By Jim McGinty
Hot times in the garden, here at Rancho McGinty: ripening tomatoes, peppers, green beans, ornamental and poisonous squash, blackberries, strawberries, and more!
With all this harvesting and eating (!), comes the understanding that the end of our gardening season is rapidly approaching, and we have some decisions to make: when do we start clipping off the new blossoms and young fruit, as we know they will not mature before the first killing frost, and do we have time to plant and harvest another crop of cool weather, short season veggies, such as radishes, kale, lettuce, etc.
As well, it’s also time to start building up the garden soil for next spring’s planting – time to add compost, aged manure, barnyard straw and animal poo, hardwood tree leaves, and so much more. I like to layer up all those amendments, and then in mid-September, rototill it all into the soil, and let the Autumn rains and early snows ferment the mixture all winter long.
Shortly, of course, we will all (this means you!) be collecting our fallen tree leaves, as well as the bags of leaves from our cooperating neighbors (you did remember to bribe your neighbors all summer with tasty garden treats, right!?). Those black bags of leafy goodness will be the basis for next spring’s compost, and they can also be used now as a weed-blocking mulch for your newly-planted garlic plot.
In the orchard, the Italian plums are nearly ready to harvest, so I’m watering the trees on a regular basis – to ensure a bountiful crop of plums next year, remember to prune those plum trees just after harvest, and not next Spring. The Anjou pears still need another month or so before harvest, while I just collected the crop of Centennial crabapples – small (3-inch diameter), but sweet and delicious, and they make an amazingly good apple jelly (no pectin needed!).
In the garden, the potato leaves are turning yellow and brown, indicating that we will soon be digging up delicious spuds, and the onion stalks are leaning over, telling us that it will soon be time to plan a meal based around sliced, fried potatoes, onions, and garlic – oh yes!
In the berry garden, now is the time to prune out the older brown canes that produced all those luscious berries – you can do this pruning next spring as well, but we seem to have more time at the end of the gardening season, than at the Mega-task, cramped-for-time beginning of the season. This year, I did remember to freeze some blackberries for mid-winter milkshakes – I just placed the individual ripe berries on trays or in ice cube tray compartments, and then squeezed them into the freezer – once frozen solid, I placed the berries in zip-top bags.
Mid-September is when I like to plant my garlic: I dig a 4-inch deep trough, and place the individual cloves, pointy side up, about 6 inches apart – I cover with garden soil, tamp the area over the cloves with the back of a bow rake to ensure good soil contact, then water deeply overnight. The next day, I cover the whole garlic patch with 6 inches of tree leaves (remember the discussion we had earlier about saving those leaves?), and then leave the garlic to do its thing all winter.
GARDEN CALENDAR
On September 11, our local garden club will meet inside Camden Grange at 7 p.m. for a gardening-related class (details on the meeting and class will be available here and at our new facebook page), and lots of gardening bragging, lying, trading of stories and techniques, and general fun. Club members are asked to bring along some of their favorite treats, and the club will provide seasonally-appropriate beverages. The general public and families are always welcome at our meetings, and we hope you will drop into see us – almost all of us have bathed this summer at least once, but we should be able to leave a few windows open for “sensitive” folks. :)
See you out in the garden.
