Putting the Garden to Bed

 Happy Friday, 

Fall has definitely arrived around here, the days are so much shorter, and getting more gray and drizzly. 

A couple of weeks ago, we got our first real rains of the season. I still had a ton of green tomatoes on the vine that I didn't want to go to waste. I have been able to successfully ripen tomatoes on my kitchen windowsill and counter, but pending at least 20lbs of green tomatoes coming in, that would not work this time. After reading up on the subject, all of the unripened tomatoes were placed in a cardboard box together in the garage. The idea behind this is that fruits produce a gas called ethylene which is what helps them ripen. When all of the fruits are placed in close (breathable) quarters they will ripen faster when picked green. So far, it's looking pretty good. As they ripen, I will skin and freeze them until I'm ready to can them.

We're supposed to our first below-freezing overnight temps this weekend. I wanted to make sure that I had harvested all that I could, and gotten my beds ready for the season. Because I do have a little more time at home than usual, we are really trying to maximize this by upping our garden game. 

One bed has been planted with alliums: Yellow Onions, Egyptian Walking Onions, and Garlic. I learned this year that these are best planted in Fall for a following Summer harvest. They have been covered with a thick, cozy layer of grass clippings to keep them safe from freezing temps. 5 other beds have been harvested, turned, weeds cleared, and replanted with a cover crop seed blend. We have cover cropped before, but not for at least 10 years. I think, when we did it the first time, we let them go too long and they went to seed and became more hassle than help. 

What is a cover crop? A cover crop is something that you plant in your garden, most often in the "off-season", to help your soil, either by supplementing it with needed nutrition, fixing those nutrients, or by breaking up impaction to aerate it. We opted for a Garden Blend Mix from Mountain Valley Seed that seems to cover all of the bases and includes Clovers, Vetch, Wheat, and Radish, among others.

I get a lot of "help" from my feathered friends. They like to add a little extra fertilizer to the beds and make sure there aren't too many worms left before they get tucked in for the season. To the left, you can see the allium bed covered in clippings, our rhubarb hanging on, one last pumpkin vine, and a stray upright fuschia that are not in our raised beds. 

Do you tuck your garden in? I'd love to hear about it!