Today is September 19, and it should be feeling like fall out, but it is more like mid-July. Hot temperatures plus humidity does not have me craving tea or comfort food. The Halloween decorations inside my home look very out of place. I know it’s way too early, but I think my home feels much cozier with seasonal decor around. Any day now Christmas tunes will be dropping from Alexa. I am sure that made a few people gag, but I am that holiday creep that gets so much joy from this time of year. We have Elsie’s birthday at the end of the month, soccer and football are in full swing, then it’s hockey tryouts in two weeks. This season always feels so rushed with the excitement of back to school and new sports starting. Autumn signals the beginning of new adventures along with the ending of our outdoor growing season here in Minnesota. There has been a stunning Harvest moon display the last couple of nights, which is why I wrote a little post about what is going on in the garden this part of September. FYI- It is not officially fall until Sunday, by then our weather should be feeling more like it. Totally ready for hoodies and slippers.
What is in Bloom?
Fall garden colors are so magical. Shades of orange, yellow and reds shimmer in the late season sunshine. Bumblebees flood the goldenrods scattered throughout the backyard. Tall perennial plants with little bushes of yellow flowers are a must have in a pollinator garden. They bloom late summer to early fall and provide much needed food for the bumblebees still around. I have also noticed the Monarch butterflies will hang around the goldenrods
Sunflowers are planted everywhere in my yard! Most are intentionally seeded, but quite a few are surprise droppings from our wildlife friends. When selecting seeds, look for varieties that are extra beneficial to pollinators if possible, such as the ‘Lemon Queen’ sunflower. I encourage everyone to grow sunflowers. They are probably the most cheerful flower in existence and provide our birds with incredible nourishment. I have a square foot raised bed where I plant a small patch of sunflowers and broom corn for my fall decor. From the kitchen window I get a fabulous display of ten-foot-tall sunflowers swaying in the breeze. My chickens love to snack on the seeds and a few large heads will be harvested for their enjoyment, but the rest will stand tall all winter for the local birds.
Annuals like marigolds, zinnias, and cosmos are all still flowering and swarmed with many types of bees. I don’t plan to remove any of these plants soon and I will be doing the no-dig method for fall preparation in my gardens. Read more about this genius gardening tip at https://northerngardener.org/no-dig-gardening-with-charles-dowding/
Another late bloomer making an appearance recently is ‘Autumn Joy’ sedum This is my first-year growing sedum, as it was an addition to the brand-new pollinator garden I created as a project for my master gardener program. The monstrous honeysuckle vine is still blooming and attracting many hummingbirds each day. Each spring this vine is the first garden plant to come to life with fresh green leaves and orange-pink flowers. She is still blooming ferociously, and the leaves are now turning red and the look is stunning!
Vegetable Gardens- The Good and Bad Report
This was not a great growing season for much of my produce. The culprit was too much rainfall and lack of heat. Our summer was very wet and cool, which did not bode well for the vegetables I grow. The majority of my plants are heat loving ones, such as peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and melons. Luckily, we have been having a late summer heat wave and I am now getting a late push of peppers. I will be thankful if I can get them fully ready to pick before our average first frost date of October 1. I still have to make Jamaican jerk sauce with my scotch bonnets, mango-habanero hot sauce, Thai chili oil, pickled banana peppers, and dry some for hot pepper flakes.
Honestly, my tomatoes were decent. I grew a lot of varieties for different purposes. Spoon tomato has been a favorite for two years now. Pea sized tomatoes are so flavorful despite their size, and are the perfect topper for any salad. Honeycomb were the clear winner when it came to production amount. These adorable peach-orange tomato snacks provided a crazy number of tomatoes from July until now (mid-September) and they are still making fruit with zero disease. My big slicers this season were the classic Beefsteak and the heirloom Brandywine. Friends who were gifted these gems, proclaimed them as the best tomatoes they have ever had. The chef side of me planted plenty of San Marzanos and Romas. Sauces have been being made for weeks now. When tomatoes are ready for picking but you don’t have enough for a batch of sauce, toss into freezer bags and collect until ready to use.
Tomatillos were insane producers starting around middle of July. I started 4 plants from seeds indoors in March and moved them outside once frost risk had passed. These plants were close to becoming compost, three-lined potato beetles took over and within days the tomatillos looked like skeletons. I didn’t think I had a choice but to dig them up and grow something different in this spot. I gave them a chance to live and did my research on how to eliminate the bugs with zero pesticides using a technique called IPM (integrated pest management). Click on the link for full IPM instructions provided by the University of Minnesota Extension website. The results were just as I hoped for. Bugs gone, and the plants fully recovered with no cosmetic damage whatsoever. I have not grown tomatillos before and wasn’t familiar with how much fruit each plant bears. I still don’t know, but each plant had 50+ tomatillos, and to me that sounds like a lot! Therefore, I will consider my first tomatillo season a success.
If you continue to read my blog, you’ll discover I love to grow all sorts of fun pumpkins and gourds. Kids love to help in the pumpkin patch and watch as a tiny seed grows into a giant orange Jack O’ Lantern, ready for carving on Halloween. I harvested all of the mini pumpkins and gourds already due to plants being taken over by beetles and mildew. Zucchini and summer squashes all produced wonderfully as well. A new summer variety I tried this year was the ‘Zephyr’ summer squash, and this fruit did not disappoint! One plant was giving us 1-2 fruits per day. The winter squashes are still thriving on their vines in the garden looking great for fall side dishes. My biggest failure was cucumbers this year. I could not get decent cukes in any area of my garden. I tried planting in the ground, in raised beds, in pots, and they all performed very poorly.
Has anyone else done potatoes in giant tubs before? It has been a few years since I grew spuds and wanted to add them back in to my crop list. Since I have chickens who like to peck every single inch of ground, I decided to go with a potato bucket for growing instead. Turns out the tub is awesome! I got so many fresh potatoes this year, and they are now drying out on my deck. This will be my go-to way for growing potatoes now. This method will save space and a great option for those who container garden. Onions and leeks usually do well in every spot in the garden. I did not plant many this year but the red onions and leeks that didn’t get dug up from the hens turned out nicely. Just made a note to post my potato-leek soup recipe, such a comforting harvest meal.
Green beans and carrots had a record season. I am still harvesting a bucket of beans every few days. I grew both pole beans and bush, with pole beans being the bigger producer. Most of them were blanched and frozen for future winter meals, such as Thanksgiving Day green bean casserole. I found growing carrots in big tubs work out so much better than in the ground. I did not have good luck for the longest time, my soil was not suitable for carrots, and they would end up mis-shapen and hard to extract. With the tub method, the soil is easily amended for growing the best quality carrots. I grew the ‘Little Finger’ variety from Burpee this year, and they are the perfect size for kids and taste delicious. Lettuces and salad greens come and go March-November with succession planting.
I still have all my herbs in planters and in beds. They need to be harvested this weekend and preserved. I use two methods with herbs; freezing or drying. I love my dehydrator; I use it for making all types of ground peppers and spice blends. Dill freezes very well, and it is so nice to have fresh dill on hand for those Christmas Eve deviled eggs or Easter potato salad. Basil is my all-time favorite herb and it will stay fresh with me all year. What is growing outdoors will be plucked for one last pesto fest, and also dried for homemade Italian seasonings.
October To-Do List
My perspective on fall garden clean-up has changed dramatically since joining the master gardener program. I have learned about “leaving the leaves” and why it is important to keep the flower stems intact for bees to hibernate over winter in. This list keeps evolving as I discover areas that need attention before winter.
- Compost container plants and disinfect planters, store for winter
- Dry corn stalks and broom corn for fall decorations
- Acclimate houseplants back indoors
- Continue watering, weather has been dry
- Harvest sunflower heads for seeds
- Plant garlic and other spring bulbs
- Remove dead debris and compost healthy vegetation and burn any diseased plants
- Keep eye on fall cool season crops
- Put away summer garden decor
- Dehydrate peppers and herbs
- Deep clean chicken coop and add lots of fresh straw
- Pick pumpkins and squash
- Record plant data, and take notes for 2025
