Hello, October! Maples are changing to their fiery, brilliant colors. Driving by the farms, there are baskets and buckets full of pumpkins, gourds, and squash. Anyone else feeling like spooky season is here?
My mind is starting to drift from gardening to other Fall chores–we heat our house with a woodstove, and I’ve got four cord of split wood to get stacked before the snow comes. I am trying to decide if I want to start putting the gardens to bed for the season.
You can absolutely still plant your cold weather crops for another round of harvesting. What can you plant, dear reader? Try leafy greens (lettuce, kale, swiss chard, spinach), peas, and plants of the brassicus family (like broccoli and cauliflower)!
We have also had some questions about birds disappearing from yards lately. It could be that your feather friends are being harassed by predators, or even in search of more water in this dry weather. It is also a busy migration period for many birds.
I’ve seen a couple of monarch butterflies gliding around the yard–one even sampled some nectar from my okra’s flowers! My strawflowers and celosia are still in bloom. I’ve been deadheading the strawflower to encourage more buds.
Traversing around the yard and around the local trails, I’ve been seeing so many mushrooms! With the humid weather, mushrooms and fungi can really flourish. At Nashua Farmers’ Exchange, it is not unusual for customers to come in concerned with mushrooms growing in lawns.
This week I’ve been harvesting and processing! It’s always a fun time of year–to see the work in the garden pay off with tasty crops that will hopefully last through at least part of the winter.
