My tomatoes are ripening to beat the band. I have apples hanging like grapes on branches that reach the ground.
I have grapes that are the size of apples (well, not really, but it sounds good). But I do have grapes.
How 'bout you?
Here are some important things to keep in mind when you wander out to your balcony or veggie garden:
Herbs are ready. This is the best time of year to cut and dry many of your herbs. The essential oils of rosemary, thyme, lavender, oregano and other 'Mediterranean' herbs.
Cut a nice long stem about 20 to 30 cm and hang in a dry place with good air circulation and out of direct sunlight. A garage or barn or potting shed works best.
Ready in a month for use all winter.
Plant garlic
. If you have garlic cloves from your own garden, plant them. You will find garlic bulbs/cloves ready to plant mixed in with the tulip bulbs at your local garden retailer.
Plant about 8 cm deep in well drained soil and in a sunny position. Water them in once. Let Mother Nature take over.
You will harvest the scapes (pig tails) in July and the bulbs next August.
Pick tomatoes and other fruiting veggies as they become ripe. This encourages new fruit to form and mature (otherwise the plant just keeps pushing energy into the rotting tomato that hangs on your vine).
Sow late season crop of mesclun, leaf lettuce and radishes.
Consider building a cold frame. It will help you to extend your season by several weeks both in the fall and spring.
For more information go to Niki Jabbour's website and read my new book The New Canadian Garden.
Lots of information out there!! This is well worth doing....!
Compost. As you finish a crop be sure to pull the remains of plants and put the vegetative material in your compost. If you don't have a compost bin or pile, now is the perfect time of year to create one. Leaves will soon fall and they provide free fodder for your hungry composter. Leaves and 'green' (e.g. grass clippings and spent vegetables) material combine to create the very best compost as the 'green' stuff accelerates the process of breaking down organic material.
Fruit trees are ripening. Be sure not to miss the ripening fruit on your pear and apple trees.
Plant. Plant winter hardy currents, grapes, rhubarb, asparagus, blackberries (not the hand-held electronic type) and of course fruit trees including apples, pears and the like. All you have to do is find them, which is not so easy in some cases. True, the best selection is in the spring when new stock comes in to your local retailer. Also true: this is the best time of year to plant. It is a contradiction that we live with here in Canada. I need to get over it.
Prune raspberry canes that produced this summer. If you have fall bearing raspberries, pick them and eat them. Prune them in spring.
Too early for winterizing so let's not talk about it, but I will prime you for this one: next month (or so, depending on how early winter arrives at your place) you will want to apply a rodent repellent to the trunk of young fruit trees, wrap tender fruits in burlap and keep on composting..... and you thought that this was the end of it? Oh no. The fun only ends when the snow flies and the Grey Cup is on.... late November.
Look for my October newsletter arriving in your Inbox Friday, September 30th.
I look forward to connecting with you.
Happy food gardening!
Mark
Merchant of all the good stuff that you need to grow great food
p.s. did you know that if you are a cancer survivor for 5 years you can give blood, with the support of a letter from your doctor? I have 2 years left to wait and then I can resume my journey in blood-giving: I was up to 97 donations. . Fingers crossed. www.blood.ca
