Gardening Tips; Fall Quarter, 2020 Edition.
I have decided that it would be better to serve all of you by going to a quarterly Garden Tips situation. While this past year I did the monthly tips, it was necessary to bring everyone up to speed on a number of aspects. Now that we have covered those, as it applies to people doing their gardens, I feel like we can move to a more generalized exchange of information. I still want to do some important discussions on certain topics, it might be better to do those by topic. So here we go with the first quarterly discussion with this being the fall of 2020 discussion.
Many people will naturally follow the example of their plants that the fall of the year, for those in the Northern Hemisphere anyway, to call it a day and let nature take the course and start planning for next year, at least after taking a break for a few months. You must resist the temptation to do so. Fall is the most important time for the success of next year's crop. Just keep in mind that you are changing the order of how things are done. So the first year of this change might require a little more work, but then after that, all is normal.
One of the first things to do is to clear off the garden area. The temptation is to haul off all of the leftover material from the garden to the dump. doing this is a waste of resources. Remember the compost pile? Yeah, that stuff goes there. Some people will say, yeah, but what about any of the weeds, or diseased plants. I want to get rid of both of those. First off by knocking the plants, like weeds around, you have effectively replanted the weeds for an abundant crop of those weeds come next year. Remember that you want to remove the weeds before they go to seed. Then compost them like the weeds as a general rule will take up a tremendous amount of soil nutrients. Nature does not see these plants as weeds. Nature just sees a plant. We as people have decided that certain plants are weeds and certain plants are not weeds. Each plant has its own unique package of nutrients and it's own unique contribution to the whole. So by composting them, you effectively kill the seeds and break down the minerals, etc., for use in successive applications of the compost material. Also, by composting the various garden plant residues, you will return a factor of immunity from various pests that plagued your plants over the past year and set their immune system up to be strong for next year's plantings. If you are actively doing this, then by next fall you will have made your own soil amendments of compost. It will be perfect for your specific plot of land.
Fall is a perfect time to add the various other soil amendments that your specific site requires. This is very important as it will permit the soil microbes to adjust to the new environment. The amendments will have a chance to break down, adjust, and generally get ready to work. It does take time for this to happen and is often the reason to why your garden is not all that it can be during the productive season. This method will allow you to do a little bit of work at different times of the year instead of being slammed for a short period of time. By following these ideas of fall work, t allows you to be refreshed by the garden work and not burned out, so to speak.
Basically you will be able to work your ground and have it ready for when the first signs of spring knock on your door. Another aspect of this is that you can actually plant some seeds right now in the fall of the year. Due to cold weather, lack of moisture, and the photosynthesis factors, your seed will stay right there until it gets the "Get up and go signal" from nature in the spring. This is more or less a technique for experienced gardeners, but hey, everyone has to start somewhere so that they can begin the journey of becoming an experienced gardener, right? You might be surprised by what you will discover. Plus by doing the gardening in the fall stuff, you will be able to take advantage of discounted garden stuff from seeds, to amendments, to well, all supplies at the stores that sell, well, garden stuff.
Hopefully, you had an exciting time and learning experience with your gardening over this past year. f you have specific questions, that you might want to check with me on, feel free to get with me, and one way or the other, we will come up with the information you need. Again, thank you for your time and interest and we will see each other again with the winter gardening tips. Yes, there are some things you can do and need to do during the winter. Have a good day.
End of Report.
