| Fall Gardening |
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For too long now I have been out enjoying my gardening and not at my desk keeping up with the changes in the seasons. Harvesting is well under way and the gardening season is coming toward the end. Over all it has been a good year even though it started wet, late and cool. The summer was warm and dry and in the end most of my crops did well. It has been a great ear for peppers and tomatoes. I am still picking both although with the cooler nights and with the plants getting older the production is tapering off. Talking to a my gardening friends I am sticking to my decision to put a fungus spray on my tomatoes. I am just now seeing signs of late blight while a number of them lost their tomatoes a number of weeks ago. I am still having a problem keeping Zucchini late. It died off a few weeks ago. I would have thought I would have the same problem with cucumbers. The fanfare slicer did die about the same time but the English cucumber vine produced its last cucumber this past week. By now you should have pulled your onions. I put mine in large mesh boxes in the garage until the stems are completely dried then cut the stems off and put the onions in the root cellar for the winter. They need to stay dry and cool to last. I have just harvested my beets, most of my carrots and my potatoes. (Everything needs to be harvested before the first frost.) They all will last well in a cool dry spot for winter use. Remember to leave them dirty. You want the dirt residue on them dry before storage but if you wash it off you will shorten the storage live significantly. This was a great year for melons and cantaloupe. I got more fruit and terrific flavour from the melons I picked and just picked the last ones this week. The other plants also did well and as always I learned a few lessons to help improve the garden next year. My ever baring strawberries should have been mulched and should have been fertilized more and kept wetter for a good crop. This is the same as my raspberries. The berry size and production for the fall picking was a big improvement because of the better care. Remind me once again, seed the beans one row at a time a week or so apart and not all four rows at once if I want a continued fresh supply. Too many then not enough is my fault not the plants. For next year plant another Hansel Eggplant and one less regular eggplant. The Hansel is 6” long and about an inch across and is great sliced into a stir fry. The next job is get the garden ready for winter. As I harvest the last of the vegetables it is time to clean up the garden. I am a great believer in mulching the leaves and trimmings from my trees and bushes as well as composting green kitchen waste but not the old leaves and vines from my garden. Beat tops, tomato and cucumber vines etc. are a great source for disease and bugs that are attracted to my garden to over winter and attack again next year. For this reason I clean all the old plant material up in the fall to protect next years crop from problems. Both my vegetable and flower gardens get packed very tight over the course of the summer. For this reason I dig all my gardens in the fall so the frost gets in and helps loosen the soil for spring. It is also a good time to dig in that manure or organic matter so it breaks down in time to feen next seasons crops. |
- Fruits and Plants ( 1 )
- Growing from seeds ( 1 )
- Herbs ( 0 )
- Organics ( 1 )
- Planters ( 0 )
- Seasonal ( 8 )
- Vegetables ( 1 )
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