Next year’s garden starts now
Greetings! I love the month of September, filled with its mix of emotions. Our gardens have the appearance of a growing season that’s winding down, and the weather is definitely changing. But September has some of the nicest days possible, with bright blue skies and clear sunshine, and summer’s heat is mostly in retreat.
I love to work outside on these days, and my emotions are a happy type of sadness. I’m happy for the bright weather and for a successful gardening season, but there’s a tinge of sadness that another growing season is passing, like a comfortable friend who’s leaving. But it’s a happy-sad, because before long it will all cycle back again. Winter will follow, and another spring will arrive with bright new possibilities and a shiny new gardening season.
Working in our garden in September accomplishes two things. It lets us savor the happy-sad (but mostly happy) emotions of the season while enjoying bright, clear sunshine. And we can accomplish tasks that will make next year’s garden even better.
Here’s a checklist of end-of-season garden tasks:
If you have long-season vegetables in the garden, some can remain a while longer. Potatoes can be left in the ground until after the vines are completely dry and brown. The skins will become firmer, and less likely to be damaged while digging, increasing their storage life. Carrots become increasingly sweeter as the temperatures become cooler. They can be left in the ground until late October.
As vegetable types stop bearing, or as the plants begin to die or decline, remove them from the garden. Look closely at the leaves and stems. If there’s any sign of blights, circular lesions, gray mildew, or any other symptoms of a disease, remove the plants and dispose of in the trash, as many leaf diseases survive winter in the soil or on old plant debris. Removing old plant debris is a good way to diminish next year’s disease through sanitation. Some plant types are rarely affected by any disease, so types such as old lettuce and spinach plants can be dug back into the garden soil.
If you have any plant tags in the garden of varieties that did well, or didn’t do well, make note now, before the information is lost.
After removing leaves, stems, and roots of any plants that showed disease, fall is a great time to improve the soil of the garden.
Most gardens benefit from spading or tilling the soil before winter. Turning the soil over with a shovel, spading fork, or small roto-tiller exposes insects and disease organisms to the winter elements, often reducing their ability to survive winter.
Soil in raised gardens often settles over time. Fall is a great time to bring the soil level back up to normal. A well-filled raised garden provides increased root space and healthier, more productive plants. Add soil packaged for raised gardens or another high-quality mix. For raised gardens, soil from a flowerbed or in-ground garden doesn’t perform as well, as it usually becomes hard-packed and compacted.
If your garden soil becomes hard-packed during the growing season, add organic material this fall, to make the soil more mellow and workable. Add compost, bagged manure or peat moss. Sand can make the situation worse because sand added to clay is used in brick-making.
If there were any weeds that escaped your best efforts, remove them now. Because they might contain seeds or plant parts that will grow next year, it’s safest to dig and dispose of in the trash.
A clean, well-tilled garden will be ready and waiting for spring 2021!
- Don Kinzler, NDSU Extension Agent, Cass County Horticulture
P.S. If you have any questions, please send me an email. Thanks!