Nothing quite like a frigid morning to inspire some garden action!! Don’t get me wrong, I lingered long over a hot cup of tea this morning, but I have to admit the freezing breeze just nagged at me all the things I had left undone out in my autumn garden. For one, I haven’t planted garlic yet! Yikes I MUST do it before the ground freezes, I will today, I must!! I peeked under my row cover at all my little fall greens, and wow, I am happy to report all was well! Spinach, Chard, Lettuce, Cilantro, even a little dill perky as can be!
I harvested like crazy and tucked them back in. If the snow does bless my yard this weekend I plan on laying a thin sheet of 4mil plastic over the whole 4 rows, it is not greenhouse plastic, but a painters drop cloth type plastic sheet I got last year, and it seemed to do the trick to just keep th snow off and it helps melt it fast when the sun does shine again, which we all know can be quite quick around here. I also scrambled around the yard gathering the last medicines I could find. Mint, yarrow, Comfrey, Mallow were all doing just fine in the crispy air so I gathered those up eagerly and set them to dry in the extremely dry (heating with wood really sucks the humidity out of the air) cozy house. 
All of these delicious leaves will be used in an upcoming workshop my Radical Homemaking conmadres are putting on called the Winter Apothecary- Stocking up for Seasonal Wellbeing. We will be making teas, cough syrup, medicinal stock and all kinds of magical potions for the cold season ahead. This is always the best part, when all my seasons efforts get mixed and brewed and put the finishing touches on and magically they transform from weeds to medicine ready to dose out to the sick and the weary. Ahh, so a brisk morning it was, but now I can at least enjoy another cup of tea, sort the garlic
And hope for another day before the ground deeply freezes (though usually it takes until about Christmas for that so I am not that worried!!)
And while I am sorting, the mail comes and delivers my first article in print! Actually it was a nice season of press for this little gardener….I had a story about ‘Psyche and Her Seeds’ published in the Seed Broadcast, a very cool little free paper all ode to Seeds. An article in this Seasons Edible Santa Fe (p.64) about the work we do to grow local food at Santa Fe Community College. And lastly an article I wrote all about the planning and planting seasons of High Desert Homesteading in this seasons edition of the Permaculture Activist. 
Oh and do you recognizes those cute little tomato holding hands! Yep my photo made the cover, cool to have the love I put into my garden spread out and inspire beyond my yard, those are the seeds I wish to sow in the world. So with the literature spread before me, and the leaves and the seeds, my table is full, my harvests are in and I am feeling like this year was indeed an abundant yield indeed. Ok winter, now you may come on in and I will rest the best I can!!
Tag Archives: cultivating
Planting the Fall Garden
This post is a little over due, that is if you are following my garden advice, but not to worry it is not too late to plant your fall crops. 
The past couple of weeks have been busy around here and it seems any garden time I have is going to preserving rather than planting. 
But in this high desert garden spring and fall are optimal time for planting and reaping. The cool weather and rains that the ‘shoulder seasons’ provide are great for greens, roots and many herbs. Come late July and early August I fill in all those nooks and crannies that have been opened up by summer harvests with all kinds of leafy goodies. For example the garlic bed dug in July is now sprouting with fall lettuce and the potato bed will soon follow with more salad greens. 
Sometimes you can even plant among big shady things in the heat of the summer if you know they will be coming out soon enough to give over the light and nutrients to the little guys, this is what they call using a nurse crop. I harvest my broccoli, move the irrigation over just a couple of inches and plant spinach. 
In a couple of weeks the spinach will have germinated, the brocoli be done and ready to pull out( I actually just cut it off at the base and leave the root as to not disturb the bed too much, when forking happens in spring they will all come out). When using a bed continuously it does require some top-dressing of compost, but there really is no need to re-dig the whole bed. Just scratching where you want to seeds and covering them with a light layer of compost should do the trick.
When choosing crops for fall just think of cool season crops and do a little math. Any good seed packet will say ‘Days to Maturity’ for you crop and variety. 
If you figure the last frost date in Santa Fe is October 15th– that is about 60 days from now…so most lettuces are 60-70days to maturity (keep in mind, many people eat lettuce as baby leaves & surely don’t wait 60 days) Also keep in mind that even if you have some crops that aren’t big enough to eat when the first frost does come, covering crops with cold frames, hoops and row cover and even blankets for the night protects them well and will buy you soon time. Here in the high desert it takes a while to really have consecutive killing frosts to take a crop down. Many people, myself included have kale for Christmas (the cold air makes it sweeter!!)
You may also want to keep in mind soil temperature, as that matters more than air temperature for seed germination. It is more crucial in the spring when the soil is simply too cold to get good germination, but I have also heard if the soil is too hot, cool seasons seeds can have a hard time germinating as well. (Though truthfully I haven’t run into that yet)
This chart was borrowed from CASFS where I studied Ecological Agriculture and they Adapted it from UC Davis Vegetable Research and Information Center’s Seed Germination Temperatures chart (http://vric.ucdavis.edu/veginfo/)
Vegetable Optimal Soil Temp for Germination Days to Germinate
Bean, snap 75 – 80 7
Bean, lima 85 7 – 10
Beet 75 7 – 14
Broccoli 75 7
Cabbage, heading 68 – 75 5 – 10
Carrot 75 12 – 14
Cauliflower 68 – 86 5 – 10
Celery 68 – 76 10 – 14
Collard 68 – 76 4 – 10
Corn 70 – 86 7 – 10
Cucumber 70 – 86 7 – 10
Eggplant 70 – 86 10
Endive 68 –75 10 – 14
Kale 68 – 75 5 – 10
Leek 68 – 70 10 – 14
Lettuce 68 –70 7 –10
Melon 80 –86 4 – 10
Mustard Greens 68 – 70 5 – 10
Onion 68 – 70 10 – 14
Onion, bunching 60 – 68 10 – 14
Parsley 65 – 70 11 – 28
Parsnip 68 – 70 14 – 21
Pea 65 – 70 7 –14
Pepper 75 – 85 10
Pumpkin 68 –75 7 – 10
Radish 65 – 70 5 – 7
Spinach 68 – 70 7 – 14
Squash, summer 70 – 85 7 – 14
Squash, winter 70 – 85 7 – 14
Tomato 75 – 80 7 – 14
Turnip 65 – 70 7 – 14
Now if you like charts there is a great one Eliot Coleman has in the back of his book, Four Season Harvest on when to sow fall plantings.
Which I believe they have at the library, which I guarantee if you read the whole thing you will need no advice from me!!
Wow that was a lot of information, but when it is all said and done you could just do what I do; scratch some dirt, throw in some cilantro, lettuce, spinach, dill, arugula, mache, carrot, turnip, beet, kale and chard, cover with compost and call it a day!! Don’t forget to leave a little open space for the October garlic planting, oh, and pray for more rain!!
Here are a few links if you would like to learn more
Seeds & Stones 