Fall Planting Starts Now...Or Yesterday

Just when tomatoes are coming in by the tons and weeds seem overwhelming, there's one more little task to add to your list of gardening tasks - fall planting. For us, autumn planting is a nice break from the harvest season, a re-commitment to eating fresh from the yard even as temperatures cool. Sowing seeds and seedlings now will give you a crop to eat through the autumn and early winter while preventing soil erosion and nutrient loss.

First, Save Seeds

Before you rip out tomatoes, squash, or peppers, be sure to save seeds from the best fruits. Seed saving should always be in the back of your mind to preserve biodiversity, ensure varieties are adapted to your local conditions, and save cash. Read my seed saving guide published a couple years ago for the basics or the Adaptive Seeds Guide for more detailed information.

Plant Autumn-Sown Garlic, Perennials, Fruits

Several edibles want to be planted at this time of year. Garlic is the most well-know crop that must be planted in the fall. Put yours in the ground before mid October and let it over-winter. You may see sprouts in the fall and that’s ok. They’ll survive snow and ice and shoot up again in the spring.

Fall is a great time to plant many flower bulbs and transplant berries or fruit trees too. Split your own plantings first - strawberry runners, raspberry shoots, herbs, and perennial flowers can all be transplanted in the fall. Often you can find perennials and fruits in the clearance section of your local nursery. It's best to split and transplant in mild weather, but if you run into a hot spell, just water often.

Plant Leafy Greens, Roots, and Cabbages

In Ohio, we can grow greens, many root vegetables, and members of the cabbage family in the fall. Planted now, these germinate quickly and tolerate cold temperatures as they mature.

Prepare the beds in which you wish to sow fall crops by lightly turning the soil and adding compost or an organic, mild fertilizer. Baby the seeds and seedlings when they are young, as hot dry days can scorch them. We use straw mulch to prevent weed growth and hold in moisture.

Below is a chart of fall crop dates in central Ohio; be mindful that if you plant seedlings, have a warm microclimate, use season extension, or autumn is mild, you may plant a few weeks beyond these dates.

Variety	Planting Date	Days To Harvest	Notes
arugula	8/20	30
asian greens	7/15	45-50
beets	7/30	50-60
broccoli	7/15	70-90	best started indoors
cabbage	7/15	60-75	best started indoors
carrots	7/30	60-90	sweetens after frost
cauliflower	8/5	60-85	best started indoors
collards	8/5	60-80
endive	8/20	35
kale	7/30	60	sweetens in cool temps
kohlrabi	8/15	55-70
lettuce	8/20	45-70
radish	9/15	35-60
rutabaga	7/30	90-100	sweetens after a frost
spinach	8/20	40-60
swiss chard	7/30	50-60
turnip	8/10	45-60	sweetens after a frost

When Winter Weather Comes

Cold temperatures are not the enemy of fall crops and indeed make some sweeter. There are also simple season extension techniques like row covers and low tunnels to keep plants from succumbing to frost die-off. I'll write about these soon.

Mulch At A Minimum

At the very least, protect your vegetable beds by mulching in the fall with straw or leaf litter. Mulch holds in nutrients, prevents erosion, and helps keep weeds at bay. In the spring, rake off the mulch and begin planting!

 What are you planting now?

NB. Swainway Urban Farm fall seedlings, like the cabbage pictured above, are available at City Folk's Farm Shop and the Clintonville Farmers' Market for the next few weeks or until supplies run out. If you buy at the market, say hi to me!

Free and Low Cost Landscaping Goods

There are several opportunities for gardeners to improve their landscape this week at little to no cost: On November 1, visit supermarkets for free straw.  Our closest grocery uses straw bales to display pumpkins and then gives them away after Halloween.  We use straw to protect our strawberries from frost/thaw heaving, to mix in garden beds, and for chicken run bedding.

Word on the street (aka twitter) is that the Columbus Habitat for Humanity ReStore has large bags of organic top soil for $2, quite a steal.  They almost always have scrap lumber, spare patio stones, and paint for fall home and garden improvement projects.

Locals can check out the Chadwick Arboretum Fall Tree sale next Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  They have a long list of native trees and shrubs available for purchase at very low cost.  If I had more growing space, I would be interested in the butternut ($10), pawpaw ($15) and persimmon ($15) trees, all favorites of edible forest gardening expert David Jacke.

If you aren't lucky enough to have a university sponsored arboretum nearby, keep an eye on your local nursery.  This is the time of year that many fruit trees are marked at clearance prices.  Given a little bit of care over the winter, fruit trees will return to life in the spring.

Go forth and love your landscape this autumn!

It's Garlic Planting Time!

We cook with garlic almost every day.  Did you know that garlic is simple to grow and so delicious when picked right from your yard?  It is!

The hardest part of growing garlic is that you must plan ahead.  Garlic needs to be planted in the fall, overwintered in the ground, and then harvested in mid summer.

To grow garlic, first you need a space in the garden.  Garlic only needs to be spaced about two inches apart, so you can have a good harvest in a small area if you don't have an expanse of beds.  Garlic does best with full sun in well turned soil.

Next, you need seed garlic.  The simplest, cheapest way to get these is to buy organic garlic from the grocery store and plant the individual cloves.  The risk in planting grocery store garlic is that you have less control over the variety and if the garlic has not been stored properly it might not grow.

Local nurseries sometimes carry seed garlic.  Be sure to call ahead, as the dates when garlic arrives vary by location.

This year we are ordering from thegarlicstore.com because we want to try some of the unique varieties they offer.  In Ohio, hardneck varieties grow best and store best, so that is what we recommend.

Plant your cloves in early fall.  For Ohio, you can plant anytime in the fall through early winter.  Our biggest lesson learned last year is that spacing can be tight.  Just leave enough space for a head to grow between each clove.

The cloves will overwinter with no visible growth.  They need the cold temperatures to signal side buds to grow.

As spring warms the ground, those side buds will develop into cloves.  The garlic will send out tall shoots over the soil.

In late spring or early summer, a garlic scape will develop.  This strangely shaped growth will develop into a flower, but is it best picked off to allow the garlic to develop into cloves.  The scape has a rough texture but tastes like mild garlic or strong chives and is delicious in stir fry or salad.

When the shoots finally start to turn brown and droop, it is time to harvest your garlic.  Pick one plant to make sure it is well developed.  When you like the size of the bulbs, pick all the plants.   Allow to dry in open air.  After a few days, remove the shoots from the top leaving at least a few inches of the hardneck. Scuff off the roots and outer sheath.

Store your harvest in a cool (around 50 deg F), dry, well ventilated place. Garlic  is deliciously milky and soft when it is young and will turn more pungent as time passes.

Mmmm....garlic!

Child Labor

Tonight, two of Lil's friends came over for dinner.  They could have chosen to play in her playhouse, ride bikes, pretend with her thousands of animal toys, but no.  It was digging in the empty garden bed that captured their attention.

The plastic shovels held little interest for the little one.  He wanted our sharp pointed trowel and then this rake:

When it was time to go inside for the night, they were covered in dirt from toe to tooth.  But at least the soil was turned over.  Next time we are preparing a bed for fall planting, we will employ the child labor again.

Enjoy Backyard Vegetables through the Fall

Many people put their garden beds to rest after the tomatoes have ripened, but that need not be the case.  Now is the time to plan and prepare for fall vegetable garden plantings, also called succession planting.  It's a great time to start gardening even if you've never grown food for yourself! If you want to enjoy fresh vegetables from your garden through the fall, start with preparing your soil.

For beds used in the summer, turn them over and add a little fresh compost.  For new beds or containers, fill with fresh soil mixed with some compost.

Next up is seed selection.  My number one rule for picking seeds is 'grow what you like'.  Columbus locals can still find seeds at Zettler Hardware, garden centers, and clintonville community market.  It is perfectly OK to reuse seeds from the spring too.

You can try growing any cool-loving vegetable with a fairly short (45-60 day) maturity.  Any of my suggestions below will grow well in containers, provided they are fairly deep (8 inches minimum, more for root vegetables). This year I will grow:

lettuce*

spinach*

kale (Kale is actually even sweeter in fall plantings.  Swoon.)

swiss chard

broccoli

endive

carrots*

beets*

herbs* (great for containers that can move indoors after first frost)

*=successfully planted in fall in previous seasons

Other vegetables that would probably work but I don't love or don't have space for are kohlrabi, cabbages, turnips, radishes, endive, broccoli, and cauliflower.

When you have your seeds, it's time to plant!  Use your seed packet and calculate the planting date by subtracting days to maturity from first frost date.  In Columbus, the average first frost is in the first week of October.  I will start seeding in mid August.

Water well just after direct seeding and keep watered until you see seedlings appear.  Then, water when the soil is dry below 1/2 inch under the surface.

Harvest leaf vegetables (lettuce, spinach, chard, kale, etc.) by cutting leaves regularly.  After you cut, they will continue to produce new leaves.

Root vegetables can be left in the ground until a solid frost.  I hear that some people actually put straw down and just dig out their carrots and beets all winter long.  I prefer to pick them after a certain point, don't wash, and store in plastic bags in the refrigerator.  Carrots lasted for months this way last year!!

With our plans, I hope to still be eating greens and other goodies through November at least.  What are you planting?

I have a few more fall planting posts in the works.  Check back or subscribe to the Hounds in the Kitchen feed for info about garlic, strawberries, and putting the beds to rest.