Hey all! As we turn over some leaves heading into Fall, (both literally and physically!), we’ve been spending a lot of time doing some Autumn gardening again as you may have heard from our previous October posts! It’s starting to really cool down during the days and especially during the nights. That means it’s that time again to start turning over our garden for the season! This personally is one of my favorite times of the year, so I can’t complain! Let me tell you why!
What Autumn Gardening in Western PA looks like
First of all, I can’t stand the heat, so I really prefer that sweater weather any day with jeans and boots. Especially over a tank top and shorts sticking to me with sweat. Ick! So I genuinely look forward to the best season of the year so that I can sweat less. I also encounter fewer nagging bugs and enjoy being outdoors with the cooler, crisp air. Whether or not you’re familiar with turning over your garden, one thing is for sure, and that is that it’s going to look different for everyone, based on your location or climate. We’re located in western PA, so we have a pretty steady 4-season kind of year. I like it. What’s yours? That means we start to experience the Fall weather during the last bit of September and the full month of October…maybe even a little in November if it gets that far. But my favorite remains October, and that’s because it’s before the snow flies but after the leaves turn. It’s a beautiful and refreshing site to see. During this month, we typically spend a lot of it doing clean up work in the garden, and usually a little tidying up in the yard as well, such as splitting wood, gathering leaves, or putting things away for the winter that shouldn’t sit out in the elements. (Lawn mowers, patio furniture, etc). Over the weekend we spent a good bit of time doing a bit of all of those things! Allow me to elaborate. Related: How Gardening is Good For Your Soul
Gardening as a Team
We split the tasks this time to ensure efficiency, meaning that the hubs took on the woodpile and yours truly headed towards the garden. I left my best gloves outside too long by mistake which was a total bummer, meaning I was going to have to pull out the slimy and rotting plants with bare hands! Don’t get me wrong, I love digging in the dirt but I don’t get all that excited about getting rotting plants and veggies on me. (Don’t lose your gloves, friends! Speaking of which, here are some super cute and durable ones on sale right now!)To Root or Not to Root
It was a blast though, time flew by as I moved from row to row picking out which crops were okay to leave for now and which needed to be uprooted. This is what we choose to do just to ensure the rotting roots don’t collect any unwanted bacteria over the years, but a lot of folks like to leave the roots in the ground as well for those nice little worms that do a good job. The choice is yours! Deciding to leave the kale, broccoli, beets and swiss chard, I headed towards the sunflowers first. They’re super giant which means their stalks are very thick. I prefer using clippers for these and cut them above the ground. They’re the only thing I leave the root in the ground on, since they’re so hard to pull out! After that I decided to try my hand at preserving more seeds than usual this year. Which meant taking a little more time to move through everything. I snipped off the tops of the lettuce and radishes and tossed a few decent looking green beans into the bucket. Once the seeds were collected, (which we’ll take into the garage to dry before harvesting!), I started pulling out each plant by its roots to ensure everything was cleaned up and taken down to the burnpile. We’ll wait a little longer before burning since they’ll need to dry out some first. (Hooray for Fall bonfires!)
Tending to Peppers and Tomatoes Before Cold Sets In
The last bit of cleanup involved removing the stakes and twine from the tomatoes. Then pulling out those plants as well. My boots got squishy quickly after stomping on the rotting tomatoes underneath! (We’ll likely run a rake over the top of the black plastic before picking it up for the season…or we may leave it down to plant some spinach! Stay tuned for an update next week!) Once the tomatoes were handled, I moved onto the pepper plants. They were still flowering! Crazy, but they likely won’t produce much longer with the cold setting in. I picked off all of the non-worm eaten peppers and left the plants to try for additional peppers for another week or two. If they don’t follow through I’ll remove them before the frost sets in. Related: Fall Into New Crops for Your Garden
Prepping for Winter Gardening
Taking care of a garden can be tricky! I’m still learning but am hopeful that providing my journey along the way will invoke a sense excitement in taking care of (or starting!) one of your own! With each year comes a little more knowledge and a little more experience. Thus leading to increasingly better crops and better care systems. We do our best to work as a team with all chores, but have learned to lean into what each one of us is best at and let the other take care of their favorite tasks. It’s going well! Soon we’ll begin to plant some crops that will grow over the winter, so make sure to subscribe to follow along with what we’re up to! We’d love to hear about your journey as well if you’re up for sharing! Happy Fall!
