In some areas it is almost time to start winterizing the garden. Today I tilled under some straw and chicken manure. Rains will come shortly and will have some decomposing time betwixt now and next spring. Also bought fishin worms and added some to the mix. Will probably cover the lot with black plastic to prevent the pine needles from getting all over in the fall.

I also use straw to heavily mulch the strawberries and perennial plants. (We have snow.)

What do others do?

-- marsh (armstrng@sisqtel.net), September 03, 1999

Answers

Well, I'm going to try to garden this winter in the greenhouse that we made earlier this year. It has done wonders this summer.

I am going to be pulling out old veggies this weekend and start amending the soil with the compost that I have been making all summer. I might add in some mulch and composted manure as well.

I plan on letting it work and settle for a few weeks before I start my winter garden.

-- (cannot-say@this.time), September 03, 1999.

Sure hope we get some fall rain...predicted for the week-end but don't believe it. Have had one inch in past 7 weeks...leaves falling from trees and even some of our older shrubs are requiring daily watering to stay alive.Can't bear to loose my lilacs. Most important thing you can do in the fall is get the old vegatation off your garden...even if you get to nothing else this will eliminate tons of bugs next year...and weed seeds. If you do get time planting rye over the garden will give you some great organic material to till in come spring. Fall is a good time to clean up all your pots and starting flats,too....nicer working conditions than in Feb. when you want to start those cabbages. Fall is my favorite season--at least,until deer season starts and you have to be brave to leave the house !!

-- MUTTI (windance @train.missouri.org), September 03, 1999.

yes! plant winter rye grass!! this adds nitrogen as well as organic mass! plus chokes out weeds! highly recommended! eddy

-- eddy (xxx@xxx.com), September 04, 1999.

I will be planting fall & winter gardens. Here in the Sacramento Valley, It stays warm enough to grow lots of cool season vegies. There are many things that we can't grow in the summer because it is too hot. We will be picking tomatoes until Oct. or Nov. My bigest problem is to get the summer vegies out in time to plant the winter vegies. If things are really bad, it will really be nice to be able to go out and pick fresh vegies.

-- Homeschooling Grandma (mlaymon@glenn-co.k12.ca.us), September 04, 1999.

Here in north central Florida, the summer is when I DON'T garden. My garden is all finished in June. With the exception of some egg plant, one okra that I pruned back in early August and will get another crop this fall, there is nothing left in the garden. But the end of this month and I will start thinking about planting a few seeds of cukes, brocalli, cabbage, winter squash and lettuce. These will grow and harvest during the winter and then in late Feb I will plant the spring garden. One can grow most anything in the winter garden and most anything in the Spring garden if you get it in in Feb. Have to watch for the occassional frost. But the earlier you get it in the easier it is to beat the bugs, and viruses.

Taz

-- Taz (Tassie@aol.com), September 04, 1999.

Fall, plant a cover crop. I use alfalfa and other fall legumes.

best,

Z

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), September 04, 1999.

Well- the greenhouses(cold tunnels) are still going strong- tomatoes, peppers and eggplant- will put kerosun heaters in them on cold nights- had to do that earlier this week- went down to 33 degrees that night.

Am taking the flowers out of one tunnel- and putting in lettuce, spinach, chard and beets for fall markets.

Outside- have spinach, brocolli, scallions, carrots, kale, rutabagas, lettuce, cabbage, brussel sprouts, winter squash, etc in various stages for fall. will plant garlic end of October.

Will till and reform beds before snow hits. Will not mulch strawberries this year- unmulched ones did better!(LOTS of snow cover here). Will work in lots of compost as I till- our own and purchased loads.

Am praying for rain- is so dry it's unbelievable-- but lots worse elsewhere- still green here.

I don't cover crop for winter as our soil is so wet in spring, it takes too long to dry out enough to till it in. Otherwise- if you live in a place where it will winter kill- oats is a great choice for a cover crop.

-- farmer (hillsidefarm@drbs.com), September 04, 1999.

Marsh,

Regarding your black plastic idea to keep the pine needles out of your beds, I think you want to use the black ground cover material that keeps out the light (and deters weeds), but not the air and moisture. Your worms and composting process will need those to keep making your soil better. The regular black plastic sheeting I was concerned you meant (more like a tarp material) might come in handy in the spring, when you could cover beds with it for a few days before working them, to help warm and dry out the soil a bit, if needed. You probably knew all this, but I wanted to mention it just in case someone else reading it thought they could use less porous, all purpose black plastic for covering the beds all winter. Thanks for starting a great thread; I too am thinking about my next steps for a fall/winter growing season, and it gets my juices going to hear the plans of others. Mid-Atlantic fall and rains are hopefully on the horizon ... I know I'M ready for summer and sultry to move along for awhile.

Kristi

-- Kristi (KsaintA@aol.com), September 08, 1999.

Actually, I do use the cheapie black plastic in a roll and not the expensive "permeable" kind. Seems to work fine for my purposes. I put it on after a few good rains. In the spring, when I peel it off, the soil is pretty dry and there isn't a bunch of growth from the spoiled alfalfa bales I worked into the ground in the fall. Any vegetation is "rotty." Maybe its because I get several feet of snow in deep winter so its all dormant anyway. I have been doing it this way for many years.

-- marsh (armstrng@sisqtel.net), September 09, 1999.