It seems knockout to believe , but the final stage of August is fast upcoming ! As our Summer garden and its wonderful bounty of fresh tomatoes , Madagascar pepper , zucchini and more begin to wind down – its time to think about the Fall garden .
Although we will still get in a few more quick plantings of bread , kale , spinach and radishes – the end of summer signals to us that its meter to get quick for our big “ 3 ” must - plant fall crops : Garlic , Onions – and the ultra - authoritative screen craw of Annual Rye .
Garlic
Nothing beats the gustatory perception of house - grown garlic ! It is one of the easy crops to grow – and can be stored for year - round function in the kitchen .
Although garlic can be planted in the bound ( especially gentle - cervix varieties in the warmer mood of the South ) – the best time to embed hardneck Allium sativum in the Midwest is in the fall .
Planting in the fall allow the garlic bulbs to get off to a salutary offset – and although they go torpid during the wintertime months – they spring back to life and make for a majuscule harvesting in later June to early July of the next yr .
For us here in the Midwest and for most of the northerly states – the best time to plant garlic is in mid to late September or the first week of October .
you’re able to press our link below to find out the specific of planting garlic – and we will also be adding a telecasting tutorial on ourYouTube Channelas well in the coming week .
See : How To embed Garlic This Fall
Onions
Much like garlic – Fall planted onion will mature speedily next outflow in clock time for a late June or early July harvest – and always seem to bring a much large size of onion than our same - yr imbed crop .
Onions can be planted in the same time frame as your garlic – with the same dirt preparation and spacing of the planting rows .
maneuver into Winter – we treat both our onion and garlic crops in a respectable 2 to 3″ thick layer of straw or leaf mulch . It not only helps to forbid dope in the row – but provides them with a little protection from Winter ’s constant thaw and freezing .
Cover Crops – Annual Rye
And that leads us to our most important Fall crop of all – the annual rye cover crop ! Although our covering crop do n’t necessarily provide nutrient for us – they certainly feed our garden .
Cover crops are simple to plant , require zero alimony – and add rattling amounts of organic matter and alimentation back to your soil . They also protect the soil from lose worthful nutrient from the nose candy , ice , wind and rain through the harsh winter months .
By cover the grunge with a thick cover of a super - charged cover harvest – it also importantly cut down on the amount of weeds in next yr ’s garden by keeping tout and drift come from come up a home plate .
We wish to found our book binding crop in mid to late diminish – move over them enough time ( a month or so ) to spud and fill in the planting rows of our garden with a dense bandage of growth .
In the outflow – we turn the cover harvest over and back into the filth – free all of their food to the coming class ’s harvest .
See : Cover Crop BASIC
So there you have it – our 3 “ Must constitute ” declivity crops !
Happy Gardening – Jim and Mary
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