Garden Cleanup-A Necessary Task We All Must Face

The Trusty Gardener-A Look Back on the Garden in 2023-The Garden is Still Producing

Welcome back. Over the last several weeks I’ve been working on end-of-season garden chores. You know, re-gaining control after you may have neglected the garden the last month or so. It happens. As much as I hate to admit it, I am also guilty as charged. We all tend to neglect the garden a bit towards the end of the growing season. Despite this, the garden continues to produce as some veggies still remain.

My last gardening article, which I wrote in early September, was an article about harvesting Russian Banana Fingerling potatoes. These potatoes produced the best of the 3 varieties I planted:

First-Attacking the Lower Garden

Since then, I started the cleanup process, first in the lower garden. Since I harvested the Eva potatoes in this garden toward the end of August, the weeds regained control quickly. It’s just amazing just how fast they take control. I wrote about the harvest of Eva potatoes here:

On Sunday, September 17th, I first cleared the weeds, then rototilled. Still remaining in this garden are kale and some lettuce in the greens box, as well as some squash and cucumber plants on the Hugelkultar bed. Around August 20th, I planted the lettuce, cukes, and squash, hoping for a late-season crop. Time will tell if my efforts pay off. Two days ago, we had a low of 33 degrees, dangerously close to a frost.

The kale, which is from the original planting this Spring, will tolerate frost extremely well. I’ve even had plants survive the Winter and grow back the next year. In fact, the kale plant currently in the upper garden is from last year. I will leave it winter again to see if it survives.

End of Story Extra-Volume 4

This is a new feature in my articles. I will post an added bonus at the end of each article, separate from my usual 3 story links. It could be a photo, an extra paragraph, or something else. Stay tuned and keep reading.

Next Challenge-The Upper Garden

This past Saturday, the 23rd, I began end-of-season work on the upper garden. I started with the tomato patch. Even though we haven’t had a frost, blight took a toll on the tomato plants except for one notable exception: Matt’s Wild Cherry. These plants are still going as they seem to be infazed by blight.

Cleaning up the tomatoes involves a little extra work since I used tomato cages and black plastic mulch film. It took a while to pull the plants and weeds, and then remove the cages and plastic.

Remaining Veggies in the Upper Garden

Still remaining are the peppers, Mat’s Wild Cherry tomatoes (mentioned above), carrots, leeks, and Swiss Chard. Frost will eventually get to the tomatoes and peppers, however, the Swiss Chard, leeks, and carrots will weather the cold and even become better.

A Lesson Learned-I Waited Too Long To Harvest the Onions

This year I planted 3 varieties of onions; Yellow (Stuttgarter type), Ailsa Craig (British heirloom, large sweet onion), and Cipollini (Italian heirloom, flat sweet onion). I wrote about them here:

As the article mentions, Ailsa Craig and Cipolini were new varieties for me.

All 3 did well overall. In August we had 7 inches of rain and early in September we received 3 more inches. waited too long and the Alisa Craig and Cipollini onions started to rot. I salvaged quite a few of the Ailsa Craig, although many are soft at the top. They will be OK if used before too long. I only salvaged a few of the Cipollini. The Stuttgarter onions were fine, they are very hardy and will store well as well.

The Final Step

As the last step, at least for now, I had to clear the weeds from the upper garden where the Yukon Gold potatoes were planted. I referenced an article above regarding the harvesting of these potatoes.

I got out the rototiller and tilled all the clear areas of the gardens. Eventually, I will clean up the remaining squash, cukes, tomatoes, and peppers. Once we get a killing frost. For now, we will still enjoy the remaining veggies in the gardens.

Soil Enhancement

This Fall I will mulch some leaves and place them on the gardens. This is one of the best ways to enhance garden soil. After all, have you ever checked what the soil looks like in the woods under the leaves? As rich as rich can be.

End of Story Extra-Volume 4

Are you tired of blight affecting your tomatoes? I know I am as I mentioned above. Next year I am going to plant exclusive blight-resistant varieties. I know some of the seed catalogs offer these. Matt’s Wild Cherry is one such variety, but I will investigate and come up with some more. I have tried other measures to control blight such as crop rotation, disposal of plant matter, etc. with no success. The potatoes were also affected; I will do some research to see if any potato varieties are blight-resistant. Stay tuned.