By the end of summer, your vegetable garden may be looking a little bare. If you want to extend your enjoyment of fresh vegetables, now is the time to begin your fall gardening projects. The following 3 tips can help you achieve success with your plantings and enjoy delicious vegetables straight from your garden well beyond the summer months.
Cleaning Up the Garden
You may be familiar with the term “spring cleaning,” but it’s actually a thorough fall cleaning that your garden needs. This is the time to pull up dead or dying plants, such as tomato vines, cucumber, squash, zucchini, and all other summer vegetables that are no longer providing food for your table. Remove any tomatoes, cucumbers, or other vegetables that have fallen to the ground or are lying on the ground rotting. Removing rotting vegetables will help eliminate pests. This is also the ideal time to pull up any weeds that have invaded your garden space.
Compost and Mulch
You may want to add some additional compost to your garden before you plant fall vegetables. You’ll also want to add some extra mulch to the garden once you’re finished planting. Straw or shredded leaves are good mulching options for your fall garden.
Select Vegetables
The process of choosing the vegetables you want to include in a fall garden is the same as with a summer garden. You’ll want to check to see that the vegetable can withstand the temperatures in your area. The amount of sunlight your garden space receives is also a factor to consider when selecting fall plants. Generally, leafy greens such as some varieties of lettuce, spinach and chard, root crops such as carrots, beets, radishes, and turnips and vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and kale will grow well in a fall garden.
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