With fall around the corner, it’s a good time to evaluate the growing season just past- and plan ahead for next year. Gardening Guy Henry Homeyer offers some tips.
How did your garden do this year?
My garden did great this year- it was a little cool, but we had plenty of sunshine and plenty of rain. I grew corn for the first time in many years and it did really well.
What should gardeners be doing in the vegetable garden now?
A number of things; obviously I’m harvesting… but more importantly, as plants die back pull them out… you don’t want plant diseases- and we all have fungal diseases on our tomato and on our vine crops, insects… I like to put them in the household trash or put them in a burn pile after snow flies. That will effectively eliminate those pests and diseases.
What about the flower garden? Can we finally stop weeding?
No! This is the most important time of the year for weeding because this is when weeds are trying to get their seeds in the ground so they can grow next year; so if you do some weeding now you’ll save yourself a lot of trouble next spring.
What about the plants that have been out on the deck or porch all summer? Should we just bring them in now?
It’s very important that you wash those plants; Aphids are a problem in the house… so I wash all my house plants religiously. I wash not only the tops of the leaves with the hose but the bottoms, the stems, even rinse the soil.
