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Fall Vegetable Gardening
How do I get my garden ready for Fall planting?
Before you can plant anything new, you should do a simple soil test to make sure the Ph is still up at above 6.0 If not, add 1 pound of lime per 100 square feet for each .5 below that number. Hydrated lime will work quickly to correct the Ph for fall vegetables. Remove all of the dead plants that are no longer producing fruit. Most can go into the compost pile but any plant material that had diseases or insect problems should be disposed of to avoid carry over to the next season.
Add an inch or two of good rich compost and rototill the beds but make sure to remove any weeds carefully so that seeds are not spread out all over your garden. Any portion of the garden that is not going to plant until next spring should be covered well with hay or black plastic or you can plant a cover crop of clover or rye grass to turn under in the spring for additional nitrogen.
What comes in, what goes out?
Even Tomatoes and Bush beans can be grown in a fall garden by planting early varieties in July or August; they will be able to produce fruits before the first frost! Plus fried green tomatoes are a delicious way to finish off the leftover fruits. Many bush bean varieties take only 50-60 days to mature and Cherry and salad sized tomatoes can be ripe in 55-70 days. Try to avoid the large beefsteaks which take longer than 85-90 days to ripen.
Peppers generally ripen in the south very quickly in our hot dry months of August and September so leave them in the ground for as long as they are producing. Well watered plants will continue to fruit through the fall months. Peppers are also easy to freeze for storage and are great flavorings for soups when the weather is colder. After Peppers die back from the first frost, pull the plants out and set aside that area for Potatoes in early spring. Cover the row with a heavy layer of hay straw to begin to break down and lighten the soil
Lettuces and Greens are full of nutrition and thrive with cooler nights. Plant them while it is still warm and watch them get larger as the temperatures drop. Spinach, one of our favorites, can be grown in even the coldest areas, all winter long with a covering of special lightweight fabric placed over the plants. Carrots can also be grown during the fall months, pull what you need for vegetable soup and Thanksgiving dinner and leave the rest in the garden until you need them.
Garlic and Shallots are best started in the fall months, around September to mid October, and left to over winter. Spring will bring a harvest of huge bulbs ready to pull around late May to early June. Plant bunching or green onions in early fall and plan to harvest them in November leaving room for bulbing sweet onions to be planted in January - March.
Even if you do not plant fall vegetables it is a good idea to do the following steps to get your garden ready for next spring.
Growing Tips -- Fall Garden Conditioning
Preparing your garden for next year is very important. If done properly it allows you to use less chemical fertilizers and create a more loamy, light, soil with lots of microorganisms that will dig and digest organic material all winter long. This adds fertility to your garden that would have to be added in next spring at a slower and more expensive rate. For example, adding dead leaves to your garden makes for sweeter tomatoes next spring and provides better drainage at the same time. Here are some other mulching materials which can be added to your soil to improve the consistency and fertility:
Dead Leaves (the more the better, pile them on!)
Old Hay straw (watch out for seeds in hay)
Compost from grass, kitchen and garden clippings (half dried and half green, not too much green stuff)
Worm Castings, good black compost made rich by worms
Pine needles (make sure you add lime to correct the Ph as these can make your soil more acidic)
Cottonseed meal
Egg shells (these add calcium which is needed by vegetables)
Manures (horse, cow, chicken or rabbit, no more than a inch or two depending upon the animal)
Green Manures**Green manure is actually just plants which grow well during the off season and dig down deeply with their roots, then are turned under in spring to breakdown before planting. This type of composting creates organic material in the soil, does deep digging for you, and can even add nitrogen if you use bean type (legume) plants. Red Clover and Annual Rye grass will grow in the winter months and when turned under, will release nitrogen as it breaks down.
Lime (to correct Ph in heavy rainfall areas, lime is almost always needed every year)
Most importantly, old gardeners know never to leave the soil uncovered for the weeds to take over and soil to compact. Use natures direction and get those raked leaves back into the soil or compost heap and out of those plastic bags!