Moving toward a fall garden

Well, Linda and I made it back from vacationing in Colorado. The past few days I have been working in the garden. The weather has been phenomenal. I mean the cooler temperatures are great! They bring to mind the coming fall weather which I love so well. Let me ask you this: Have you ever met anyone who didn't like fall weather? As for me, I would not want to meet such a person.

All summer I have been picking purple hull peas. Since we got back from vacation, I noticed their production had really slowed. So this week I began to pull all the pea vines. I then prepared the beds for a fall planting of Romaine lettuce, turnips, rutabagas, kale and collards. The first thing I did was to refill the three empty beds with more compost. Then I raked the beds level, breaking up any clods in the process. I threw any rocks I saw out of the bed.

My practice with small seeds such as turnip, kale, collards, etc., is to mix some of the seed with a fair amount of sand or soil in a bucket and then broadcast it all over the bed. This prevents getting the seed too thick in some places and too thin in others. I mixed the turnip seed with the rutabaga seed and planted them in one bed. I planted romaine lettuce in a bed that had a few onion plants on one end. I then mixed kale and collard seed together and planted them in another bed. We also had some onions from our summer harvest which had sprouted, so I planted them as well.

The three tomato plants I have referred to in previous articles have been growing by leaps and bounds and are now blooming. On Thursday I built some tomato cages for them before they got too big to put a cage around. I then went to my old tomato plants which were looking a mite worse for wear and pulled them up. I kept all the green tomatoes I saw since they had that white sheen on them, which is an indication they will go ahead and ripen in the house. These tomato plants were growing on a couple of cattle panels wired together. I took these panels down and, using my front end loader, refilled the bed with compost.

With the cooler weather, I replanted the potatoes which had rotted in the heat. I am determined to grow fall potatoes. I do have a few potato plants coming up, but these are volunteer plants which are growing from our spring crop. No matter how much care I take to get all the potatoes when I dig them, there are always a few which remain. These generally sprout and grow into plants. As I rotate my crops from bed to bed, I sometimes have volunteer potato plants scattered around in several beds. This happens with tomatoes too. Most of the time, I leave them alone unless they are in the way. I have gotten some pretty good results from volunteer plants.

I have a bed of sweet potatoes. These plants will soon begin to turn brown and die. That's my signal to dig the sweet potatoes. Once dug, these sweet potatoes will go to the mechanical room in the basement where the Irish potatoes and onions and garlic are stored. From there they will go to the oven and to the plate where we will eat them. This sweet potato bed is where I plan to plant my garlic around the middle of September. I am always excited to plant the elephant garlic. I enjoy seeing it grow in the fall and then grow some more in the spring. The plants get taller than my head and the bulbs are the size of a good-sized apple.

Before we left on vacation, I had chopped down all the asparagus and refilled the bed with more compost. Imagine my surprise when I saw numerous new asparagus shoots emerging from the soil. Some of these shoots are now over two feet tall. I guess I'll have to cut them down again after it frosts. And here I was, thinking they were done for the year.

I have also been doing some pruning on my pepper plants. They have gotten so tall and, sad to say, I haven't done the best job of keeping them tied up. A few of the limbs have bent over or broken. I pruned these limbs and picked the bell peppers. The jalapenos are loaded with nice big fruit. I'm letting these turn red. Don't ask me why. They are already very hot. It's just that we don't eat them nearly as fast as they grow. Plus, I have several jars of pickled peppers from last year already. We have given some away as well, so I reckon I ought to pull them. I hate to when they are producing so well, but we have more than we need. Maybe I'll take some down to Sleepy Hollow and let them sell them. We have done that before.

I hope to plant some mustard greens yet but must wait until there is space in the garden. The lima beans are producing well, and will continue to do so until frost. So will the okra, so I don't really know when I will have an open bed to plant in.

I've been thinking of building a few more beds. We have 12 beds now -- all 4 by 10 feet. Originally, we planned to build 24 beds. That way I could always have a few beds that were not in production where I could grow cover crops to help replenish soil nutrients. On the other hand, 12 beds seem to work well. I think I'll let it soak awhile. Yeah, that sounds good to me. Let it soak -- go, sit on the porch and let it soak. Happy gardening.

Sam Byrnes is a Gentry area resident who has been gardening from his youth. He may be contacted by email at [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author.

Editorial on 08/26/2015