Gardening in September |
Flowers blooming in fall
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Fall gardening if you look at it like winter is almost here and your tomatoes are done for the year. as you might be suspecting if you are reading this there is in fact a whole new season to grow food and flowers during the cooler weather! it can be a short season depending on what zone you live in but it is still a season to grow! These tips will be a guide to get you started in your fall garden journey and help you prepare your garden for the next season. The cooler temperatures are much more pleasant to work in and all of those tasks you may put off during the late spring and summer seasons are perfect to be done now while you work toward building a healthier garden and growing more food!
1st month of fall: Your garden is still growing and now is the time to take advantage of that. As gardeners what we desire most is to grow food and that is exactly what you are going to continue to do right now. |
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Sow and Sow |
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Keep sowing fast-growing cold hardy vegetables like spinach, kale, collards, radishes, and lettuce. This time of year the sun is getting lower in the sky and that might result in your garden getting less light. At least that is what happens in my garden. That being said spinach and lettuce do not need as much light as other vegetables, so take advantage of this gift we have been given. Radishes can go from seed to harvest in 21 days in some instances and they should be sowed continuously. Everything that is listed here except for radishes does not produce fruit so you are just harvesting their leaves. This means that you can harvest them at any time you want. If it is early enough and you have about 60 days until your first frost try carrots, parsnips, and rutabagas. They just need time to get growing. All of these root crops mentioned will get a sweeter taste after the first frost. What this tells me is they are able to handle some cold. It is not like a pepper plant that needs 80 ish days to harvest. Sow some cold-hardy flowers too. Nasturtiums which are edible are fast growers. Some other good options depending on the zone you are in and the timing of your first frost you can still plant pansy and snapdragons. If they don’t grow during the fall the seed still has a good chance of growing in the spring with no effort! The biggest trick to sowing seeds in the fall is getting them in the ground as soon as you can so they have a chance to germinate while also keeping them well watered in the leftover summer heat that you can get. If you are trying to manage crops from summer that are still producing but you need to sow some seeds in your garden then be careful with watering. A good option to use is hand watering the seeds you have just sowed since they will need more frequent waterings. On the same token as it gets cooler and the temperatures start to cool off evaporation is much less. This means that you will not need to water your garden as much if the plants are already established. |
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Put some back for winter: food preservation |
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Are you getting an abundance of produce leftover from summer? Give food preservation a shot then. You can start drying, freezing, and canning some of the produce you have on hand. I personally like to can my produce but if time is short you can always freeze the produce. We have done extensive podcast episodes on these subjects so I will leave the links here so you can listen to the backyard gardens podcast episodes where we break down each of these subjects in detail.
Dehydrating episode Freezing episode Canning episode I like to dry herbs and cayenne peppers in particular. Freezing I tend to do green beans, bell pepper, okra, peas, and berries. Canning is a whole different story I love to can tomatoes as a sauce or diced, butternut squash, carrots, green beans, jellies, potatoes, and of course apple butter! There are many more crops you are able to can. This link is to a website I use to get my recipes and directions for food preservation. So far it hasn’t served me wrong. www.pickyourown.org/ |
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Start a plan for next year |
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Now is the time while you still have plants growing in your garden and the weather is pleasant to get out and map out your garden. Take notes of what did good where and think about changes you want to make. We always say that a garden grows a little every year. Trying to take notes in the middle of winter when you haven’t been outside for a month or so is not very helpful. We all have a camera in our pocket these days so pull out your phone and take some pictures of the layout of your garden. This will help with deciding on crop rotation for next year. This method has saved me every year and I live by it. I thoroughly enjoy spending cool fall days out in the garden imagining and planning next years garden and this year is no different. For instance, I am planning on adding 4 trellises and a greenhouse to our area. Not to mention we are going to get a soil test this fall so we know how to build our soil for next year.
This tips should get you started for the first month of fall. Take your time and enjoy what you have done this year. Think about the next year and keep sowing those seeds so you can continue to provide for you and your family! |
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