Is October too late to plant anything?
Isn’t the gardening season over – finally?
How do you know what to do?
Those are just a few of the questions I receive this time of year.
I listen to your questions, so ask them! And I WILL respond!
Yes, I know what the the first line says, but depending on where you live, October may be just right to make the kinds of preparations I’m suggesting.
I live in a mountain valley in the San Juan Mountains. In normal years, I make my preparations no later than September. But last year, the years-long drought reached its peak, and we never really had a winter. I had tiny pansies in bloom the whole season. There was very little snow and no rain, causing me to nearly lose my raspberries and my gooseberries. I did lose my goji berries. I don’t know if I can bring them back.
This year, because of the previously unheard of Super ElNino, it’s the middle of October and I am still waiting for the first hard freeze. So, since I had the time, I decided to redo my vegetable garden. I purchased two bales of straw as a weed barrier. You can use cardboard instead, but this year I didn’t have enough, thus the straw.
I put down several inches of straw and watered it well. Then, I added several more inches of garden dirt on top in a two-foot wide strip the length of one section of the straw. I used the part next to the fence I use as a trellis. There, I planted some peas. No, I don’t expect to harvest any peas, but I wanted a ground cover, and something to enrich the soil, so I planted some old pea seeds. This will also provide me with a green manure layer for spring when I plant the vining spinach I have ordered. In the spring, I will also plant a row of cool plants early in the year in front of the vining spinach. Later I will plant other produce that tolerates the summer better.
Next I outlined that section with pots of wild onions (almost wild bunching onions that are great for providing green onion tops for soups and salads all summer long). I also added pots of garlic to my outline. It’s far too late, no matter what ElNino is doing, to plant the garlic, but just in case, I did it anyway.
The pots will provide a sort of natural raised bed. I could use rocks or have someone make me some actual raised beds, but because of my mobility issues, I hate to keep asking the same people for that favor too. The straw will help insulate the pots of garlic roots, just in case they have a chance to grow a little. Garlic takes eight to ten months to mature. Our season here is four months at the most. Usually. Once again, this was a very unusual year.
Next, I left a two-foot path of straw for my chair. Since I can’t get on my knees anymore, I use a folding chair and bend over to weed from that.
In the next two-foot wide row, I poured three bags of potting soil, once again lining the space with pots of plants for another sort-of raised bed. That will be a three-sisters row.
Three sisters? In the spring, plant a large square of corn. When the corn grows up several inches, plant pole beans in the center of each square. The corn provides a natural trellis. Between each square, plant squash. The broad squash leaves provide shelter for the soil that helps keep in the moisture. But you don’t start any of that until late April (around here) at the earliest. So all I did was prepare it for next year.
Then I left another path for my chair. The next two-foot row will be a row of horseradish, once again outlined in pots of, this time, flowers. Attracting bees is necessary for your garden. The pots I’m using have already have established flowers. They will also seed down and produce more flowers in the garden. I’m counting on it.
Not necessarily. What you need to do first is see to your garden soil. That means getting rid of diseased plants. Don’t just compost them. Actually toss them into the trash or burn them. You don’t want any problems following you into spring.
So, what do you do now with YOUR garden? Do you follow my example?
If your climate is milder than mine, plant a cover crop NOW. Give it time to root down, even if you never see any produce. The idea is to cover your garden with a nourishing organic cover of natural fertilizer. You don’t want your garden to enter winter exposed and bare. That’s why I chose peas several weeks ago. They will cover the ground, making a green manure layer that I can cut down and turn them over in the spring. They add nitrogen to the soil. Other ground covers are winter rye and clover. Those do the same thing as my peas. I used the peas because I already had them.
Fall is also a good time for planting bulbs for a lovely spring flower garden. Here, it’s probably too late to do that, but in your part of the world, this month might be exactly the right time. Check out your hardiness zone.
It may be too late in your zone to amend your soil, because you will need to test your soil for PH levels and fertilizer adjustments in early fall. I never use chemical fertilizers. They are NOT good for your garden in the long run. Depending on what your garden needs, you may need composted manure or kitchen scrap compost, or both. That’s why you ought to test your soil first. You don’t know what to feed it until you test for it.
When the watering is done for the year, be sure to drain and roll up your hoses. A hard frost can expand the water inside them and burst your hoses. Not a good idea unless you want to buy new hoses each year.
Remove all old garden plants. Either add them as a mulch or put them into the compost bin for next year’s garden. This is also the time to divide roots, such as the bunching onions I was talking about. Crowded plants don’t produce well. While you have some nice days, enjoy the sun while you take apart and replant them.
Be sure to cover your bare ground with mulch. Two or three inches is enough to help them winter over. I have some huge comfrey leaves that will do the trick in my beds. You may use straw, raked leaves, shredded cardboard and the like. The idea is to protect the roots of existing plants that have gone dormant and help retain the soil’s winter moisture. You want to start ahead of the game as much as possible. Fall is exactly the time to do that.
I wish you well with your garden. Let me know what your plans are.
Is October too late to plant anything?
Isn’t the gardening season over – finally?
How do you know what to do?
Those are just a few of the questions I receive this time of year.
I listen to your questions, so ask them! And I WILL respond!
Leave a Reply