See how to make your fall garden a success by avoiding new fall gardening mistakes and know when to start before it’s too late!
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The First Step In A Successful Fall Garden
To get your garden prepared make sure you turn your compost heap to help introduce air and help get all that lovely organic matter breaking down into lovely compost to feed your soil.
It’s also a great time to take out any finished compost and start side-dressing your garden. That’s where you place a handful of compost around the base of your plants. Winter squashes very much appreciate side dressings of compost as do peppers, cucumbers, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and tomatoes.
If you have a lot of finished compost, you will want to work that into the top 4-8 inches of the soil of your fall garden growing area ready for your plants.
Timing Is Everything
Not starting your garden at the right time is the biggest mistake new gardeners make with their fall garden. By the time fall comes around and the blog posts about gardening in the fall show up – it’s too late to grow your fall garden!
If you are wanting to grow cabbages or broccoli in your fall garden this year, you are going to need to get them in the ground as transplants pretty soon. If your first frost is expected by September 20 for example, you will need those transplants in your fall garden area by June 15. If your first fall frost is October 20, then your transplants need to be in by July 25.
So if you missed these dates to transplant your own broccoli or cabbage by starting them from seed, you could see about getting transplants from a local nursery or switch to kale and broccoli raab which are faster-growing, and get those started in your garden in midsummer.
Short Season Gardens
If you have a short growing season, let’s say that your first expected frost is in early September. By around June 25, you will need to sow your beets, carrots, Swiss chard, and peas in the garden. Fast veggies like lettuce and spinach will need to be sown by July 15 and radishes that mature under 30 days can be sown as late as August 1.
Now if your first fall frost is expected in late September, let’s say the 30th. Then mid-June is your last planting date for broccoli and cabbage transplants into your garden. Mid-June is also the last seed sowing date for bush beans, small pickling cucumbers, fast-growing sweet corn, and winter squash. Mid-July is your last chance for sowing peas, Swiss chard, carrots, and beets. Your lettuces and spinach will need to be sown no later than August 10 but your radishes can be sown up to September 1.
Longer Season Gardens
For those of you who have a first expected frost of around Oct 10 like me then you will need to be getting out last sowings of sweet corn, winter squash, and cucumbers by the end of June. July is one of the busiest months for sowing! Early July is my last chance to get broccoli and cabbage transplants in the ground as well as sowing my favorite bush beans. By July 25, carrots, Swiss chard, and beets all need to be sown in the fall garden. August 1 is my last chance to sow peas before the frost comes and September 10 is the last I can sow those fast-growing radishes.
If you have your first fall frost expected on Halloween, then mid-July the last chance for sowing bush beans, fast-maturing sweet corn varieties, and winter squash. Broccoli and cabbage transplants need to be in the garden by early August, as do your sowings of carrots, pickling cucumbers, and Swiss chard. By mid to late August, sow your beets and peas. Early September is your last chance to sow lettuces and spinach and those quick-growing radishes need to be sown by September 30.
Garlic!
In all areas, you want to be planting garlic in fall around your expected first frost dates to harvest next summer. Be sure to record in your garden journal which bed you planted it in and make sure to mark the area so you know where it is, come the spring!
Learn more about growing garlic in this blog post.
Midsummer Tasks To Help Your Fall Garden Grow
Right now in the garden, make sure you are checking in on your plants. Check for what’s ready to harvest, insect damage, signs of diseases, and indications that your plants need a bit of feeding.
Tackle pests early to keep numbers in check and to help your tender, young fall garden plants have a chance of growing rather than being lunch for pests!
If diseases are present and are beginning to worsen, consider pulling the affected plant from the garden. Avoid putting diseased plants in the compost bin as that can spread the problem around the garden in the next seasons.
As your soil builds with intensive gardening techniques, composting, using cover crops and green manures, etc, you will find that you need to feed your garden and plants less. I like to use compost or some homemade liquid fertilizers like comfrey, gardener’s revenge, or seaweed.
When you pull out plants that have bolted (run to seed), add more compost back to the soil then sowing those crops for fall to keep the garden productive.
Don’t be afraid to try sowing different varieties of plants in your fall garden. Record in your garden journal what plants are growing well in your garden so you can use this knowledge to grow a better fall garden.
Start building frost protection ready for fall. Cold frames, hoop houses, and floating row covers are helpful towards the end of fall to extend your gardening and growing season a few weeks more! Get a head start and build them whilst the weather is nice and you are not rushed when canning season and fall arrive!
Show me pictures of your garden and let me know what your sowing for fall over in the Facebook group
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