October 1, 2015
It seems strange but the end of summer veggies is rapidly
coming upon us. This coincides with freezing temperature.
This year has been a very buggy year. It seemed like that no
sooner one bug as controlled another bug sticks up its head.
Once your summer veggies are killed due to frost it is not a
time to sit back and relax. It is paramount that all of the debris in your
garden is removed.
Any dead material needs to be removed from the garden. This
debris is the perfect environment to over winter bugs.
If you have a shredder this would be great to chip up and
make compost. If nothing else, just getting it out of the garden will do.
If you do not compost or winter garden, this the prime time
to dig in fresh manure, so that you will be ready for next year’s summer garden.
This would also be a good time to do any garden expansion so that manure can be
added to the new beds. To facilitate incorporating or the removal of vegetation
in the new beds, wetting the soil will greatly help with this project.
I like to rake out all my beds so that they are ready for
planting. All of my beds have a berm on
the north side. This is because my garden slopes downhill to the north. The
berm helps catch any precipitation. It is always nice to see after a frog
choking rain standing water in the bed. Within the hour after a heavy rainfall
this has all soaked into the bed.
You will appreciate not having to do anything but plant come
spring after tucking your garden in for the winter.
If you plan to winter garden you will need to add compost or
well-rotted manure. Fresh manure will burn plants and seeds. It would be a bit
late to start seeds now for the brassicas (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower…) so
you will need to procure plants. As for radishes, chard, kale, spinach and
other greens seeds will work fine. It is also a good time to sow carrots and
green onions. I wait to sow peas the middle of October so that they over-winter
as seedlings and ready to burst into growth as the weather warms in the
spring. Garlic cloves and bulb onion
seed can be sown the first of November. This sowing date insures that onion
plants are less than a ¼ inch going through the winter. Any larger and they
will bolt come spring instead of bulbing.
I like to cover all my beds with at least two layers of
agribon 19 and I also keep some of the heavy stuff (agribon 70 this is mainly
for broccoli and cauliflower florets) for the cold spells that are sure to come
during the winter. The covers are just a little insurance to help get through
the winter
Happy gardening!!!!.
Questions? I can be
contacted at markdirtfarmer@gmail.com. Or more
garden notes at redwagonfarm.blogsot.com
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