fall gardening

Ahhh, fall...lovely time when summer releases its sweaty, iron grip on the world and lets us breathe, and go outside, and actually work there without dying.  Fall, when we're bored with all the green we wanted so badly back in the spring, and we're ready for some red and gold.  There's finally a crisp breeze, and it's time to get some gardening done!

No, I'm not delusional enough to believe that it's fall right now. But it is time to start thinking about maybe considering planning a fall garden. 

Now, why would you even garden in the fall? (So glad you asked.)

*Temps are lower, making for more pleasant gardening.

*Fewer bugs to deal with, especially after frosts. 

*You can grow an entirely different set of plants in the fall/winter than you can in the spring/summer. They have a different personality, in general, growing in a slower, more leisurely fashion.  You won't walk in the house one day and come back out to find they've taken over overnight.

*In some places there's more rain in the fall than in the summer.

*And hey, who doesn't love fresh vegetables in the fall and winter?

What can you even grow in the fall, anyway?

Look, look, look!  I've got a little set of fun diagrams for you.  I'll explain. In the square foot gardening method, you plant vegetables in squares, rather than in rows.  They're each spaced as far apart as they would be in a regular row, but the "between-the-rows" spacing is junked and you just put the next row the same distance from the first row as you put between the plants. 

SO, if I have a 4'x4' area that I'm gardening this fall, I'd just take whichever of the squares I want and sorta cut and paste them in there. 

"Scatter Thinly" is pretty cryptic, isn't it?  The reason I put that there is, these are vegetables with itty bitty seeds.  You'll open up the package, read that they're supposed to have 3" spacing, look at the dust-sized seeds inside, throw up your hands, and dump them all on the ground.  Upon which, they'll all grow in the same space and kill each other.  I mean, you would have done that, before you read this.

Take that pack with the tiny lettuce seeds way down in the bottom and fill it up halfway with something coarse and grainy.  Sand is good.  Sugar will work in a pinch, although if you've got ants, they'll probably come carry that away.  Sometimes if the soil's dry and fine enough, I'll just use the soil that's there.  The point is to thin out that seed with something else so that it "scatters thinly" Get it? 

Do not use salt.  If you use salt your plants won't grow, and neither will anything else until you remove that soil and throw it away.  Salt's what the Romans used at Carthage after they conquered it, to make sure nobody could ever grow crops there again.  Don't do this to your garden.

Okay, when do I plant?

If you're in Georgia, here's the link to UGA's vegetable planting chart.  The dates are there.  If you're not, well, your state should have an extension service, and they'll have lots of great information, like what varieties do well in your area, and when to plant them.  Hurrah for the extension service!  To find it, Google "(state) extension service".

The point is to get your plants in the ground after it's cooled off a bit, but long enough before the first frost to let them get out of that tender-tiny-baby stage.

But what about frost?

These plants fall into a couple of categories when it comes to frost.  All of them are at least a little frost hardy, or they wouldn't be on the fall gardening list.  All of them like cooler weather better than hot, which is why they're even here.  But some laugh at frost, no matter how hard.  Some like frost. 

Here are the "I can only take light frost" pansy babies:

Arugula, Beets, Broccoli, Carrots, Escarole, Leeks, Lettuce, Mustard, Onions, Radishes, Spinach

These you'll want to take a little better care of than their tougher brothers below.  Keep a little hay or straw over in the walkway next to them, and when there's going to be frost, cover them with it.  All that's required is that you keep the frost off the leaves.  Take it off when  the frost's over.

Here are the tough fellas:

Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Collards, Fava Beans, Garlic, Kale, Turnips

Throw these guys in the ground and leave them there.  They'll be happy.  This past winter I planted way too late, but I still had carrots, spinach, and garlic that happily lived through the winter and started producing first thing in the spring. 

Later I'll show you how to make fun seed tapes that'll make your gardening a breeze.  For now, though, dig that grubby, dog-eared seed catalog back out and start planning your fall garden!

Best of luck!

~Mother Bird~