September Garden Chores

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The fall equinox is approaching quickly. The weather is changing. Autumn offers opportunities to plant and transplant; the soil retains warmth longer than the air can—a perfect combination for encouraging root growth. With cooler temperatures and short day length, plant growth slows. The roots have a chance to get established without the additional stress of transpiration or pumping water through plant and out the leaf surfaces.

Autumn is a great time to make compost piles with debris from the vegetable garden, perennial plants and deciduous leaves. Some people prefer to leave the dead foliage and seed heads for spring removal allowing insects and birds food and habitat overwinter. Try it, but note that adding garden clean-up to normal spring chores might overwhelm some gardeners.

Edibles

Fruit trees: Most tree fruits are ripe when they come off easily by lifting and twisting the fruit. Take care not to break off the short branch with buds known as a fruit spur. Cut open an apple —ripe seeds are brown. Pears are picked when they are still hard, before they are fully ripe. They soften from the inside out. Asparagus: Let the fronds remain and turn yellow. Cut them back to the ground after a hard frost. If you have an excess of produce, try making sauerkraut or kraut-chi.

Soil Fertility

Soil Samples: Every couple of years it is worthwhile to take a soil sample and get it tested. Although Jefferson Conservation District no longer handles soil testing, they do lend a tool for extracting clean samples and lab suggestions including A&L. I’ve had good luck with Peaceful Valley Farm Supply.

Compost: Build compost piles in bins or free-standing rectangles. All the autumn decaying foliage from the veggie garden, perennials, and deciduous leaves. Add a source of Nitrogen: manure; powdered fish or bloodmeal; or urine.

Mulch shrubs and garden beds for winter protection and weed suppression. The increased organic matter that will eventually feed the soil ecosystem.

Cover-cropping: After removing spent vegetables, rake the soil, add seeds of clover,  field peas, oats, rye, vetch, or fava beans. More information from WSU All seed available at Chimacum Corner.

Pests

Yellow jackets

Recognize yellow jackets and their underground nests. In the autumn listen for buzzing if there are more than two yellow jackets in a location, step back and search the ground for more. Yellow jackets can sting repeatedly. By contrast, bees avoid stinging because it is lethal, it rips out their stinger. Learn to distinguish them.

Spring Bulbs

Plant bulbs and corms now for spring bloom. The earliest bloomers are the small bulbs: snowdrops, crocus, chionodoxa, Siberian squill and winter aconite. Select bulbs that are firm with no signs of injury or mold. If one bulb is lightweight compared to  others, discard it. Plant with root side down and pointy end up. Plant at depth three time the length. Small bulbs often are earliest. See Royal Horticulture Society for more information.

Grain Amaranth

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Abundant Life Seed Foundation Gardens 1999

Tinker was involved with Abundant Life Seed Garden from its inception in the 1980’s until 2001. She and John Gilardi were garden managers in the latter years. In the above photo, Tinker and an apprentice named Nicole are stripping the flower heads of dried amaranth to remove the seeds. Next steps include winnowing and screening. Later amaranth was one of the crops Tinker experimented with in the dryland farm project.

 Amaranth’s importance is twofold—its super nutritious and easy to grow.

Unlike grains, the seeds of amaranth contain all the necessary amino acids. The protein content is 16 percent, more than rice or wheat. Like quinoa, this offers complete protein for vegans. Amaranth is considered a pseudograin (only plants in the grass or Poaceae family are considered true grains)

Grain Amaranth comes from one of three species. All are white-seeded whereas the leafy greens amaranth tend to have black seeds and may become weedy.

A. cruentus, Purple Amaranth: Day-length neutral and most widely adapted. Typically white-seeded from Mexico, this is made into “Alegria”, the popped seeds mixed with molasses pressed into a small cake or bar.

A. hypochondriacus, Prince’s-feather is day-length sensitive. I know little about this species.

A. caudatus , Love Lies Bleeding is native Peru. Sometimes called Inca wheat, it is an important staple in the Andes.

While young foliage can be confused with weedy amaranth, (A.hybridus, A. viridis, A. retroflexus. A. spinosus.) grain amaranth has apical panicles, or seed heads forming only at the top. Grain amaranth can withstand drought conditions because their roots can grow several feet deep.

Early strains of A. cruentus were cultivated as far back as the time of the first maize in Oaxaca. The Jardin Etnobotanico de Oaxaca includes a section of early cultivated food crops. I was lucky to volunteer in the garden during the winter of 2019 and had the privilege to work with Roberto Chavez Rendon. Here he is with an early strain of Amaranthus cruentus.

Open-pollinated grain amaranth species can be variable. Many selected strains have full heads laden with seeds. Seed breeders are selecting for shorter plants that don’t shatter. University breeders are developing F-1 hybrids for food production.

Although claims vary, Amaranthus cruentus and A. hypochondriacus were cultivated before 1,000 BC in Mexico. Grain amaranth was an important food source from the Aztecs until European missionaries put a stop to eating or using amaranth in ritual. It is again popular and is best known as “Algeria” , the popped seeds mixed with molasses and pressed into a small cake or bar. An NGO in the Etla Valley of Oaxaca, Puente a la Salud promotes food sovereignty with a focus on grain amaranth not only for cakes but to add as an ingredient in many dishes ground into flour; boiled and used as a thickener in soups; toasted and popped as a cereal. They encourage farmers to grow the crop and teach communities how to make appropriate tech ovens and poppers for cottage industries with amaranth.

Amaranthus cruenthus. Farmer demonstrating harvesting with sickle.

Amaranth has the potential to be an important crop as we move into greater climate change. It is drought-, heat- and pest-tolerant. The nutty flavor can add more nutrients to oatmeal or ground into gluten-fee flour. Try growing this beautiful plant in the edible landscape, or in rows for production. Available from Adaptive Seeds, Bountiful Gardens and Johnny’s selected Seeds.

June 2024 Garden Chores

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The garden is a riot of blooms bursting with color. Let’s take a look at English garden roses, one of my favorite. Goumi, the earliest fruit in my garden has a sweet-tart flavor that I love to nibble. The garden is alive with bird songs! Robins in the garden are fun to watch as adults seek out worms and their fledglings beg for food.

By now in the vegetable garden, the cool season crops are producing and warm season crops are in the ground. Before the month is out we will be preparing for the winter garden.

Edibles

Tomatoes: Begin training indeterminate tomatoes. Train a couple of main stems. When new shoots form between the main stems and a leaf, pinch out these suckers. There will be less fruit but they will ripen sooner. Remove some foliage if it is excessive but leave some to protect the fruits from sun-scald.

Vegetable Pests: Watch for signs of leaf miners on spinach, beets and Swiss chard. The larvae form tunnels between the layers of leaves that look like yellow trails and pockets. As the fly larvae metabolize the plant they deposit black frass. Hand pick the leaves and trash them. Don’t place them in compost!

Swiss chard leaf with yellow spot indicating leaf borer within.
Leaf miner maggots visible on top left. The top layer of leaf was peeled back to reveal these fly larvae.

Garlic: Harvest scapes ( curvy shoots with flowering head) Stop watering when leaves start to turn yellow. Harvest when only 4 leaves are still green, or the bottom 1/3 of foliage is yellow. For longer storage, cure (dry) garlic with the tops and roots for several weeks, allowing nutrients into the bulb. Cut tops and roots leaving as much skins to protect garlic bulbs.Prevent the spread of garlic rust fungus by starting with certified disease-free bulbs, rotate crops and use a mulch of arborist chips to prevent rust from establishing in soil.

Asparagus:  Mature fronds can get top heavy and fall, sometimes snapping at the base. For attractive plants in an edible landscape stake individual plants or prop up with bamboo. For asparagus in rows place a metal t post at each end and run jute twine between the posts. To keep the plants together weave the string between plants. In the fall when the shoots die to the ground, the jute can go into the compost along with the dead asparagus.

Fruit Trees: Thin fruit, and watch for signs of fungal disease that spreads by splashing water. Use neem oil spray or sulfur powder. Look for and destroy tent caterpillars. Patrol for slugs and snails.

Winter vegetable garden It can be confusing to newbie gardeners that just as the summer solstice arrives, we begin sowing seeds for winter harvest! Sow brassicas  including winter cabbage, kale, and purple sprouting broccoli. from mid- to late June. If you miss this window, buy vegetable starts at the coop next month. Purple sprouting broccoli is the most successful winter broccoli with its small and numerous shoots. Early July is time to sow the following: carrots, beets, Swiss chard, kohlrabi and radicchio. (Crops for late fall harvest grows through the autumn equinox and then growth slows almost to a standstill.)

Ornamental Plants

Deadhead Rhododendron. By gently snapping off the flower cluster, seeds won’t form, instead we allow the shrub’s energy to be directed into growing foliage and starting next year’s flower buds.

Perennial Flowers: Some late summer and fall- blooming perennials, pinch back now for sturdier and shorter stems. Remove the top 1/3 of the following plant Asters, mums, beebalm (Monarda),  and Joe-Pye weed.

Fungal diseases are exacerbated by rain. Powdery mildew is not one disease but a symptom.Caused by different fungal diseases, the symptom is white circular patterns with a powdery texture, becomes gray or brown over time. The disease is more than cosmetic; it inhibits photosynthesis. It can overwinter in buds and also on dropped infected foliage on the ground. Humid weather and crowded conditions that cause stagnant air encourages fungal growth. Neem oil or sulfur can be effective when used  at first signs. Safer brand Fungicide is another option.

Winter Injury: By now many plants have recovered from the winter. Evergreen shrubs that dropped foliage are now leafing out. Old stands of red-hot-poker that completely died to the ground with many rhizomes turning to mush are now leafing out. All these plants require monitoring, removing dead wood and watering during dry spells.