two feet and like to grow in full sunlight.  Their colors are beautiful and range in yellows, reds, purples and white.  It’s always a joy to see them in winter hanging in when everything else is gone.  As an aside, they are persistent in the flower pots in Marlinton!
Scotch Heather—Their bell-shaped flowers can be white, violet, purple, red or bronze and the leaves may be green, apricot or russet.  They prefer to grow in full sunlight.  Some of the late blooming varieties are Goldsworth Crimson, Blazeaway, Alba Jae, Darkness and David Eason.
I wanted to mention that the Extension Office has some great articles you can obtain such as Organic Pest Control Guide, Tactics for Controlling Common Vegetable Pests and Organic Fertilizers.  Those were some of the great handouts we had at the last Organic Workshop here at Zendik Farm and I find they are invaluable as guides for growing organically.  Once again, I urge you to build your compost piles to be ready in the spring for your vegetable and flower gardens and for the fertility and tilth of your soil.  Compost will straighten out any soil from clay to sand and enable you to be able to grow anything you want and it’s completely safe!
As a reminder: don’t cut down your milkweed plants, the Monarch butterflies lay their eggs on the plants and we all want those beautiful creatures to thrive.  As the gardening season winds down, there is always a bit of sadness for me even though I may be exhausted.  Gardening is a thrilling experience, a healing one and a gift to be able to participate in the growing cycles of flowers and vegetables, trees and shrubs.  I cherish the gift.