Garden Tasks for Late Fall
September and October are the months to prepare your garden for the winter. In warmer areas, the fall is the time to plant cool-season vegetables. In colder climates, gardeners need to “put the garden to bed.” Here are the main fall gardening chores for the fall, including warmer and cooler climates.
Cool Climates (Pennsylvania and north)
Remove dead flower stalks (example: daylily flower stalks), dead leaves, flowers and debris, but wait until perennials are …
Pump up Your Perennial Garden this Fall!
Now is a perfect time to plant perennials. The summer is winding down, the evening temperatures are cooling off, and plants are transitioning from flowering (reproducing) to stockpiling nutrients and energy for the winter. Most garden centers are trying to clean out their nurseries, and mail-order catalogues are getting rid of excess stock before moving it up to the next sized pot. That makes the fall a perfect time to find great …
Plant spotlight: Spinach!
He’s strong to the finich ’cause he eats his spinach, he’s Popeye the sailor man!
Nutritional benefits
Good Source of: vitamin K, vitamin A, manganese, folate, magnesium, iron, vitamin C, vitamin B2 (riboflavin), calcium, potassium, vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), tryptophan, dietary fiber, copper, vitamin B1 (thiamin), protein, phosphorus, zinc, vitamin E, omega 3 fatty …
Planning for the Fall Garden
Planting, growing and harvesting does not have to end with the summer! There are a number of crops that can be planted in August. Because of short growing seasons, or tolerance for frost and cold temperatures, these crops will thrive and reward you late into the fall, even into the early winter after the first light snowfalls. In order for this to be successful, it is time now to begin planning for the fall garden.
Fall …
Plan Your Garden For Fall Color
Your yard and garden can look just as great in the fall as it does during the spring and summer, if you plan ahead and plant accordingly.
Setting the Stage
For the super stars of your fall color garden spectacular to show up, you need a nice background. In beautiful, mountainous regions with spectacular fall color (think Vermont), evergreen trees scattered throughout the mountainside provide a bit of …
Organic Thanksgiving Vegetables: Grow, Harvest, Prepare
While the Turkey gets most of the attention on Thanksgiving, the vegetables and side dishes really make the meal. Every year around Thanksgiving, there are lots of morning show segments about how to make innovative side dishes, or give your stuffing a “kick.” I am definitely NOT about giving my Thanksgiving side dishes a makeover. They are just fine the way they are. I do …
Spring Flowering Trees
Fall is the best time to plant trees. Get your trees in the ground before it freezes solid, and your trees will have an excellent chance of growing new roots and establishing themselves before winter. That will give them a head start in the spring. Today, I’ll give you the rundown on some great trees to plant now for spectacular spring color. Thursday, I’ll explain how to plant your trees so …
Don’t Let the Frost Hit the Pumpkin
It’s October which means one thing: Halloween! The entire month leads up to one ghoulish, scary and fun holiday! Halloween just wouldn’t be Halloween without pumpkins. Jack o lanterns, roasted pumpkin seeds, pumpkin soup, pumpkin pie and more await trick or treaters when they arrive home lugging bags of candy. There are lots of myths about growing and harvesting pumpkins. …
Top Tips for Fall Gardening
In the last post, we gave you all kinds of advice about what NOT to do to put your garden to bed in the fall. I figured that it was only fair to follow that post with a list of things you SHOULD do at this time of year to tuck your garden in for the winter. If you follow this advice, …
How NOT to put your Garden to Bed
At the end of September, it is time to think about putting your garden to bed. Your location will determine exactly when you need to complete certain tasks. There are, however, some definite NOs when putting your garden to bed for the winter, if you want to make sure that everything comes back nice and lush next spring.
What NOT to Do
1) …
