Category: How To

The fall time is perfect to plant garlic to be ready during the spring. It’s also simple to do.

Each clove that you plant winds up turning into a clove of garlic. The larger the clove you plant, the larger the bulb it produces.

I saw a tip on soaking the cloves in Organic Gardening Magazine to help prevent rot from occurring.

Here is what you’ll need to soak the cloves:

• Garlic cloves (amount depends on the size of your container)
• Glass jar
• Tablespoon of baking soda
• Tablespoon of organic seaweed fertilizer

When removing the cloves from the bulb, you’ll want to leave the skin (or whatever it’s called) on each of the individual cloves. If the garlic is actually showing, it’s best not to use it. So be careful when removing the cloves.

Soak the cloves in the pre-soak solution for about 2 hours.

Since I’m planting in a 5-gallon container, I soaked about 8-10 cloves.

To plant the cloves:

• Dig a hole about 2″ deep with your fingers.
• Put the clove in pointy side-up and bury in the soil.
• Space the cloves about 4-6″ apart.
• Once they are all planted, water the container thoroughly.
• Add mulch to the top or greenhouse it with a covering. I put a plastic bowl on top of it. This will keep the moisture locked in.

The following sentence was posted on the Urban Organic Gardener Facebook page, “My special fall vegetable gardening tip is _____.”

Here are some of the tips that were left:

Justin J Stewart summed it up best when he said, “Don’t give it, you’d be surprised what plants can survive what!”

I couldn’t agree with Justin more. The best way to learn is through your own experiences. Just because something didn’t work for someone else, doesn’t mean that it won’t work for you.

Keep an Eye on the Temperature
“Keep those babies warm and dry,” suggested Andrew Odom from tinyrevolution.us.

Fred J Temple expanded on that and said, “Harvest tomatoes before they freeze or provide means to prevent it (like a greenhouse).”

Erica Stelcik made a recommendation that might be obvious, “Eat your Veggies before they get too ripe. I rarely get to mine on time.”

I hear you on that Erica, I sometimes forget that I’m gardening to eat too.

“Watch your night time temperatures!” warns Cristina Evans. “There’s nothing more disappointing than finding your hard work wilted in the morning.”

The magic number when it comes to getting too cold is usually somewhere in the 40s. Also if there is a huge difference between the daytime and evening temperatures – like 80s at night and 40s during the day. That’s what you want to be weary of.

Before Your Season is Done
Michelle Dahl made a great point to, “Make notes of what went well/bad before you forget for next year.”

We all think that we are going to remember what happened last year, and never do. Taking some notes won’t hurt and will be a great reference point.

Aao Herbs looks out for the wildlife and said, “I never trim my flowers till spring because it’s winter food for the birds.”

Continue Growing Indoors
“Grow your favorite herbs inside in the kitchen window,” suggested Urban Sacred Garden.

For some of us that’s the only space that we have, so might as well use it.

Gloriby Gigi Garcia said to, “Plant a few sugar pumpkin vines in the kitchen 😉 and invest in a grow lamp or two 😉 They make awesome pies, breads, and great gifts for neighbors!”

That definitely struck my interest. Would love to see what that looks like.

Finally BuffaLoam’s comment was to, “Divide and dig up those plants and bring some inside for winter blooms and eats!”

What are some other simple fall vegetable gardening tips?

Image courtesy of Chiots Run on Flickr.

I received an email from Amy asking what she should do with the extra peaches that she harvested. She wasn’t talking about 10-15 extra peaches. She was talking more like 150lbs worth of extra peaches.

She said, “I like peaches as much as the next girl, but there is no way, even after jams, jellies, preserves, conserves, chutneys, freezing, and all the pies I can handle that I will be able to even make a dent in that amount!”

This was a great opportunity to tap into the Urban Organic Gardener community on the Facebook Fan Page, where I posted the following question, “You’ve grown way too many of a certain crop. You’ve already pickled, fermented, can and preserved your brains out. What do you do with all of the extra?”

Here are some of the responses or view all of them here.

Me say…“If you are growing something that your neighbor can’t, it’s a great way to share your harvest with them and trade.

Tracy Gould said…“Donate to your local food bank, low income school, church pantry,There are so many places that would LOVE to get fresh organic produce!. See Food for Thought’s page! My favorite food bank.?”

Lauren Kelk recommended…“Cropshare!”

Lee Robertson said…“Share the bounty,that’s my rule….we “shared” enough zucchini this year to supply 10 households will all they could use. Also enough tomatoes that 4 households ,besides our own, were able to can up a good amount for the winter.”

Nathan Blakesley said…“I figure if God gives me a bountiful harvest and has provided me and mine more than enough for our needs, then it’s only right that I share with those around me.”

Susan Doane said…“In my world there is no such thing as “to much” but if there were my neighbors and near by family love the extra’s. We also have a family pantry close by for those who are struggling. Although they prefer canned product, they do accomodate for fresh every so often. Especially around holidays. ♥”

Elizabeth Frazee Fisher said…“Our farmers market has a booth set up where you can drop off extra produce and also the vendors can donate at the end of the morning also. I had a meeting at my house Mon night and sent zucchini home with several people. Our community food pantry will take homegrown excess also. I am thinking our Salvation Army food kitchen probably would take excess. I can and freeze as much as I am able, more than I need as also give to son and daughter and their households. I would feel terrible if anything went to waste!”

Mary Kaschak said…” I always take my extra eggplant to the local Greek restaurant. The owner is so delighted he dances around to his Greek music and gives me a free Greek coffee and baklava. I don’t expect that of course but it sure is lots of fun for both of us.”

Micron Cat said…“Take it to the nearest Title I school and give to the social worker to send home with the kids.”

What are some other suggestions that you can add to the list below?

Mint grows like crazy and can easily take over your garden if grown in a raised bed or in ground garden. After all mint is a weed. You almost always want to grow mint in a container.

What you will need to transplant your mint into a container:

• Container filled with potting mix
• Mint plant
• Water

How to transplant the mint:

• Pour a little bit of water into the plastic container that the mint plant has been growing in.
• In the center of the container, dig a hole that is about the same size of the container that the mint has been growing in.
• Gently pop the mint out of the container that it’s currently in and lightly break up the block a little.
• Insert the mint into the hole that you dug and add a little bit of water.
• Cover up the hole with the soil and secure the mint plant.
• Add water to the container.

What are some of your favorite ways to use mint? Don’t say mojito, it’s not original.

I searched the internet for a few hours looking for how to prune a pumpkin plant. All I could find was the same mumbo jumbo gardening speak of secondary, tertiary and blah, blah, blah with no pictures or visuals of what the hell people were talking about.

The reason for looking on how to do this is because my pumpkin plant is starting to get some powdery mildew and pruning your plant to allow for better circulation is supposed to help prevent that. Makes sense to me especially since I am growing them vertically in a container.

Based on what I read, I think I figured out how to prune a pumpkin plant. What I did was remove the leaves and stems that were most infected with the mildew. I cut them at the point where they met the vine. This was done for all of stems that had the dead leaves.

When I was done I had more than a handful of dead and powdery leaves. There are still some leaves left on the plant and much more room for circulation.

What are some other tips you have for taking care of pumpkin plants?