Early October Garden To-Do List
This week we had the celestial start of fall, marked by the equinox on September 22, and finally the weather is starting to match the calendar with highs only in the 70s. Ahhhh. Here in Middle Tennessee, most everyone is feeling relief with the cooler temperatures, including our plants. Have you noticed a growth spurt from your eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, and beans? We can often get a good flush from these plants at this time of year, which is why we didn’t totally remove the summer garden when we started to plant for fall a few weeks ago.
The weeks do march on toward winter though and there will come a time soon when days are too short anything to grow very much. With that in mind, let’s make the most of the sun we have and get the last succession of plants into the ground.
Planting: Now is the time for planting seeds of lettuce, spinach, arugula, kale, radishes, baby carrots, beets, and turnips. All of these are frost tolerant, but look for varieties with low “days to harvest.” If you want to grow larger vegetables like cabbage and broccoli, use seedlings forms the garden center which will give you a head start in the race agains the waining daylength.
Sow poppyseeds directly into the garden. Ranunculus can do well when planted in fall too.
Harvest: Lettuce! Arugula! Baby Kale! If you planted seedlings of these leafy greens a few weeks ago, you should be getting your first fall salads now. Cut the largest leaves from around the outside of the plants and let them continue to grow from the center.
Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, okra, and late-planted squash and beans are still producing if you’ve got the plants. We’ve found a few fat carrots hiding under bigger plants in gardens over the past couple of weeks.
Sweet potatoes will be ready to dig soon. When they’ve been in the ground for 120 days and foliage has yellowed and died back, dig up a small section and see if the tubers are big enough. I prefer to wait as long as possible to get the biggest harvest, but you don’t want this crop to freeze, so dig few days before the first frost at the latest.
Keep cutting and harvesting and deadheading flowers like zinnias, celosia, cosmos, marigolds, and dahlias. Unless you want to save seeds from these plants, then let a few flowers completely die and dry on the plant so the seed can fully mature. For more details on how to do this, check out the mini-course from floret.
Pests: For some gardeners, the pest pressure is starting to let off. Yay! But that doesn’t mean we can ease up in our diligent inspection of our plants. Caterpillars can decimate a broccoli plant in a few days, so pick eggs off as soon as you see them and then spray weekly with BT to keep them in check.
They aren’t a danger to any plants in the garden, but you may notice bees sleeping in your garden day and night at this time of year. Be extra careful when cutting flowers to avoid disturbing them. We’ve also seen sluggish wasps hanging out in dense basil foliage, so give them room to clear out if you see them.
Feed: None of the summer crops or perennials need fertilizer at this point. If you are skipping a fall garden, add compost to keep the soil healthy over winter.
Keep your leaves! The leaves that fall from trees are an incredible resource for gardeners at this time of year. If your lawn isn’t treated with any herbicides, you can rake up your leaves and add them to your compost pile for a good source of carbon, or “browns.” You can also pile an inch or two of leaves on your beds around your plants to serve as mulch, preventing weeds, keeping soil insulated, and serving as a source of organic material for your soil as they break down. Or just leave them in place to decompose and feed the soil around your tress as they would in the forest.
Shopping: Look for end-of season sales from your favorite seed companies. Seeds are labeled with a “sell-by” date, but they can last many years if stored in a cool, dry location.
If you haven’t already, order garlic. Check your stock of frost covers, hoops, and staples and purchase more now if you need it so you will be ready for cold weather.
Journal: Take lots of photos of your garden and harvests. It’s hard to remember when you are looking at your almost empty in February that it was ever as abundant as it is now.
