Can You Believe It's September Already?!
Just like that, I blinked and today is September 1st. Much of this years seed crops have been harvested and the days are filling up with seed cleaning, preserving the harvest, and working on my fall garden prep. This months blog includes:
Our growing guide - season extension and fall plantings.
A link for you to get some of my garlic for your gardens or your kitchen(garlic is shipping nation wide this year!)
Upcoming workshop at the farm
Doors open for our October 15th round of Seed To Table Online course.
I hope you find information that helps you in your fall garden prep! Before we move onto happenings at the farm, you can read on to discover some of my experience of the 2023 season. I always find September is a perfect time for personal reflection on how the season went. Where we thrived(the garden and I) and where we were challenged. It may only be the first day of the month but I can tell you already that this years garden thrived in both food and seed production with all the rainy weather we had. Disease issues have been present but manageable, and pest pressures, aside from those irritating squash bugs(!) have been very low. My biggest challenge this year was all the rain! As compared to last year, I did lay irrigation this season, but it was used only a handful of times. All the rain has meant more pruning for greater air circulation, flood management, and a change in seed harvest timing. However, it has also brought an abundance of production for which I am grateful for. So many cucumbers that we've managed to produce 36 jars of pickles, 12 jars of relish, many cucumber salads, AND lots of seed for the next few years! What has your biggest challenge been this season? What has been your greatest success? I invite you to take these early weeks of fall to walk around your own growing space. Notice your successes and challenges, learn from them, and allow them to help you create your plans for next years gardens! If you'd like to share your experience, you can join our Facebook group Growing Your Organic Garden Oasis
This year we have 4 varieties to choose from! Click on the link below to view one of our more popular ones - Jarvis Garlic , a hard neck garlic that came to us from a local grower in Jarvis, Haldimand County, Ontario. It was given to him by an old family friend who has been growing it … C$4.50
Fall Garden Workshop September 10th, 2023 9:00 am - 12:00 pm Price $50.00 Topics Covered Garden Maintenance - Getting the garden ready for winter. Fall planting - Garlic, Shallots, Fall seeding for over wintering crops. Season Extension - Low tunnels, hoop house crops. Seed Saving and Cleaning - Seasonally appropriate seed crops.
September Growing Guide
Welcome to September! This month brings more abundant harvests and hopefully, cooler weather. It is another month of preserving, harvesting, weeding, pruning, and for many of us, a final round of successive planting. In this newsletter, I'm sharing Septembers list of crops that I sow at the farm for mid to late fall harvest as well as over wintering crops. This round of direct seeding can be allocated to storage crops and extended season fresh vegetables for picking all the way into November and beyond, depending on your location and season extension practices. The following list includes species I plant for storage crops, overwintering crops, and late season harvests at the farm:
Arugula
Chard
Kale
Lettuce
Peas(Shelling)
Radish
Rapini
Spinach
To determine your best planting dates, find out your last frost date, the days to maturity for your crops, and add 2 weeks for the slower growth factor. Once you have determined your fall season maturity or harvest dates, you can then start to look at your needs around frost protection. These can include:
Low tunnel hoops over individual beds with temperature protection row cover or 6mml polyplastic.
Cold Frames - a structure you can build out of recycled materials such as wood and window glass or plastic.
Hoop House - An unheated greenhouse structure allowing you to grow in ground into the winter months.
At the farm, I use row cover in the fields, you can get row cover products that offer up to 10C protection. So if the night time temps are dipping to -5C, your row covered crops will stay between 0C and 5C overnight. In my hoop house I like to use double protection. This entails setting up low tunnels in the hoop house to take advantage of the protection offered by the hoop house and increase temperatures by adding the low tunnel hoops and temp protection row cover. This method keeps us eating from the garden until Christmas AND we usually get our first years harvest shortly after Feb 1. I recommend holding all harvests between late December and early February as the short days signal the plants to stop growing until our days get longer. Harvesting during this time can lead to plant death or very slow grow back. These season extension methods are all great options for the crops listed above, AND they have the potential to keep you eating from your garden right into December and beyond. Talk about food security!
The Fall Garden - Garlic, Season Extension, More! An overview of garlic planting, harvest and curing, fall bed prep, preserving, winter storage crop practices, and fall season extension! Self Paced
Seed To Table And Back Again An online course that will guide you through the steps of creating, organizing, and implementing a plan for your own edible garden. October 15th - December 9th
