- Author: Paul McCollum
- Editor: Kamille Hammerstrom
To all the lovely people,
Welcome to fall. I hope you all had a great summer garden season. We are bringing in buckets of tomatoes and apples - juicing the apples mostly but we are also enjoying apple crisp and pie. The juice has been excellent - I usually add a carrot or two, one hot pepper, and maybe a kale leaf to each gallon and freeze it in 1/2 gallon jars. We also have a lot of different varieties of hot peppers and we will be roasting, drying, and trying fermenting with some this year. I have small fall garden in and will be planting our garlic in a few weeks. After the first rain we will plant our cover crop.
USDA Zone 9
- For spring bloom, broadcast wildflower seeds over soil that has been lightly cultivated.
- Plant fast-growing, frost-resistant veggies: radishes, mustard, spinach, ‘Tokyo Market' turnips, and corn salad.
- Divide and transplant bearded irises, daylilies, phlox, cannas, and Shasta daisies.
- Harvest sweet potatoes after tops wither, but before the first hard frost.
- Harvest winter squash, pumpkins, and peanuts before frost.
- Clean up fallen fruit in the orchard.
- Build a hot compost pile to kill pathogens lurking in garden debris: Use a high-nitrogen material, such as grass clippings or seafood shells.
USDA Zone 10
- Mulch and water well—dry spells this month can last a week or longer.
- Finish pruning fruit trees so new sprouts can harden before cold arrives.
- Plant colorful bloomers, such as sweet alyssum, begonias, petunias, and pansies.
- Prepare beds for planting roses; plant them late this month.
- Fertilize plants that flower in winter.
- Plant strawberries and brassicas (except brussels sprouts—it's too warm) early in the month.
- In midmonth, direct-seed root crops and beans.
- Near the end of the month, sow lettuce, spinach, and other greens.
- Author: Paul McCollum
To all the lovely people,
Welcome to fall. Here is a little check list from Washington state on how we might help some of our friends in the garden or on the property. It is good to think about the needs of “others”.
Paul
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Fall "To Do" list from your backyard wildlife family
Your family may be making those fall outdoor chore lists, as daylight hours shrink, temperatures drop, and the urge grows to "batten down the hatches" in the yard and garden.
Here's another "to do" list from your local wildlife "family" that you may find easier to check off:
- Leave some "dead heads" on your flowering plants to provide seeds for some of us birds and other animals
- If you must rake leaves off grass lawns, just pile them under some shrubs, bushes or other nooks and crannies to provide homes for those insects that we birds love to eat; leaves make great mulch to help your plants, anyway!
- Keep that dead or dying tree right where it is (unless, of course, it's truly a hazard to you), so we can feast on the insects in the rotting wood or make winter roosts or dens in its cavities
- Give yourself and your mower a rest for at least a portion of your lawn so we've got a patch of taller grass to hide and forage in
- Save just a little of that dead bramble thicket for us - it makes great winter cover and we don't need much! Fall is a good time to plant shrubs, so replace invasive, exotic Himalayan and cut leaf blackberries with native plants of higher wildlife value like blackcap (native black raspberry) or red raspberry; native currants or gooseberries found in your area; or native roses such as Nootka or bald hip.
- Pile up any brush or rocks you clear around your place to give us another option for nests and dens
- Take it easy on yourself and let go of the "perfect" garden image; we wild animals like less tidy, "fuzzy" places because there's usually more food and shelter there
- Get yourself a comfortable chair, sit back, and congratulate yourself on having made a home for wildlife and a haven of relaxation for yourself!