Other Entries: August 2007 September 2007 January 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 October 2008

Last week, one of my neighbours approached me as I toiled in my roadside garden. He said I must be mourning the loss of summer. In fact, the opposite is true: I always welcome the arrival of autumn. To me, September marks the beginning of Spring Number Two. In the spring (the actual spring, the one that starts in March), my thoughts are on convincing the soil to feed me. In the fall, I return the favour, and feed the soil. Both activities occur in balance in healthy gardens.

In September, the lazy days of August give way to a flurry of activity: I spring into action, assembling materials, mulching, weeding, sowing cover crops, planting perennials, harvesting. It is a busy, interesting time of year. My most important September task is the sowing of winter cover crops. This year, I've used Evergrow brand Legume mix. This is a mixture of fall rye and winter peas, available at most of the local garden shops. Sown in September, it has a month of two of rapid growth ahead of it, before it slows to a near-halt for the coldest months of the year. In February, it starts growing anew. The benefits of winter cover crops are many: Erosion control, organic matter buildup, weed suppression, and esthetics being at the top of the list. For me, there is a definite psychological benefit as well: I like to see my garden beds growing things for as much of the year as possible. Winter cover crops allow this to happen.

Unfortunately, many of the backyard vegetable gardeners I know leave their land bare over the winter. In fact, many make a point of scraping-away any organic debris that rest on the soil's surface. These same gardeners often wonder why they spend so much time weeding during the growing season. Unfortunately, bare soil welcomes weed problems: Without a layer of decaying organic debris to block their germination, weed seeds have little trouble getting a foothold in bare beds as soon as the soil begins to warm in the spring. Many weeds even germinate during the cool weather of fall and early spring, waiting, unnoticed, to become a nuisance later-on in the year. It is for this reason that I make a habit of mulching any beds that don't have winter cover crops growing in them. This way, weed seeds aren't given the conditions they need to germinate, and the soil is protected against erosion. Also, as the mulch decays over the winter, nutrients are released, and the organic matter content of the soil increases. Mulching is, however, a controversial activity. Rather than leaves and straw, a tremendous amount of anti-mulch propaganda is spread nowadays, much of it based on fear and ignorance. While the use of mulch certainly can lead to some annoyances (slugs and snails, mostly), I find that the benefits almost always outweigh the disadvantages. Please don't take my word for it: I encourage experimentation.

The strawberry and raspberry harvest has continued through this month, and the raspberries will continue producing well into October. Potatoes that I missed during the summer's harvest are being harvested now, as are Jerusalem Artichokes. The last of the tomatoes are being picked, and the kale and collards are beginning to sweeten-up with onset of cool autumn weather. Once they are hit with the first hard frosts of fall, they will be at their very best. Parsley, beets, groundcherries and fall lettuce are still found in great abundance in my gardens.

A note about groundcherries: This year I tried something new and grew Cossack Pineapple. In the past I have always grown Aunt Molly's, the more common variety. I had heard that this new type tastes more like pineapples than Aunt Molly's, but was disappointed to discover little difference in taste. To me, they both taste like pinapples, and are both delicious. Either the two varieties taste the same, or my taste-buds aren't sophisticated enough to pick-up the subtle differences between them. Fortunately, I'm not concerned. Grouncherries are remarkable plants, and I will continue to grow them for years to come. Also, I saved many Cossack Pineapple seeds, and will send them to whomever is interested. Check the October Log update for details on my seed-saving procedure for this most useful plant.

I have finally finished canning this year's tomatoes, and, despite this growing season's typically-unpredictable weather, I've managed to exceeded all my solanum-preservation goals by canning eighty quarts of diced tomatoes. The best new variety in my gardens this year was Crimson Carmello, which amazed with its enormous bunches of beautiful, firm, tasty red fruits. Kootenai yielded very well, but left much to be desired in the taste and texture department. Sweet Gold was all-around fantastic, and one of the plants exceeded ten feet in height. Tigerella and Latah were as reliable as always, and will continue to have space in my gardens for years to come. Czech's Excellent Yellow (West Coast Seeds) was an absolute disaster: The fruits were an unappetizing brown colour, ripened very late, and had a terrible taste. I will never grow this variety again, and am seeking-out companies to replace West Coast Seeds for all my future seed purchases.

This fall I learnt to stop irrigating fall Buckwheat after it has started flowering. I managed to knock-over a beautiful stand with a gentle spray of water. I had planned on digging-in the patch in question soon after anyhow, but was dismayed to have ruined the symmetry of it's beautiful display of flowers. I am continually amazed by buckwheat: It seems to grow very quickly in any soil, and it is gorgeous in full bloom, buzzing with the wasps and bees who rejoice in it's delicate white flowers.