Sowing fall salad crops: Mesclun

Yesterday, after cleaning and tidying and before messing up and soiling, I took a photo of my potting bench where all the gardening action takes place.  It's rarely in this orderly, clean state.  Midway through a planting session the space gets too crowded with flora, fauna (Westie) and gardener and so everything spills over to the dining room on the other side of the patio doors. Let's just say clean-up takes a lot longer than the gardening itself.

This afternoon, I sowed mesclun following Renee's excellent tips:

And no spilled soil or water for a change. Taking photos for this blog has unexpected benefits, like helping me be tidier.

What fall crops have you sown in the past and/or what are you planning to sow for the upcoming season?  I'd love to know, particularly if you have a balcony garden. This is my first time sowing fall crops. And feel free to share photos of your work area and tips for working in small spaces.

Stay or go; read or sow?

(Written last week but published late. Just wanted to give some context for the next post.)

Should I stay or should I go; should I blog or should I sow?

Monday through Friday, my first afterwork activity is predetermined. By my Westie. And today if he hadn't, as usual, nudged me with his nose toward the door, the early evening sunshine would have pulled me outside for a long walk. Now that I'm home I'm left with the other two options: blog (ie. read old favourites and new finds, comment, write my Earth Day post) or sow. Again, the choice is easy. This awaits me: I've sown about 1/4 of these seeds and am ahead of schedule compared to last year, on time compared to 10-12 years ago, but very late (for indoor sowing of herbs and flowers) according to last frost dates for zone 8. My garden is an experiment in pushing all kinds of limits, including space and time. I do have to follow a calendar of some sort, though, and need to sow the sweet peas NOW or wait until fall. Credit goes to Thomas Hobbs for this late and spontaneous addition of sweet peas to the balcony garden. He featured them in hanging baskets this past Saturday on the morning news gardening feature.