Home

soil

July 30, 2008 - Now is the time to prepare for your fall garden

Every year it seems a bit odd to be getting ready for my fall garden at this time. After all, it’s 97 degrees with no relief in sight.

How can anyone think of fall gardens in this weather? Well, like it or not there is lots to be done at this time, so that come cooler days our gardens are ready and growing.

If you have a garden that is still producing, maybe okra and a few tomatoes, you can work around them.

But, for those that have nothing in the garden, except for maybe weeds, now is the time to clean it out. That is if you want to grow fall vegetables.

I mentioned a week or two ago about solarizing. That’s where you cut the weeds down and lay a large piece of plastic over the entire area. Let the garden area “cook” undisturbed for a few weeks. At that time you’d need to remove the plastic and clean out all the dead weeds, add organic fertilizer and compost, and till it all in.

Whether or not you are growing organic food as a hobby, or you have a full fledged organic gardening business, one of the most important ingredients that you can make for yourself is organic compost. Using terms such as mulch or a type of soil amendments, this natural fertilizer can improve the growth of your crops by making your soil more rich through added moisture capacity, increased aeration, which will stimulate healthy root growth due to the soil’s fertility levels. This can include increased levels of microorganisms, nutrients such as potassium or nitrogen which can be made with scraps that you would throw away on a regular basis. Here are 5 tips on how you can generate rich organic compost on your own without it costing you a cent.

Series: Organic Gardening: Tips, Tools & Supplies for Raising Organic Vegetables

Expertise: Gale Gassiot has been involved in organic gardening for over 30 years.

Transcript of This Video

Organic Gardening: Tips, Tools & Supplies for Raising Organic Vegetables