It’s harvest time …but don’t stop planting!
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There is nothing like the flavor or the feeling of picking your own food right outside your back door. This is the kitchen garden to table lifestyle! Reaping the bounty of your gardening efforts is a gratifying experience and by August there is plenty of beans, cucumbers, squash, tomatoes and more. August is also the time to start planting for the cool season crops that will grow and stretch your harvesting through September, October and possibly November. If this is news to you, please read on!
Many gardeners miss the opportunity to grow plants through the fall months and begin to think about closing down their gardens after the summer harvest. I hear comments like, “I just wanted summer tomatoes, so now I’m done.” or “I’m tired of gardening and to plant another crop is too much work.” or “It gets too cold in Minnesota to grow anything in the fall. There isn’t time since the first frost date is in October.” A kitchen garden is meant to keep things simple while providing nutritional organic food all year long so I have a few responses that might motivate you to keep the garden growing.
1. Summer tomatoes: If your goal with gardening is mainly about those scrumptious fresh tomatoes, I am all for it! Better to grow and eat fresh organic tomatoes all summer than store bought canned tomatoes. Tomatoes begin to slowly lose their nutrients after picking them, so eat them soon afterward or plan to freeze or can them within 2-3 days. Since tomatoes ripen at different times, I pick the few that have reached their peak and have a boiling pot of water ready to drop them in, peel the skins, rough chop them and place them in the freezer. It is the quickest and easiest way to ensure you are getting maximum nutritional benefit.
2. Getting tired: I get it! However, I believe one of the reasons gardeners get tired is because they are tired of pulling weeds and dealing with pests, but certainly not tired of harvesting amazing fruits and vegetables to eat. In my June Lowdown article, I wrote about Intensive planting which is a work-with-nature method that breaks the plant spacing rules by planting plants closer together. When plants are spread way apart with nothing in between, there is a lot of soil exposed to the elements. Bare soil dries out more quickly leaving plants weak and vulnerable to pests and weeds will most certainly grow in the bare spaces. I would rather water and harvest another plant than pull weeds.
3. Fall is too cold to grow anything: I disagree! In my April Lowdown article, I addressed the importance of knowing the arc of seasons for the garden’s specific area. The arc of seasons identifies the average high and low temperatures for each month which defines the growing seasons and for the Stillwater/St. Croix area there are two cool seasons; March thru May and August thru October with a warm season in between. This means there is extra time for cool season crops that grow in temperatures between 35 degrees to 65 degrees and even tolerate frost or snow. Among these hardy crops are radishes, broccoli, cabbage, peas, variety of root crops, lettuces and other greens to harvest during the upcoming fall months.
4. Nutritional benefit: Since most of the nation’s produce travels over 1,000 miles to get to the grocery stores, studies have been done to determine how long they maintain their nutritional value. Spinach, for example, when picked has 100% vitamin C content and a week to 10 days later; it has zero% of its vitamin C content. Another study with spinach, broccoli, and peas shows 2-3 days from harvesting it has a 50% reduction in vitamin C content. These studies and others have motivated me to keep growing cool season crops that thrive in the fall even after the first frost date.
With a little extra effort, by using intensive planting and following the arc of seasons, you can reap the rewards of nutritional food all year long from your kitchen garden. To read all of my articles for more information, visit my website at goodenergygarden.com.