Fall Garden Tips

Preparing your soil for planting is one of the most imporant steps. Add lime, compost and minerals as well as organic fertilizer while you till and shape your beds. Taking a soil sample is the best way to know how much to add. A rule of thumb that will get you close is to add #50 lime, #10 azomite mineral, #200 to #400  compost and  #10 of 10-2-8 Nature Safe fertilizer per 1000 sq foot of bed area. This would be for new beds and less would be needed if you have been adding lime and compost in the past. In our vegetable garden at Country Gardens we make our beds about 3 FT wide and 25 ft long = 75 sq feet per bed. 

After you prepare your beds with all your amendments and shape them up so that they are raised up higher than the walkways (use the soil from the walkway to add height to your beds) You are ready to put down paper and straw. This will smother out the weeds, conserve moisture and keep your vegetables cleaner with less chance of disease. We use brown craft papper but 4 layers of newspaper works just as well. We top this off with wheat straw 2 to 3 inches thick. Water this well before planting so that everything is wet down into the soil. Dry straw and paper can blow away so it is imporant to keep it wet until everything settles in. You may need to add a few rocks as weights while you are working with the paper and straw to keep it all in place. Pick a day that is not windy.

 Now you are ready to plant. You can put your hand or a garden trowel through the straw and paper to open up a hole in the soil to plant  in. If your plants are in biodegradable peat pots you can plant the entire pot. Just make a few slices around the outside of the pot and cover the entire pot with soil. Pull the straw back around base of the plant. Water in well. 

Your fall vegetable plants are now off to a great start. Water about three times a week in the beginning soaking thoroughly. Cut back on the water as the temperatures fall in September or if we are having one inch or more rainfall within the week. Caterpillars can be a problem in the fall garden. They can be controlled organically by using a biological insecticide called BT or Thurcide or Dipel. If you have beetles spray with organic pyrethrin.  

 This is a picture of or last years broccoli crop but there are many cool weather vegetables we can grow. Start in August with Broccoli, cabbage, collards, bok choi turnips, and turnipgreens, carrots, beets, radishes and swiss chard. In September plant many types of lettuce, spinach, kale and strawberries. Strawberries will be harvested in the spring.