It’s October and things in the garden are slowly coming to a close. I love this time of year with the crisp nights and the smell of wood stoves. But there are still a few chores left before I put my garden to bed for the winter and concentrate on preserving the harvest. If you’ve been keeping up on your compost pile, now is the time to empty that into the beds and dig them in nicely. Then let the sun, snow, and cold do their work for the next several months.
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           If you plan to have a winter garden, which is only possible if you have a southern facing bed that gets full sun. You will need to drag your cold frames out and get them settled on your beds. Remember to keep them vented during the day, or even in October, you WILL fry your plants. Close them up in the late afternoon and open them every morning after the sun is up. Lettuces, spinach, swiss chard, kale and bok choy will all grow well during the winter as long as you have a cold frame to protect them from nighttime temps that dip below 30 degrees. Of course, once the heavy snow gets here, you’ll probably be done for the year, but you can actually grow these greens well through October if you take care of them properly.
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Let’s talk about tool care. Take all your gardening tools, wash them thoroughly and set them out in the sun to dry. I then oil mine with mineral oil, sharpen the clippers, spades and pruners and stick them in a bucket filled with sand. Then put them in the shed or garage until early spring when you will pull them out again.
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 The biggest task I have in October is to preserve the root crops. This would be your carrots, potatoes, turnips, parsnips, and rutabagas. (If you have cold frames, you can have radishes all winter long!).
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           There are several methods for preserving your root vegetables. If you do not have a root cellar, which many of us do not, you can do one of the following:
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·       Leave them in the beds
·       Put them in half barrels or buckets filled with damp sand
·       Use your window wells
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Leave them in the beds – you can leave the veggies in the beds if you put a very deep covering of straw over the top of the beds. Put up little flags or markers so you know where each thing is! Let the snow fly and when you need something, go out, pull the straw aside, dig down, carefully into the soil and lift out your veggies. Replace the soil and straw. I’m talking 10-12 inches of straw. This works particularly well for carrots, which get sweeter in the cold.
Put them in half barrels or buckets filled with damp sand – to do this, pick your veggies, do NOT clean them off. Lay a layer of damp sand in the bottom of your bucket or barrel. Place the veggies in, being careful not to let them touch each other. Then layer more sand to about 2-4 inches above the top of the veggies. Lay down another layer of veggies. I would put a different type of veggie in each bucket, but you can vary them on each level if you like. Continue layering, ending with 5-6 inches of sand as the last layer and set them in a garage or unheated basement. Temps need to remain around 40-45 degrees. As you need them, dig down into the sand and pull out only what you need. Replace the sand when you’re done.
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Use your window wells – Find a window well that is NOT a fire escape. You don’t want to do this in those window wells. Get rid of any place that pests may hide. If mice are a problem on your property, put a couple of mousetraps down there. Get some two inch foam insulation. Make a wood frame for it from some plywood and 2 X 4’s to fit over the window well opening. Cover this with roof tar paper to keep out the moisture. You may want to put some insulation around the edges inside the window well as well as a couple of pieces to put up at the windows. Don’t secure these so you can get to the veggies easily. Put your veggies in burlap bags and lay them in the window well. You may want to get a thermometer so you can keep an eye on the temp in the well. If the temperature goes too low, you can always pull the veggies in and put them out the next day. Don’t do this on a south facing wall. It may get too warm in there. The idea is to preserve the crops without them sprouting. Note: this would be for folks who have very large harvests of potatoes and root crops. It’s a lot of work for a couple of pounds of potatoes.
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Last bits of herbs or vegetables – If you have any veggies or herbs left in the garden, now is the time to get them out and either hang them to dry, or dry in the back of your car in paper bags, parked in the sun. It works, great, I swear! Once the herbs are dried, you can spend the winter making tinctures and oils with them, so nothing is wasted.
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So now that your beds are all snuggled in and your root crops are preserved, snuggle up in a nice quilt with a cup of coffee or cocoa and read a nice book, or even better, start planning your garden for next year! It will be here before you know it!
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Until next time, keep em green and growing, and let’s get better!
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There's still time to get your Cold & Flu Survival Pak as well as the Winter Survival Pak and personal inhalers for any type of issue you may have.
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