Gardening Tips for Oklahoma Gardeners
The best garden season is coming soon. That's right.
Fall is the ideal time to grow and "keep" vegetables in the garden. For you visual types
we have the handy, dandy
OSU Fall Gardening Fact Sheet: No. 6009.
sow carrots, beans, cucumbers, summer squash, beets, Irish potatoes, lettuce, cole crop
transplants, mustard, radishes, rutabagas, spinach, Swiss chard and turnips. Here are a
few thoughts on the process.
Clean up existing plants, and mulch the soil to "pre-cool" it. In about ten days, pull the
mulch away and start sowing and planting.
They've probably been producing puny peppers in July
and August. With the arrival of cooler temperatures, pepper pollen will remain viable
for longer periods. This enables more thorough floral fertilization and subsequently
larger pepper pods.
So, clip back any little malformed peppers, prune the plants back by one third, give them
a shot of nitrogen fertilizer and in about five weeks start picking.
.
Local garden centers have been
offering fresh tomato transplants for fall gardening. Ideally, these are planted in mid-
July. But, if we get them in by late August we can squeeze by with a little help from the
petrochemical industry. As night temperatures dip below 65 degrees, consider a little
protection for the plants using plastic draped over large tomato cages. Just a little
covering (not in intimate contact with the plant) will hold in ground heat at night, aiding
fruit set.
Set cloves two inches deep and four inches apart.
As foliage emerges, provide plenty of water, mulch (to fight winter weeds) and nitrogen
fertilizer. We use bunny poop, because we have a steady supply from our daughter's pet
rabbit. It's pelletized and slow release. Harvest next June when tops begin to die down.
.
all thrive in cool, moist weather conditions. Best of all, Brussels sprouts can be grown to maturity,
then "stored" in the garden. Try some of the lovely red cabbages...as they mature, they'll have a lovely
purple color due to cooler temperatures. But keep the B.t. handy. Bacillus thuringiensis
dust or liquid is the smart way to keep cabbage looper and diamondback moth caterpillars under control.
Their populations are well-established by fall and can decimate these plants.
In early September we can direct seed kohlrabi and turnips. Both green and purple
kohlrabi varieties will grow very well. Both turnips and kohlrabi will be best if harvested
when they are tennis ball size or smaller. "Tokyo Market", a.k.a. 'White Tokyo' or
'Tokyo Cross' is a delicious, creamy white turnip that's ideal for adding to fall salads.
Of course we can sow lettuce in mid-September, harvesting into late
fall. But how abut trying kale for salads served with a warmed dressing? One of the
better salad greens that Master Gardeners, Sherry and Rick Stiller introduced to me is
mizuna. It's a japanese green with a delicate mild mustard taste. Mache, also called
corn salad, is one of my favorite mild fall greens.
Any tender plants coming up now will be very attractive to flea beetles and cucumber beetles. They love tender, succulent foliage. The best control is exclusion. As soon as seeds germinate and emerge from the soil, cover the bed with floating row cover fabric and seal the edges. Rain and sunlight can penetrate, but not those nasty little bugs. Check underneath frequently, however, to make sure this is really the case.
Eliot Coleman, a market gardener and writer living in Maine, has written a great book titled: "The New Organic Grower's Four Season Harvest". Now the key word here is harvest. Mr. Coleman contends that many crops can be grown to maturity and then kept in the garden through winter as though they are in our refrigerator crisper. In Maine he accomplishes this by placing cold frames over mature beds of greens, then adds a hoop house over the top. That's simply an unheated, plastic covered greenhouse. He then harvests food as needed.
Lucky for we Okies!! We don't have to go to those lengths. If freezing weather threatens our mature, "stored-in-place" crop we can usually get by with a light cold frame made from recycled materials.
Unlucky for we Okies!!!!! It is sunny here in winter. Stuff gets hot in a cold frame. Be wise, and invest in a handy, dandy automatic opener arm for the top vent. It saves a lot of twice-daily maintenance. Of course, visiting our garden twice a day is a wise thing to do: It gives us a chance to harvest something, makes us aware of watering and possible insect infestations and might help us throw off the stress of a thirty phone-call day.
As a wise farmer once said: "The best addition to our gardens is our footprints applied daily as we spend time caring for our crops". Have a great fall!!! Sue Gray
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