3 minute read
Nancy McCarthy
Just When You Thought Gardening Season Was Over
BY NANCY MCCARTHY, CHEROKEE COUNTY MASTER GARDENER
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Just because you put away your bathing suit and white shoes, there is no reason to stop growing great veggies for the year. One of the joys of living in northwest Georgia is the length of the growing seasons. Imagine harvesting brussels sprouts in December! Fall means fewer insects, less heat, and a whole new menu of choices that usually wither in the summer weather. Here are a few tips that are important whether you have a raised bed, a container or an in-ground garden.
Soil.
It is essential to remove dead and diseased remnants, to keep your garden healthy. Make sure no insects are using your garden as Motel 6 for the offseason. Your fall garden will benefit from additional compost to keep it loose. Most importantly, you will need to fertilize with a nitrogen-rich fertilizer, because your summer crops have absorbed all of the fertilizer. It’s especially important for the fall vegetables in the cabbage family. Be sure to read and follow the correct application. The UGA county extension services can answer fertilizer application or safety questions. Visit: https:// extension.uga.edu/county-offices/cherokee.html.
Sunlight.
It’s important to realize that the sun is lower in the sky at this time of year, so if your garden received eight hours of sun midsummer, it may now be only four hours. Make sure you have adjusted planting and harvest dates, and that there are no new overhanging branches. That’s why short-day crops do best, and the longer frost-tolerant crops need even more days to harvest.
Cabbage will benefit in flavor from surviving a frost.
Timing.
The big question is whether or not to seed. There are great options to direct seed for fall but others will work only if you use transplants, since many require long days until harvest. Consider the date of the first frost, which in our area is around Nov. 5, historically. Check on your seed packet for the number of days needed to harvest, and count backward to compute a good planting time for maximum harvests. Remember to add a minimum of seven days to allow for the decreased sunlight. After that, it’s up to Mother Nature, and we know how fickle she is.
Selection.
Here are some great options to seed directly in your fall garden: lettuces, spinach, carrots and beets. There are so many colorful and varied lettuces available, it’s good to experiment. Remember that it will take twice the water to germinate a seed outdoors in September than it would in May, so plant many of them, plant them deeper, and be brave when thinning. Most perennial herbs like parsley, thyme and cilantro also can be started from seed, or transplanted, and will flourish in cooler weather. Other plants, like those in the cabbage family, will need to be transplanted. These include broccoli, brussel sprouts, collards, kale, etc.
Just When You Thought Gardening Season Was Over
Plants in the cabbage family benefit in flavor from a frost and some of them (collards, kale) will overwinter with no protection. Other great options to overwinter are garlic, onions and shallots, which are left all winter and harvested in late spring. If you have never tasted fresh garlic, you are in for a treat. Most garden stores have a good variety of fall vegetable plants, seeds and bulbs in mid-August to late September.
Pest Control.
Note that there are fewer insects to deal with in the fall, but they are still around. The most common are those pesky aphids that love all the cold crops. They can be treated early with a good insecticidal soap or Permethrin. Watch for cabbage loopers, also, and hand pick any you see. These can be safely treated with BT (bacillus thuringiensis).
So now is the time to jump in and start planting. I hope you have a hearty harvest! Be sure to visit cherokeemastergardeners.com to see all the events and educational opportunities offered.
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Nancy McCarthy is a resident of Towne Lake, transplanted from Ohio, a graduate of Bowling Green State University and a vegetable veteran of the Cherokee Master Gardeners
