6 easy steps for putting your garden to bed + 2 bonus tips

Face it – by the end of August, we cannot deny the inevitable any longer. Growth has slowed down, fruit and vegetables are ripening, plants are drying out and going to seed. They’re all doing what nature intends for us all to do at certain times – get ready for bed.

In the spring, we’re all excited about our gardens, but tucking our gardens in for the winter is an important step that is often missed entirely. When the weather gets colder and things stop growing, we lose interest in being in the garden, but missing this final seasonal detail is a mistake. It’s tempting to be a bit lazy, and I get it. Its dark earlier, weather isn’t great, dead and dying perennials are kinda hard to get excited about. But don’t fall for it. Your garden NEEDS you. Putting your garden to bed is an important step in it’s health next spring. Come on, give yourself one more final push, then you can both rest in the winter – guilt free.

There have been years I’ve tried extending the season by planting things like spinach at the end of August hoping for a late crop. There have been years I’ve tried to extend the season by heating the greenhouse into the fall. But the simple truth is, we don’t have the sun for it in Alberta. In September, we have the same amount of sun as we do in March. No matter how many nights you heat the greenhouse in September, you cannot fake the sun during the day, and plants need sun. You’d have more success extending the season by planting earlier in the season than you would extending the season in the fall. Winter has its purpose, it isn’t the great enemy of gardeners that we sometimes make it out to be. My opinion? Give it up. Let fall be fall. And get on with your life. BUT. Put your garden to bed first! So you can both rest comfortably.

late summer bouquet

What to get rid of and what not to get rid of? That is the question.

By September, there are always a bunch of dead and dying plants, some that seem to be coming into their own, and of course lots of weeds going to seed. Some gardeners follow the philosophy of clearing everything out and leaving a nice tidy garden bed. I don’t have anything quite so tidy as a “garden bed” in my yard. I have lots of planted space but its not all together. I have perennial flower beds on all four sides of the house, sunny flower beds, shady flower beds, some flower beds under trees, some tucked into shady corners. I have repurposed horse troughs, a currant patch, rhubarb patch, raspberry patch, grapes, fruit trees dispersed throughout, a dedicated herb garden and three raised beds for edibles, with edibles planted here and there among flowers and herbs. There are still tomatoes trying to ripen and root vegetables that are doing just fine where they are for now. Every garden has its own needs. But there are some rules of thumb that I apply to all.

1. Clean up

There is plenty of debate in this area ranging all the way from getting rid of everything to leaving it all for spring clean up, and everywhere in between. I’ve listened to much of it, applied the counsel that made sense to me, and in the end, I’ve come up with my own pattern that I’m happy with. Truth is however, that sometimes life gets in the way, and you simply don’t ‘get to it’ in time. Don’t beat yourself up when that happens; there will be other years to do it better. But for now, here’s the ‘general’ plan. Keep in mind that life is about compromise and there are exceptions to every rule.

First of all get rid of the dead stuff. That’s a natural. For the most part: if its dead pull it out.
Throw it into the compost.
exceptions:
If some of the weeds have roots or seeds or perhaps a plant has a disease – you don’t want to risk taking that into next year by putting them into your backyard compost, so either get rid of them in *the garbage or *Burn them! Otherwise, into the compost they go. (for more information on backyard composting click here)
If it’s a perennial that has died back, cut it off at the ground.

Annuals are easy. Just pull them out and throw them into the compost. Most of the time, I throw big piles of compostables on the lawn. We mow them up and throw them into the compost, or into some of the beds that could use them. When I say ‘we’, I mean of course ‘Dan’. Getting rid of dead plants and other debris removes winter shelter for pests, preventing future problems next spring. There are some diseases that can overwinter. You don’t want that lingering over into a fresh new start in the spring time; if there is disease – get it outta there. Getting rid of weeds at the end of the season gets rid of their seeds and roots, reducing their annoyance next spring. Yes I know they’re no longer visibly causing a problem, but they’re going to seed or developing strong root systems (sneaky little jerks), so get rid of them.

RULE:
*Healthy plants – even weeds – compost them. In my books there are good weeds and bad weeds. Good weeds to me, are weeds that we eat and that I don’t mind propagating next year, like chickweed and lambs quarters. (see Making Friends with your Weeds)
Bad weeds are stupid weeds like Trailing Bellflower (devil-weed), or rooty weeds like dandelions, horse radish, and thistle – those I do not compost. Or other weeds that make a lotta seeds. Yes I know that compost may take care of most of these problems . . . but I usually don’t risk it. There are very few plants I feel the need to eradicate, so I’m not gonna waste time feeling guilty about them. They should feel guilty for disappointing me so much.
*Unhealthy plants – get rid of them. No exceptions.
And not into your compost.

Remove tender summer-flowering bulbs such as dahlias and store them in your cold room or garage for planting next season. I personally have never brought my dahlias in for the winter, I just buy more in the spring, but this year I am in love with the dahlias I grew, so I’m gonna give it a try. Besides, I figure since I fuss for my geraniums, it can’t be much different. (see below for the geraniums)

But what about the plants that are not dead? I cannot bear to kill things that want to live so much that they thrive in the inhospitable dryness, reduced light and chilly nights of early fall. Those are the things I don’t get rid of. I still water them when needed and in return, they do what they do best – gladden my heart. They will die on their own when the cold of late October makes it impossible for them to do otherwise. I leave them where they are because they will trap snow which will protect all around them, and help with needed moisture when the snow melts in the spring.

There are also good bugs that need shelter in the winter, like lady bugs and their friends. So don’t clear everything out, find some balance.

RULE:
get rid of the uglies – keep the beautiful;

get rid of the sick and dead – keep the healthy and strong

2. Fall Planting

Fall planting is a way of taking advantage of the earliest that spring has to offer.
SPINACH: Planting spinach in the fall before the snow flies, should give you an early yield. Select a spot that is protected, but that will get good sun in April and May. Lightly sow a patch of spinach. Throughout the winter, ensure it has a good covering of snow. When the warmth of April days melts the snow in some nice sunny spots, your spinach seed will sprout. They are not afraid of cold. They’ll just patiently wait till conditions are better and then start growing again.

DILL, POPPIES, CALENDULA and other herb and flower seeds can be sown at the time of harvest to pop up in the earliest days of May. Simply broadcast them in your desire spots and let nature do what she does best. The seeds need a winter, and protective snow.

Some plants that inadvertently get left in the garden, may resurrect in the spring. My rule of thumb is to let most things that want to grow – grow. You may have a sage plant that comes back, lemon balm, parsley, even kale. You may have volunteer lettuce plants start to grow because something went to seed last fall.

GARLIC: Plant your garlic before the ground freezes to harvest at the end of next summer.

Spring Bulbs. Yes I know fall is the time to plant daffodils and more tulips etc for spring blooms. I’m sorry. I’ve got nothing to offer here. I aspire to plant more bulbs in the fall, but its just one thing that I rarely find time for.

3. Bring them in

Some plants might be healthy enough to bring indoors. I always bring in some geraniums (see below), and often bring in a rosemary plant. I’ve tried lots of other herbs, but I simply don’t have the sun for them. If you have a beautiful sunny window, I strongly encourage giving them a try indoor. Prune down to about 1/2 its original size, trimming off everything brown. Shake the old soil off to get rid of any unwelcome hitch hikers, and maybe even rinse the roots off. Then replant in fresh soil, water well and set in your sunniest window.

GERANIUMS. I love geraniums, and they love me back. Red ones. Only red ones. I’ve tried other colours, but I kept coming back to red, and now I don’t bother with any other colour when I know that it’s red I really want. Their bright vibrant flowers cheer me all spring and summer long. At the end of it, I cannot bear to kill them, or let them them die while they’re still trying so hard to make the world a better place. So I bring them inside. In actual fact, though we think of them as annuals, geraniums are actually ‘tender’ perennials, and will tolerate temperatures down to about 7°C while still actively growing.  That is truly heroic. Another reason I love them. I’ll bring two or three into the house and let them live in a sunny window all winter long. Their favourite temperature is between 12°- 18°C, which is ideal for in-house if you’ve got enough light. However, I find that in the winter even though I have a south facing bay window, winter sun is just not very impressive and they stop flowering shortly after they get moved inside.  And by about January they start to get quite ‘leggy’. I just trim them as needed to try to keep them content. Its the least I could do for all the joy they bring me outside for five months.

geraniums at season’s end, still being beautiful

But I cannot invite all my geraniums into the living room, so I do something else.
I put my three wooden window boxes in the garage. Ours is a heated garage though its usually pretty chilly out there. We only turn the furnace on when Dan’s working on a project, but apparently it fine for geraniums. Before a killer frost (so sometime mid to late September), I will hard prune the plants by about one third to one half, removing any dead, damaged or unhealthy parts. I check for stupid aphids (I hate aphids) or other problem critters or disease. I water deeply, then I put them up on a shelf in the garage, kinda out of the way but not so much out of the way that I forget they’re there.

I give them a drink of water a few times – maybe every 4-6 weeks. If they’re too outta sight, I’ll forget to water them, and even though they’re mostly dormant, they still need a little moisture now and again. By about March they start responding to the little bit of light they get from a frosted window and miraculously they start to green up. I am always amazed that they do this, and I regard it as one of nature’s miracles. It’s still cold outside, with snow and ice, but they start being true to their calling in life. March has about the same amount of sun as September. I take this new growth as a sign to give them more to drink. By mid April, I can start letting them sit outside on nice days, giving them more water. This gradually gets them used to outdoor light and regular watering. I don’t put them outside permanently till after May 1, and even after that I put a cloth over top if I expect freezing night time temperatures. I can’t risk losing them that late in the game.

I trim them back as needed, give them some healthy mulch and all purpose fertilizer, and we go right back to being old friends. They’re grateful to be back in their rightful place, and I’m grateful to have them. They resume bringing me joy, and I resume my supportive role as their care-giver.

Some garden herbs:
I’ve tried pretty much all herbs in the house for winter and I just don’t have enough light, even with my south facing bay window. Yes, I know I can use grow lights, but most of my plants are in the living room, and I don’t want grow lights in there all winter long. There are some though, that seem to do better than others.

*ROSEMARY: I often bring a rosemary plant indoors. In fact for several years I’ve kept one in a pot that I moved in and out, but eventually I lost it by letting it dry out. It’s surprising how much water herbs require in the dry climate of a house in winter. If you have a particularly happy healthy rosemary plant, go ahead and dig it up. Trim it down by about half, remove the soil and gently rinse off the plant and roots. Be sure the pot is clean, and you’re using fresh soil, then transplant into its new home and bring it inside. Keep it in the sunniest spot and water when the soil surface feels dry to the touch. 

*BAY LAUREL: I have a bay laurel plant I bring in and out and in and out, for about 8 years now. I am very invested in keeping this plant safe. I had a couple near misses this last year with it, but we weathered the storm together. I keep it in the same pot, so I’m not digging it up, but this year I was particularly careful about cleaning it. I trimmed all the ‘iffy’ branches or leaves (anything that wasn’t pristine), removed it from its pot, removed all the soil, gently rinsed the roots of all old soil and washed the pot. Then I transplanted it back into its original but cleaned up pot, and brought it back inside. It’s very happy.

*CUBAN OREGANO: Unlike regular oregano cuban oregano won’t survive our winter, so its best suited in a pot where it can come inside for the winter. Give it a sunny spot and it’s an easy-to-grow house plant that will be your friend for years with just a little care and attention. A member of the mint family, and often referred to as Mexican mint, it has characteristic thick, fuzzy leaves with a strong pleasing odor. Water when the soil surface feels dry to the touch. 

4. gleaning – the final harvest

It’s true that in Sept and October, late fruits and vegetables are ready to harvest. Root crops like carrots, beets and potatoes; fruits like apples, plums and grapes. Some apples and plums may be ready in August, others in September or October. Generally, the grapes we grow in the Edmonton area are ready in September after the weather cools a little.

*BUT – There are hidden harvests that often get missed. Just open your eyes.

Gardens don’t cease to bless your lives just because its autumn.

dill seed ready to harvest

If you grew DILL this year, you probably have some that has gone to seed. Go get it. Pull the plant out of the ground, cut the head off and put it in a bowl. Shake or brush the seeds off the plant into the bowl. Broadcast a handful where you want dill next year, and gather the rest to save for more deliberate planting in the spring. Yes, there are many ways to use it in the kitchen if you have enough.
I’ll admit it, I rarely allow my dill to go to seed, except for a few delegated plants off to the side. I do this because aphids usually accompany dill when it goes to seed, and I hate aphids. But this year, I had a ton of dill – way way way over planted. I picked all the green ferny dill weed that I could use, gave plenty away, and still had too many dill plants all going to seed at the same time. I watched for aphids but didn’t see anything excessive. I let them ripen, ever watchful, but I never saw a problem, so I proceeded. Lucky me, I got lots of dill seed to grow next year, and lots to bring into the house.
Store your seed in a paper envelop, labelled and dated.

POPPIES. If you’re not growing poppies you’re missing out on one of nature’s loveliest offerings. Beautiful before they flower. Gorgeous iconic papery flowers. And just as beautiful in the late summer after they’ve gone to seed. You’ll know the seed is ripe when you can hear it rattle inside the seed pod. At that point, pull the plant out of the ground and turn upside down into a bowl. Shake the seeds out. Broadcast the seed from two or three heads at most (that’s a LOT of poppies) where you want them to grow next year, and save the rest for poppy seed bread, muffins, cake, cookies and salad dressing.
BEANS and peas that didn’t get picked in time, are ripening and drying. When they’re fully developed, pick them and store them for seed next year, in a marked and dated paper envelop or lunch bag.
CHIVES and GARLIC CHIVES have gone to seed, producing thousands of little black seeds. You can let them fall and have a million little chive plants growing everywhere next year, or you can harvest the seed to sprinkle on bread or over top other dishes. *hint: they’re entirely edible, but don’t expect too much in the way of flavour.
GARLIC. Mid September is the time to harvest garlic, and to plant more.
KALE is planted in various places throughout my yard. In the vegetable garden, in the rhubarb patch, the asparagus patch, and interspersed among perineal flowers and herbs. A few here and a few there. One or two act as a trap crop for annoying pests – thank you for your sacrifice. They’ll get eaten by chickens (who bytheway enjoy annoying pests).
Don’t worry, I’ve got others. Kale is hardy, and even in September, it’s on stage doing a full encore. Beautiful. How can you not love kale? I pick it every few days to add to dinner, and if I pick more than we need, I dehydrate it. Super simple. Just strip leaves off the stems, wash and chop to put in the dehydrator. When dry, store in a jar to use all winter long.
This spring I had an unexpected surprise. A kale plant over wintered and started producing harvestable kale by mid May. I let it do its own thing and as time when on, it began to flower and go to seed. So by September I have a lot of beautiful ripe kale seed in pods. A gift.
NASTURTIUMS have been giving all season long. But as much as I used their greens and flowers, some flowers always get left behind to go to seed. This is good, as I am all about collecting seed right now.
SWEET PEAS are annual climbing flowers, that are so bright and cheerful, and hardy that they can be friends with everyone. I’ve always thought they should be spring or at least early summer flowers, but they do best, as summer progresses into August. They’ll go to seed if you let the last few flowers ripen. Easy to collect. I highly recommend starting them in-doors well ahead of growing season. This year (2022) is the first year I’ve let mine go to seed so that I can plant inside next April. The pods look very similar to pea pods (who’d suspected right? lol), and as they ripen the seeds are so perfect that it would have been a shame not to collect them. Having said that, if you wait to long, they’ll open and drop their seeds, but I have yet to have had one survive the winter and volunteer in the spring.
SUNFLOWERS are ripening. Cut the smaller flowers for kitchen bouquets, but let the bigger ones ripen. If the seeds are still immature (white), but a nice size, bring them in, they’re delicious in salads and stir fries as a vegetable. If they’re big heads, share some with the birds over the winter. I leave them face up in several different places throughout the yard where wild birds like to hang out when its cold. Our favourite place is just outside our kitchen window where we can enjoy watching them all winter long. Its a win-win.

Lots of herbs are still doing beautifully, but its time to cut them down for the last time and bring them in for winter use. Sage, rosemary, tarragon, stevia, mint of course, lemon balm, oregano, thyme, parsley, lemon verbena, . . .
My lavender gave me some late sprigs to add to what has already been harvested. Thank you Lavender.

Look around you – there is more bounty than you may have expected.

5. Mulch and other ‘protection

Everybody likes a comfy blanket. In gardens we call it ‘mulch’.

homemade patchwork quilt

My mom, throwing an additional blanket over top of me in bed on a cold winter’s night, is a comforting childhood memory. It provided a little weight, and that weight provided warmth.

Our gardens would appreciate an additional insulating blanket against the harshness of winter too. Some plants might be a little sensitive to the bitter cold of some winters that we have no control over and cannot always predict, but sometimes its simply a matter of protecting the bare soil and friendly critters in it. What kind of blanket? Nice clean fallen leaves that are so plentiful in the fall, is a perfect mulch. Between one to three inches is recommended. In the absence of leaves, the final mowing of dried grass would be good, or chopped/mowed up straw. Don’t use wood chips in the garden; they detract from the soil long before they can possibly add to it.

In addition to protecting the soil and plants in it, mulch slowly adds nutrients and humus. Humus is the Latin world for ‘earth’ or ‘ground. It refers to that dark organic matter in soil which comes from the decomposition of plants and animal matter. That a good thing because it improves soil structure, aeration, and water holding capabilities. Aeration reduces the compaction of soil, allowing roots to take up nutrients and spread out healthily.

Leaves or straw won’t magically disappear over the winter, miraculously becoming humus. Some of it will still be quite identifiable as leaves and straw in the spring, but some (the bottom layer) has begun to decompose. I simply rake off the identifiables and mow them up with the first mowings of spring to be used to as a top layer in an area I want to amend, as mulch between rows, or the beginning of this year’s compost. A good winter’s mulch is a beautiful start in prepping your soil for spring. Just sayin’ . . . . .

winter protection from foraging animals

Most urban yards don’t suffer too much from animals like deer foraging over the winter, but rabbits can be a problem. They ate the bark from my daughter’s lilac tree a few winters ago, and killed it. If you live in an area where rabbits might be an issue for you, wrap the bottom three or four feet loosely with chicken wire. Why so high? When the snow is deep and the rabbit is sitting on top of the snow, that is where they’ll be nibbling.

tips to remember
1. Disease is not something you want to add to your compost. Get rid of those plants. Either burn them or garbage them.
2. Roots like trailing bell flower, horse radish and dandelion, and seeds like thistle are not things you want in your compost. Get rid of them.

Either burn them or garbage them.
3. Its helpful to mow up your bigger pieces before putting them into your compost. This speeds up the process of breaking down, a good thing.

6. Watering trees in late autumn keeps them healthy and strong

clockwise from upper left: Red Elderberry, Spruce, Honeycrisp Apple, Evans Sour Cherry

While your trees are dropping their leaves, or just after, they would appreciate a good long drink. Give both evergreen and deciduous trees a long, slow, deep watering. This is important, but the timing is particular. Too early might signal the tree toward new growth and may slow the onset of dormancy. Dormancy is not a light switch, it is a progressive stage allowing trees to prepare for colder weather and eventual freeze up. Too late (after the ground freezes) prevents the water from seeping into the soil and reaching the feeder roots. How will you know when the time is right? Look to your trees. Deciduous (leafy) trees will tell you the time is right when their leaves have fallen. This will also be your hint to water their neighbours, the evergreen trees. Because evergreens don’t go into full dormancy, they will actively use water throughout the year, except for when its really cold, so its even more important that they get a good watering in the fall.

Don’t water mature trees right up near the trunk, as the roots that need water will be further out – closer to where the canopy of the tree extends. The exception to this rule is newly planted trees who’s roots might still be close to the initial root ball.

Put your hose on the ground and water slowly so that the water doesn’t puddle on the surface. You’re looking to moisten the top foot of soil around the perimeter of the ‘drip line’ (distance from the trunk to as far as the outside branches reach). “Moisten” does not mean “soggy”. Testing the moisture level is easy – insert a wooden stick or a metal rod into the soil. Where the soil is moist, the stake should slide in easily. When it meets with resistance, that signifies to you that the soil is dry. You’re looking for about a foot of moistened soil. Anything deeper is of no value and is wasted.

Watering earlier in the day gives the roots time to absorb the moisture before the temperature drops at night.

Bonus tip 1. Protect your garden tools and equipment

Hold on! You’re not done yet. I know its tempting to just go inside when the cold hits and shut the door, but pay attention to your tools. They deserve it. Whether you have a garden shed or space in the garage, or box in the basement – use it. Don’t leave your clippers or spade outside to rust.

Tools: Clean them and put them in a box.
Seed trays and pots: Wash them and store them where they’ll be easy to retrieve in the late winter or early spring when you’ll need them.
Maintenance: Now is the time to fix those annoying little things that have needed patching all summer long.

Bonus tip 2. Garden journal

Hopefully you’ve been keeping a garden journal all along, but if you haven’t right now would be a good time to start one. Record the dates you harvested this or that, and the general yield. Record the temperatures in these close out days for reference next year. Record the seeds you harvested. Make sure you store them in paper envelopes, labelled and dated. Record your successes and failures and your ideas for fixing them next year – while they’re still fresh in your mind. I promise you will not remember them otherwise. Record what varieties did well, and what did not, what you’ll be sure to repeat and what you will not. Maybe you are an avid journaler, maybe you’re more of a casual note taker, but whatever you are – DO SOMETHING. I promise you’ll be happy you did when you go to reference it next spring.

stand back and enjoy the immense satisfaction of a “job well done” . . .

In my case its a challenge to even know where to begin when its time to wrap things up for the season. I rarely have two or three days that I can devote to the work of putting my garden to bed, and my ‘gardens’ are all over the yard, full of perennials. I catch a few hours here and there to go out and work, but the job is pretty overwhelming when you’re doing it in pieces. I find the only way I can proceed with any feeling of accomplishment is if I start in one corner and proceed in a single direction. ‘Finishing a piece’ with no intention of coming back to it till spring, helps me systematically make it through the whole yard.

Standing back to admire what you’ve done once in awhile is satisfying.
Standing back when you’re ALL done, is immensely satisfying, but the truth is, there are seasons, that I never completely make it through the whole yard. Yes, I wish I had, but life simply gets busy and sometimes the snow comes before I am ready for it. Nothing to do in that case, but get on with my life, and try to do better next year.

*hint: don’t wait till its COLD and the job is horrible. On September 1, you KNOW cold days are coming. Start the job of putting your garden to bed while the weather is still pleasant – removing (or pruning back) those plants that have already given you everything they have to give, and deserve their rest.

Good Night Garden. Enjoy your rest. I’ll enjoy mine.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences about getting your garden ready for bed and tucking it in for the winter, as well as your comments on some of the things discussed here.

Warmly,

Cindy Suelzle

planning next year’s garden

(while this one is still fresh in your mind)

I have a simple rule that I apply to everything I ‘did’. Whether its my garden, an event that I was involved in, or a class that I taught – doesn’t matter, it pretty much always applies. At the end of whatever it is, I ask myself these THREE Questions (and answer them of course).
1. What went well? What was I pleased with?
2. What could have been better? What could I have improved on?
3. What did I learn? In my opinion, the most important.

All three questions are very important, and must be asked in order. It is very easy to get down on yourself when something didn’t go right. None of us seem to be short on negative self talk, if the season (or event) was disappointing. Its easy to get discouraged and give up if we focus on the bad, on the things that didn’t work out. So DON’T!

What went well? There is always something that was good. Think about it, and WRITE DOWN the answers. A fruit or vegetable that grew well – a new skill that came in handy – a new hack that paid off – etc. Write down everything that was good about this year’s garden.

For my 2021 garden: What went well?

* Kale. I grew great kale. The year before was the first time I planted kale and I only planted 6 plants, but it encouraged me to plant again, this time I planted double that amount, and some variation. I planted them in three or four different spots, I picked from the plants all summer long, and well into October when I finally harvested the last of it. I used fresh kale in salads, omelettes and scrambled eggs, soups, casseroles, chopped in sandwiches, and smoothies. I tried kale chips in the oven for the first time, and was wowed. Repeated that several times, using less oil each time lol. I dehydrated the excess and ended up with two FULL 2 quart jars of dehydrated kale, crushed into them.

* Tomatoes. I had a reeeeeally good harvest of tomatoes this year. Lots of tomatoes! Mostly the Romanian Giants. For the first time, I grew tomatoes all season long IN my new green house. Eight or ten tomatoes there, four around an arbour in the first garden bed, four around an arbour in the large horse trough, and some in their usual spot on the west side of the house. And some cherry tomato in planters on the patio. Made for a LOT. I admit it – tomatoes are my thing. The backbone of my garden, the one thing I look forward to the most. Everything else exists around them.
The most successful places (in order), was the green house, garden arbour and large horse trough arbour – all in the sunniest locations. We ate fresh tomatoes pretty much all of August, September and October. We’ll have fresh tomatoes into November. I canned the excess that ripened faster than we could eat, a couple dozen quarts. I made fresh bruschetta and salsa, canning about 15 pints of salsa. I oven roasted lots of tomatoes. We had so many different types of tomato based soups.

* Cucumbers: best crop ever. Honey berries, Cherries, Raspberries, Rhubarb, Oregano.

* Compost. We reorganized our compost area since building the greenhouse, adding another large old garbage can turned upside down. Also had a mound of dried lawn trimmings in our compost area, ready to add to compost piles as needed, and use to mulch gardens. We also added to the city compost from time to time – with undesirable compost: either branches and things that take too long to break down, thistle, scraps that included oil or meat, ….. that sort of thing. It was valuable to be able to recycle these organics even though we didn’t want them ourselves.

* Greenhouse. Dan built me a new greenhouse this spring. Not very big, 8×12 – the perfect size for our needs. I dug the soil down deep on both sides, and added gravel, compost and aged horse manure to the soil. When the shelves were no longer needed, I removed them and planted tomatoes, peppers and nasturtiums in the soil.

* Soil amendment in the former spruce area. We took out two massive spruce trees a year and a half before and the following summer it was almost a dead zone. Nothing we planted did well, so we gathered our resources and came up with an amendment plan, thanks to the suggestion of our friend Scott Campbell. Aged horse manure, barley straw and early spring mowing. Became positively LUSH compared to last year.

New Discoveries

Horse trough raised beds
Hori hori knife (my new favourite tool)
Mexican Tarragon, Papalo, and Epezote

What could have been better?

Grapes. Plums. Carrots. Potatoes. Strawberries. Basil. Beans. Butternut Squash.
My planting was too condensed, and I ended up shading some things I’d rather not have.
I thought I planted bush beans, when they were in fact pole beans, and consequently they weren’t placed in the best spot. That was unfortunate. I experimented with two different ways to grow potatoes. Both were interesting and I’m glad I did it, but not that great of a yield.

What did I learn?

We’ve been growing tomatoes on the west side of the house which we knew was short on sun, but the best we had at the time. This year, the new greenhouse resolved that issue. 2021 is our last year for westside tomatoes. Next year, that partial sun/partial shade area will be best suitable for greens: lettuce and arugula, chard, kale, nasturtiums and celery.

We topped up all of our beds with aged horse manure and completely redid the entire strawberry bed, including new plants, following the recommendations of some trusted friends. I allowed too many other things to grow in it as the summer progressed: dill, poppies and sunflowers. Next year, I’m gonna limit that. We’ll deep water the strawberries right away (end of October), and cover them in leaves to tuck them in for a long winter’s sleep, and hope for better strawberries next year.

Plans for improvement next year?

Gonna rent a small inground garden plot in our community garden, to plant carrots, potatoes and maybe beets. Those root crops I just don’t seem to have sufficient room or sun for in my small garden, and if there’s one thing the community garden has a lot of, it is SUN!

Seeds for Next Year’s Garden

I ALWAYS buy seeds one year in advance. For the most part, what I plant in 2022 will be the seeds I purchased in late winter 2021, and so forth. It’s part of my personal philosophy of preparedness. There will always be an exception, something I decide to try NOW, but generally speaking, I plan at least one year ahead for gardening. I don’t ever want to have a spring when for some unforeseen reason, I am unable to get seeds. Preparedness is not just food storage.

Some of those seeds will be seeds I saved myself, especially tomato seeds from my own Romanian Giants, Nasturtiums, Poppies and Dill. Garden preparedness includes ensuring I have sufficient potting soil for next spring, as well as planting containers.

I get my seeds from assorted sources: a local seed store on the west side, one of several Canadian seed companies I order online, the odd package that catches my eye at a greenhouse or garden centre, and of course those that I propagate myself or that friends have shared. But for next year I have decided to try another Canadian seed company a friend recommended. I am looking for a company that deserves my loyalty.

Keep your plans for next year ACHIEVABLE.

Seed catalogues are full of all sorts of potential, and it’s good to try something new every year. Some thing you haven’t tried before, a new vegetable, a new type, a new way of doing things, . . . And there’s nothing wrong with trying something totally ‘out there’ from time to time, like watermelon, cantaloupe, grapes, honeyberries …. You never know what’s gonna WORK, and you very well may be surprised. Some things may simply have been fun to try, but not really worth investing too much energy down the road, not to mention the garden space that may have been better used for other vegetables. And other things may be tremendous successes. However, keep the bulk of your garden plans for the “most likely to succeed” crops. Go for the tried and true types. Ask other gardeners for their recommendations.

We’re fully expecting our Honey Crisp Apple, which we transplanted into our former spruce area two springs ago, to amaze us in 2022. It got set back when we transplanted it, and had a rough season in exceptionally poor soil, but we’ve apologized, and have done our best to make up for that rough start. I also have high hopes for our Royal Plum, which produced this year, but sparsely.

I highly recommend keeping a garden journal of sorts. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you’re gonna be a great journaler if you’ve never done well with journals before, but don’t be a defeatest either. Commit to it.
It doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive, just a simple notebook will suffice – but have a book that is gonna stick around. Not just a collection of note papers.

Keeping a garden journal WILL improve your gardening experience, I promise. Why? Because you will hone your skills based on what you learned from previous seasons. It will provide you with historical information that will help you better predict future results. It will help you keep an inventory of your seeds and perennials, as well as record your harvests. It can effectively evolve into a personalized garden TEXT BOOK, and every year you add to it, it becomes more and more valuable.

What to include in your garden journal? 15 suggestions

  1. Date your entries and write down your answers to the three questions above. Every year. Trust me, you’ll be glad you did. This will be your core.
  2. A pencil sketch of your garden layout with the year clearly marked. This is more important than you might think. You will want to ensure you rotate most crop areas, avoiding using the same spot year after year for the same vegetable.
  3. A list of the plants that worked out best, and the ones that did NOT.
  4. Dated sources for specific plants: greenhouses, nurseries or garden centres, seed companies, friends or neighbours.
  5. Planting times, ready times, harvest times. Maybe even a few recipes you discovered.
  6. Be more specific about times: dates you started seeds indoor, dates you transplanted them, and dates you planted seeds directly into the garden. Germination times. All these are things you THINK you’re gonna remember. Yeah right, you won’t. The information will come in handy for future years.
  7. Soil tests, soil amendments and subsequent assessments of that soil.
  8. Any problems with pests, diseases or other issues
  9. Approximate dates of harvests and the type of yield you got. I don’t have the patience to weigh, measure or count, but I know some do that. I think that’s great. Just not for me.
  10. Weather. I know right? But seriously, every year is unique, and not every season is good for every crop. So record your assessment on the weather trends by recording details, and make note of what crops are doing better than others. For instance, I have noticed that in our part of the city, we seem to be have less violence in the weather. The worst seems to go around us. I have also noted that other areas seem to get a frost quicker than we do, perhaps owing to our number of nearby trees creating a minor microclimate. You’ll be more likely to make note of weather patterns if you’re writing them down.
  11. New changes and experiments. How else are you gonna track what works?
  12. Suggestions, recommendations, and even recipes shared by other gardeners. I know, again with the recipes.
  13. Expenses: how much spent in greenhouses and garden centres, seed catalogues, garden paraphernalia, new builds, maintenance of raised beds etc, cold frames, lattices etc
  14. Hacks, suggestions, inspiration and ideas. Using your garden journal as the place to make quick notes about what they are, or where to find them, is the best way to keep them all in one spot for easy reference later
  15. Personal reflections, inspiration and musings . . . . . after all, it IS a journal. It is part of you. It is a record of yourself.

What plans do you have for your garden next season?

Warmly,

Cindy Suelzle